"The Adventures of Robin Hood", a 1950s Anglo-American tv series, overcame hurdles to become a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Budgets were so puny that Sherwood Forest was played by just two trees, filmed from many different angles. Several writers were left-wingers blacklisted in Hollywood, using false names. Their hero was also, in theory, bent on redistribution from the rich to the poor, a perilous theme in those red-hunting days. This was solved by making Robin less an overt class warrior than a battler against villainy ("feared by the bad, loved by the good", as the theme song put it). The producers had cause to be prudent. As other Western countries built cradle-to-grave welfare states, America was a sceptical outlier.
展开▼
