According to the new two-disc DVD of this movie, it wasn't until the 1950s that Olivia de Havilland realized how fantastic a movie she had been involved in. That was when she saw "The Adventures of Robin Hood" for the first time in many years in a packed theater in Paris and caught the buzz of the people seeing it around her.<br /><br />It sort of makes sense. "The Adventures of Robin Hood" was made as popular entertainment, designed to amuse and thrill rather than make audiences think. It was probably a drag to make, especially with bad weather, clumsy new Technicolor technology to accommodate, and the harsh director Michael Curtiz ordering everyone around like Colonel Klink. De Havilland was in "Gone With The Wind," she won Oscars playing much more serious roles than Maid Marian. The words of Sir Guy might have rung in her ears, as they have been echoed over time by certain less-kind judges of this film: "Very charming, but not exactly clever."<br /><br />But as Olivia discovered in that French theater and so many of us have been discovering ever since, "Robin Hood" is audaciously clever, a perpetual-motion motion-picture machine when it comes to delivering the goods. Beginning with the performances, and carrying forward with the script, the set design, the Technicolor camera work, and especially the fantastic Erich Wolfgang Korngold score, "Robin Hood" is one of those older films actually gaining stature over time, as it becomes clearer how much of a miracle it really is.<br /><br />Taking elements of the Robin Hood saga, both from longtime legends and screen treatments like an earlier Douglas Fairbanks Sr. silent film, the scenarists manage to create an upbeat story of wit and pace fully in tune with the merry cast and score. As played by Errol Flynn, this Robin doesn't die in bed an old man, and his banditry is underplayed in favor of a historically incongruous but richly satisfying freedom-fighter figure trying to save his fellow Saxons from the predations of their Norman overlords. He meets Marian, a proud Norman maiden, and, while showing her how the people suffer under the yoke of her fellows, they fall in love.<br /><br />Making Robin a little less radical, and more palatable to mainstream audiences, is the fact he is actually loyal to England's real king, the usurped Richard. This could have been mawkish but sets up a terrific reveal later that jump-starts the last act of the film.<br /><br />There were two directors on "Robin Hood." My guess is that both brought something important to the table, and together created a film neither would have been able to on their own. William Keighley set the gorgeous template, a nod in the direction of N.C. Wyeth's storybook illustrations as Raul daSilva of New Haven has already noted, and as an actor's director, gave useful pointers to the cast, especially the bad guys, who uniformly give subtle, off-center performances. Then, as Keighley wrestled with his bete noir, action, he was replaced by the great Curtiz, who took Keighley's sturdy framework and cracked the whip to liven things up.<br /><br />People wouldn't celebrate "Robin Hood" as much without the rescue-from-the-gallows sequence, or the final duel between Robin and Sir Guy, both of which showcase Curtiz at his best. But you wouldn't have so much invested in the principals without Keighley's help in giving the actors the proper space and depth to connect with viewers.<br /><br />You can run out of room rapidly singing the praises of a film like this, a classic adventure that works as a love story and makes one laugh, so effortlessly and all at once. Flynn was never better as a Robin that sacrifices grittiness for humanity and crack one-liners. And De Havilland is quite possibly the most gorgeous woman ever filmed, at the very least up there with the likes of Maureen O'Hara in "The Quiet Man" and Cameron Diaz in "Something About Mary" for the way she glows on screen, her gorgeous browns gazing up at Robin in a way that inspires a sad sort of rapture, at least for me.<br /><br />There has never been a film since that did the things "Robin Hood" does, but I find that less remarkable than the fact a film this good was ever made at all.