Today, actor and director John Derek is remembered mostly because of his wives – Bo Derek, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Pati Behrs.
Some film fans remember him for his supporting roles in The Ten Commandments, All the King’s Men, Exodus and Knock on Any Door.
Surprisingly, most people have forgotten that Derek starred in a long list of B-movies, from westerns to war films as well as – for this blog post – a string of swashbuckler movies.
ROGUES OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1950) – John starred as Robin, Earl of Huntington, the son of Robin Hood. When Richard the Lionheart passes away in 1199 A.D. King John (George Macready) returns to his old ways of oppressing and heavily taxing the citizens. He also imports an army of foreign mercenaries faithful only to him, not England.
The villainous king even tries to have Robin, the son of his old enemy, slain during a rigged jousting match. Our hero survives but soon takes to Sherwood Forest to gather many of his father’s former Merry Men around him to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Alan Hale played Little John for the third time in his career, the first in 1922 in the Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood and again in 1938 in Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. Continue reading
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