Well sadly horror month is over. This week will be swashbuckler week. Netflix has the quintessential swashbuckler, Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood on instant play.

WATCH: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) – Rated PG for adventure violence – “You speak treason!” – “Fluently”

“Errol Flynn stars as swashbuckling hero Robin Hood in this Oscar-nominated classic. When the greedy Prince John (Claude Rains) seizes the throne and raises taxes on the peasants, Robin assembles his band of Merry Men to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Along the way, he woos the lovely Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland) and faces off against the dastardly Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone). Patric Knowles and Alan Hale co-star.”

The key word for this movie is fun. Errol Flynn just explodes with confidence and charisma – he appears to have boundless energy throughout the film. Olivia de Havilland is radiant as Maid Marian and thankfully is given a bit more to do than be the damsel in distress. For the villains, Claude Rains is wonderfully scheming as Prince John, Basil Rathbone is gleefully evil as Sir Guy, and Melville Cooper is quite sniveling as the Sheriff (somewhat unfortunate but a design decision not a fault of the actor). Backing Robin up are the ever affable Alan Hale as Little John, a marvelously cranky Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck, and a not so colorful (sorry couldn’t resist) Patric Knowles as Will Scarlett. The other ‘actor’ of note is archer Howard Hill who plays Owen the Welshman. Hill actually splits the arrow in the Robin Hood shot – that is not a special effect.

This movie won three Oscars – Art Direction, Film Editing, and Original Score and was nominated for Best Picture but lost to You Can’t Take it With You. The action is presented in glorious Technicolor – there were 11 total Technicolor cameras at the time and they used every one. Director William Keighley was replaced with Michael (Captain Blood) Curtiz when it was felt that the action scenes lacked oomph so the film ended up with the best of both worlds – William Keighley’s knowledge of technicolor and staging and Michael Curtiz’ savvy and facility with action sequences especially swashbuckling ones. Part of this is accomplished by filming at a slightly lower speed (or less frames per second) – when played back, this makes the action appear to be faster than it actually is. This movie is an absolute classic – a swashbuckling tale for all ages and if you have never seen it then what are you waiting for?

People watch: Okay technically not a person but Olivia de Havilland’s palomino in the film was shortly after sold to Roy Rogers and became Trigger.