Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Mel Brooks builds the plot on 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and aims the jokes straight at it. Cary Elwes gets the line about how, unlike some other Robin Hoods, he can speak with an English accent, a hook aimed at Kevin Costner; Patrick Stewart’s brief King Richard parodies the Sean Connery cameo in that same film, Scottish accent included. The second target is the 1938 Errol Flynn version. Elwes wears a costume borrowed from it, and his entrance to the feast is close to a shot for shot copy. Brooks had already spoofed the legend in a short lived television series in the mid 1970s; Dick Van Patten, from that cast, turns up here as the abbot. Brooks wrote himself Rabbi Tuckman instead of Friar Tuck and, for the first time since Young Frankenstein, appeared in one of his films without the lead or top billing. Nottingham became Rottingham and Will Scarlet became Will Scarlet O’Hara. It is also Dave Chappelle’s first screen role, and the picture is an American and French co-production with Gaumont. A good fit if you do not mind laughing at a target you must recognise, which means remembering the Costner version. Not for anyone with no patience for the chastity belt, circumcision and body jokes a good share of the script rests on.