However heavily it invested in the horror trade, Great Britain's Hammer Film Productions never rested on its laurels. Despite the windfall reaped with the success of Hammer's classic monster line, which rebooted Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, and the Frankenstein Monster and reawakened a genre that had lain dormant for nearly a decade, the company maintained a diverse catalogue of psychological thrillers, science fiction adventures, combat pictures, comedies - even westerns and swashbucklers. Hammer turned out no less than three films based on the legend of Robin Hood: Val Guest's Men of Sherwood Forest (1954), Terence Fisher's Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960), and Cyril Pennington-Richards' A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967), starring Barrie Ingham in the title role. A more meat and potatoes protagonist than Errol Flynn, the barrel-chested Ingham's central performance shifts focus away from movie star grandstanding in favor of ensemble heroics, supporting themes of camaraderie and cooperation that are integral to the Robin Hood ethos. Notable among the support players are James Hayter as Friar Tuck and John Arnatt as the Sheriff of Nottingham - both holdovers from Disney's The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952). Less a reboot of the mythos than a droll send-up of its requisite clichés and setpieces, A Challenge for Robin Hood sidesteps irony to deliver solid matinee excitement for young and old.

By Richard Harland Smith