Robin and the 7 Hoods is a 1964 American musical film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Bing Crosby.
Written by David R. Schwartz, the film reimagines the Robin Hood legend in a 1920s Chicago gangster setting.
"Big" Jim Stevens, undisputed boss of the Chicago underworld, gets an unexpected birthday present from his ambitious lieutenant, Guy Gisborne.
The news does not sit well with Big Jim's friend and fellow gangster, Robbo, and a gangland war breaks out.
Robbo recruits pool hustler Little John, who demonstrates his billiards skills while singing "Any Man Who Loves His Mother", plus quickdraw artist Will and a few others, but they are still greatly outnumbered.
Dale starts the Robbo Foundation and opens a string of soup kitchens, free clinics and orphan shelters.
He even gives green, feathered hats and bows and arrows to the orphans, while thoroughly milking the Robin Hood image.
The sheriff and Gisborne burst in to find Robbo's gang singing gospel songs and preaching the evils of alcohol, complete with hymnals and tambourines ("Mr. Booze").
Uncredited: Cast notes On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 40% based on 4 positive and 6 negative critic reviews.
[5] Variety commented: "Warner Bros. has a solid money entry in 'Robin and the Seven Hoods,' a spoof on gangster pix of bygone days sparked by the names of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby to give marquee power...Performance-wise, Falk comes out best.
Dishing up Frank Sinatra as the leader of a mob that enhances its public image by giving large sums of money to charity, it runs through some all-too-familiar plot arrangements and farce routines that have a fleeting and far-away resemblance to some of the stuff in the old Damon Runyon tales.
"I must confess I was yawning up to the moment Bing Crosby made his quiet and studious entrance as the unworldly secretary of a children's orphanage.
But after some moments of horrifying suspicion that he had been introduced as a mute stooge for the Sinatra Clan, the Old Master opened his mouth to sing again and to prove that his sweetness of tone remains unimpaired and undiminished for all his years of seniority.
A new version of Robin and the 7 Hoods, with a book by Rupert Holmes, premiered on stage July 30, 2010 at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, California.
Updated to the early 1960s, it includes only one of the film's songs, "My Kind of Town", but features 18 others composed by Cahn and Van Heusen, among them Come Fly with Me and Ain't That a Kick in the Head?.
[12] Cases for DVD editions depicted a portrait of Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jr and Crosby with guns in their hands.