I've never seen Robin Hood (1922), which from what I've read in Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By and in Lynn's piece here, may be Douglas Fairbanks' masterpiece in terms of adventure and technique. I'm still hoping that someday TCM will find a way to feature him as the Star of the Month, (even if that means trotting out his less than satisfying sound films or making him and Junior a tag team for SOTM). I could live with that if that would mean we'd get a chance to see the utterly delightful The Mollycoddle (1920) again along with the wonderful Thief of Bagdad, The Iron Mask and other films that show the optimistic smilin' Doug. It would be interesting to program a week just documenting the influence that Fairbanks, Sr.'s films had on storytelling, remakes, color, art direction, and other performers, by contrasting his work with that of Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Burt Lancaster and Gene Kelly as movie stars, and such creative people behind the camera as Michael Powell, William Cameron Menzies and Rouben Mamoulian.
I've read that Doug even influenced Bob Kane when creating the comic book character of Batman! For anyone who'd like to see more about Douglas Fairbanks Sr., there is a marvelous online museum found here and the real thing is in Austin, Texas. The clip below offers a glimpse of Fairbanks' legendary Robin Hood (1922):
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