1938

'The Adventures of Robin Hood,' 1938
"The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) is the great swashbuckler of the whole sound era. It offers Errol Flynn as a gallant, quick-tongued incarnation of the Sherwood Forest bandit. He speaks treason, as he puts it, "fluently." Olivia de Havilland is the fairest of all Maid Marians, and the movie's robust supporting players have never been topped for (respectively) dash, grit or jolly girth: Patric Knowles' Will Scarlett, Alan Hale's Little John and Eugene Pallette's Friar Tuck. Together they make this rousing adventure a paean to the pleasures of teamwork: a point lost on star-centric versions like Kevin Costner's.