Princess of Thieves

After the enormous success of 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood", studios were hesitant to make Robin Hood films for fear of paling in comparison. Despite a few standalone adventures, this fear was dodged by a series of "son of Robin Hood" pictures, with the Prince of Thieves cast as the older, matured outlaw of days past, with their son the action hero played by a young up-and-comer. 1958's "Son of Robin Hood" introduced the twist that Robin Hood's daughter had come to claim her father's mantle, yet in a horribly predictable manner, a male character became the focus of the film very quickly, the titular son being a rouse.

The most recent of the child-of-Robin-Hood films, 2001's "Princess of Thieves" corrects this unfortunate direction, seeing Gwyn, the daughter of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, endeavour to break out of her monotonous life of study and inhabit the action and adventure she's heard so much about in her famous mother's life - despite her father's overprotectiveness, as Marian has since died. With Robin captured by the would-be-King John, Gwyn works to both rescue her father and find the true heir to Richard's kingdom, his son Philip, and place him on the throne. A twist on history, Philip of Cognac was a real, and only, child of Richard, though an illegitimate one who never inherited the crown, of course, much less had a remote chance to do so. But probably worse is the claim that Richard was king in 1184! Henry II would reign until 1189, with Richard only Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers during this time. Nevertheless, despite the TV-movie aesthetic, "Princess of Thieves" is a charming escape into the imaginary of Robin Hood.

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