I love this movie with a passion for so many reasons, and I was just wondering is there anybody else who also really enjoyed Basil Rathbone's performance as Sir Guy of Gisborne? I loved how they made Sir Guy haughty, suave and charismatic,(in my opinion that is) and I thought Rathbone did a great job.
Anyone else feel the same?
"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985)
yes to me he was the movie
shareThe fact that he was an accomplished swordsman added so much to his characterization. He and Flynn were completely believable.
He also has a wonderful voice and delivery.
I can't recall anything he's done that I haven't enjoyed.
"Man is born crying. When he has cried enough, he dies"
Basil Rathbone was magnificent.
I think he provided the inspiration for the Looney Toons cartoon Sherrif of Notingham
whose nemisis Bugs Bunny hits him over the head while "knighting" him.
Before seeing this film, I had never really given him a second thought as a leading man.
THEN I read while Hollywood was considering who would be the perfect
Rhett Butler for Gone With The Wind, Basil Rathbone AND Errol Flynn were on the list of candidates!
Basil Rathbone was perfect as Sir Guy of Gisborne,very handsome and charasmatic but able to portray evil also.I loved just about everything he did including playing Sherlock Holmes,i did think he overplayed his part in Son Of Frankenstein at times though.
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Concerning Basil Rathbone and GWTW, the story I heard was that the author wrote Rhett Butler with Rathbone, not Gable in mind. However some fan magazine did a poll and Gable was the overwhelming favorite. I didn't see Basil as Rhett until I watched Adventures Of Robin Hood.
My dad and I loved watching this film together when I was little. During the last months of his life we watched it one last time. Just as the climactic sword fight was starting we both agreed that we wouldn’t object if Basil won it just once.
shareI just found out that today, June 13, is the birthday of two “Adventures of Robin Hood” actors: Basil Rathbone (Gisbourne) and Ian Hunter (King Richard). They were born eight years apart and both in South Africa (Rathbone in Johannesburg and Hunter in Cape Town). Not the greatest coincidence, but I still think it’s interesting.
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I do like Basil Rathbone, he always played a fine villain. Long before Alan's Rickman's gorgeously camp over the top Sheriff (a terrific performance), Rathbone was a dastardly Gisbourne.
I do agree he was suave and if i were Marion i would have chosen Gisbourne over Hood...but thats just my personal preference
A Freudian slip is when you mean one thing, but you say your mother
No one made a better villain than Basil Rathbone. "The Mark of Zorro" 1940 (2 yrs after Adventures of Robin Hood) with Tyrone Power - another enjoyable performance. Great swordplay,great villainy. Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone were both good fencers.They just don't make movies - heroes and villains - the way they did. Also, I loved the black & white of the The Mark of Zorro but I love the Technicolor of The Adventures of Robin Hood. Why? Its a Movie - Its bigger,brighter,better than Life. After watching a Technicolor movie, I remember as a child walking outside from the darkened movie theater and being slightly disappointed that "real life" did not have the intense vibrant color (with music as a background), that the movie that had transported me to another time, another place. The movies "Then" gave you such a "Feeling". You didn't say -They're wearing green tights and silly caps. You got caught up in story,the characters,the music,the humor,the heroes,the villains.You were rooting for good guys and even the bad guys.
....Homage to Errol Flynn and Swashbucklers - Watch "My Favorite Year" with Peter O'Toole (superb performance),there is a swordplay scene on the stairs with Basil Rathbone -when Peter O'Toole (playing an older Errol Flynn) says "I thought you were dead."
Even when he's being humiliated by Robin's men he appears regal -- perfect for the part.
shareI've always loved Basil Rathbone. Consider, too, that offscreen, he was, like many onscreen villains, a sympathetic and charming gentleman. This comes through too in his autobiography _In and Out of Character_. I love the frustrated passion for the lady that he injects in both Sir Guy and in Esteban in _Mark of Zorro_: it causes a mixed reaction in the viewer: you hate because he is the bad, evil man, but he's feeling hopeless, too (he might have made an interesting Heathcliff).
shareBasil will always be Guy of Gisborne to me. No other can compare.
"That woman has a feminist agenda. Tell her to get in the wallpaper that's in the kitchen."
When I started buying DVDs, I made sure I got "Captain Blood", "The Adventures of Robin Hood", and "The Mark of Zorro". I call it my Basil Rathbone Death Festival.
shareHe will also always be Sherlock Holmes. While some will argue that Jeremy Brett was the best, I still like Basil Rathbone as Sherlock. That and almost everything else he played including Mark of Zorro, Captain Blood and A Tale of Two Cities.
shareHe was a great actor, and perfect for the part.
shareNone better, either as Sir Guy of Gisborne or Sherlock Holmes.
As a nemesis for Robin Hood, I'll give a very close second to the wonderful Alan Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham from the TV series of the same name.
(This is posted for entertainment. Don't get upset. "He's quite mad." "Ah sure am, boy!")
He was wonderful. Rathbone may be known for being Sherlock Holmes, but this and Captain Blood are my two favorite films of his. No doubt for the sword fighting. I love a good sword fight.
When I was a kid, I used to watch Flynn and Rathbone fighting it out and try to decide which one I wanted to run away with and have his babies.