Watch Cavalcade of Archery For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is the shortest featurette on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of Adventures of Robin Hood from 1938, not counting the cartoons and the productions not up here on the site. It is what it says it is... a lot of unbelievable yet real archery tricks, performed by the greatest expert at the time in the field, Howard Hill(who also offered his services to the film itself), and man, this guy could *shoot*. We get a few clips from the movie and a brief recounting of how the sport was viewed back then, and the former knight's abilities at it, that mainly make me wonder how much of that is at all factual(it's a legend, it's been added to over decades), and as it goes on, you suddenly come to the horrifying realization that this narrator is indeed *never going to shut up*. Even when he isn't delivering awful puns, it's a serious strain to listen to his constant yammering. I don't know, I guess that was the style back then for this sort of thing, and they didn't figure we'd want to hear the star of this interviewed(nope, not in this, no such luck). Still, if you are interested in the subject, this is definitely worth eight and a half minutes. I recommend this to anyone who wants to see awesome bow and arrow handling. You may want to mute it, though. 7/10

My guess would be that Warner Brothers was reissuing The Adventures Of Robin Hood when someone got the idea to make Cavalcade Of Archery. This short subject is a tribute to Howard Hill who was the champion archer of his day. Not coincidentally Hill served as the technical adviser on Robin Hood and on a great many other films when skill with a bow was needed.Outtake footage from Robin Hood was used as a brief description of the history of archery was briefly discussed by narrator Knox Manning. The English longbowman was a feared warrior in his day and English arrows ruled the medieval battlefield until artillery was invented and perfected. Hill gave us several tricks including going William Tell one better when he shoots not just an apple off a stuntman's head, but follows it with a prune. The stuntman declined however to chance a grape.Cavalcade Of Archery is an entertaining short subject about a sport that was once the ultimate weapon of war.

KIDS NO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME (especially the William Tell-inspired stunts)!! This short consists of Howard Hill (who did a lot of the trick archery shots in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD) demonstrating his craft in full color. I think they chose to do this short in color because the beginning incorporated scenes from this Errol Flynn movie, as normally color film stock was prohibitively expensive--and not widely used in most shorts (aside from MGM's travelogue series). While this color isn't especially realistic, it is very nice for the time--though the details on the print are a tad washed out in many of the scenes.Hill's skills are rather amazing and the film is entertaining--and quite exciting towards the end. If you see the Errol Flynn film (and you must), look for Hill in a small role as the Captain of the Archers. If you want to see this short, however, the only way I know it can be see is to get the DVD of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD--as it's one of the extras on the second DVD included in the set.

HOWARD HILL, the man who really split that arrow in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, is the star here in a short subject dedicated to his prowess as an archer.The short begins with three woman practicing their skill with the bow and arrow, a glimpse of olden times with scenes from ROBIN HOOD and ELIZABETH AND ESSEX, and then the introduction of real-life archer HOWARD HILL who is glad to demonstrate what he can do with some trick shots.One of his stunts involves a double arrow which hits its mark accurately, while others, aside from shooting normal targets, involve a young man willing to place an apple on his head, then a smaller fruit in order to have Howard shoot the target with precision accuracy. He also does a mirror shot, facing away from the target and depending on the mirror image to make his mark.No wonder he was billed here as The World's Greatest Archer. It didn't hurt that Warner Bros. was about to re-release THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD for another theatrical showing.