The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American epic swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and written by Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. Miller.
It stars Errol Flynn as the legendary Saxon knight Robin Hood, who in Richard I's absence in the Holy Land during the Crusades, fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla band against Prince John and the Norman lords oppressing the Saxon commoners. The cast also includes Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, and Alan Hale.
Upon its premiere on May 14, 1938, The Adventures of Robin Hood was very well received by critics. The film was a commercial success; it grossed around $4 million at the box office, making it one of the highest grossers of 1938.
At the 11th Academy Awards, the film received four nominations, winning three—Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson) and Best Original Score (Erich Wolfgang Korngold). In 1995, The Adventures of Robin Hood was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.
Plot
Richard, the Norman King of England, is taken captive in 1191 by Duke Leopold while returning from the Third Crusade. Richard's treacherous brother Prince John, aided by fellow Norman Sir Guy of Gisbourne, names himself regent of England, increasing the Saxons' taxes under the pretense of gathering a ransom for Richard.
The Normans exploit and oppress the Saxons. Sir Robin of Locksley, a Saxon noble, opposes the brutality and rescues Much the Miller's Son from being executed for poaching, earning Gisbourne's ire. Robin later confronts Prince John at a Nottingham Castle banquet, telling the guests that he regards John declaring himself regent as treason. John orders Robin's execution, but Robin escapes and flees with Much and Will Scarlet into Sherwood Forest. John seizes Robin's lands and names him an outlaw.
Much is sent to recruit men to join their band. Robin and Will encounter John the Little on a log bridge, and after a quarterstaff contest, welcome him into their ranks. Dozens more men join Robin's band, swearing an oath to despoil the rich while aiding the poor, to fight injustice, and to show courtesy to all oppressed. They start a war against John and Gisbourne, dispatching those who abuse their power.
Robin's band encounters the rotund Friar Tuck, a renowned swordsman who joins the band and assists in capturing a company of Normans transporting a shipment of gathered taxes. In the company are Gisbourne, the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham, and King Richard's ward Lady Marian. After their capture, the men are humiliated at a celebratory woodland banquet, with Marian given a seat of honor. Initially scornful, she comes to share Robin's views after he shows her examples of Norman brutality against the Saxons. Robin sends the convoy back to Nottingham Castle, telling them that they have Marian's presence to thank for their lives being spared.
Having noted Robin's focus on Marian during the Sherwood banquet, the sheriff suggests hosting an archery tournament, with Marian presenting a golden arrow as the prize to entrap Robin. Robin enters the tournament in disguise, is recognized by his archery skill, and is captured and sentenced to be hanged. Marian aids Robin's Men in a scheme to save him. After his escape, he scales the palace walls to thank her, and the two pledge their love for one another. Marian declines Robin's marriage proposal, remaining in the castle as a spy.
King Richard returns with several of his knights. The Bishop of the Black Canons sees through Richard's disguise and alerts John. John sends disgraced former knight Dickon Malbete to kill Richard, promising Dickon Robin's title and lands. Marian overhears and writes to Robin but is found out by Gisbourne and sentenced to death. Her nursemaid, Bess, tells Much everything. He intercepts Dickon and kills him after a fight.
Richard and his men, disguised as Norman monks, travel through Sherwood and are stopped by Robin. Assuring Robin they are on the king's business, Richard accepts Robin's offer of hospitality and his condemnation of the Holy Crusade but does not reveal his identity.
Much relays Bess' news. Robin orders his men to find and protect Richard; now certain of Robin's loyalty, Richard reveals himself. Robin coerces the Bishop of the Black Canons to allow them to join his monks in disguise so they can enter Nottingham Castle. Once inside, Richard announces his presence, and a melee erupts. Robin kills Gisbourne after a lengthy duel, frees Marian, and prompts John's men to surrender.
Returned to his throne, Richard banishes John, the Sheriff, and the Bishop from England. He restores Robin's rank, raising him to Baron of Locksley and Earl of Sherwood and Nottingham. The king also pardons Robin's men and commands Robin to take the hand of the Lady Marian in marriage.
Cast Errol Flynn as Robin Hood Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian Basil Rathbone as Guy of Gisbourne Claude Rains as Prince John Patric Knowles as Will Scarlet Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck Alan Hale, Sr. as Little John Melville Cooper as the Sheriff of Nottingham Ian Hunter as King Richard the Lion-Heart Una O'Connor as Bess Herbert Mundin as Much Montagu Love as the Bishop of the Black Canons Leonard Willey as Sir Essex Robert Noble as Sir Ralf Kenneth Hunter as Sir Mortimer Robert Warwick as Sir Geoffrey Colin Kenny as Sir Baldwin Lester Matthews as Sir Ivor Harry Cording as Dickon Malbete Howard Hill as Captain of Archers (also Elwyn the Welshman [uncredited]) Ivan F. Simpson as Proprietor of Kent Road Tavern
Uncredited: Lionel Belmore as Humility Prin (proprietor of Saracens Head Tavern) Charles Bennett as Peddler at Tournament Frank Hagney as Man-at-arms Holmes Herbert as Archery Referee Crauford Kent as Sir Norbett Carole Landis as Guest at Banquet Leonard Mudie as Town Crier Val Stanton as Outlaw Ernie Stanton as Outlaw Reginald Sheffield as Herald at Archery Tournament Trigger as Lady Marian's horse
Production The Adventures of Robin Hood was produced at an estimated cost of $2 million, one of the more expensive film Warner Bros. Pictures had made up to that time. It was also the studio's third film made in the full three-strip Technicolor process, after God's Country and the Woman and Gold Is Where You Find It. The film was, in fact, planned to be shot in black and white for most of its development; the switch to Technicolor happened just three months before production started. It was an unusually extravagant production for the Warner Bros. studio, which was known in the 1930s for socially conscious crime films. Filming began on September 26, 1937, and concluded on January 14, 1938.
Producer Hal B. Wallis is generally supposed to have been the film's creative helmsman. The first draft of the script was written by Rowland Lee, but Wallis objected to its heavily archaic and fanciful dialogue (one line he cited was "Oh my lord, tarry not too long, for I fear that in her remorse she may fling herself from the window. Some harm may befall her, I know."). At Wallis's insistence, the script was heavily rewritten to modernize the dialogue, and whether any of Lee's work survives in the completed film is unclear.
The scene in which Robin Hood first meets Prince John, Guy of Gisbourne, and Maid Marian went through several iterations. Initially, the scene was to be at a jousting tournament with Robin tilting against Guy of Gisbourne, mimicking the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks production of Robin Hood, but screenwriter Norman Reilly Raine pointed out that a banquet scene would be much less expensive to produce, and so long as Technicolor was employed would look just as lavish to the average moviegoer. In another draft, instead of a deer, a slain villager was who Robin Hood brought in and dumped on Prince John's table. Wallis felt the use of a dead villager expended all the tension of the scene in "a momentary kick" and preferred the use of a deer from an earlier draft, which allowed the tension to simmer with the threat of an explosion at any moment. During the brawl where Robin escapes from the banquet hall, Basil Rathbone was trampled by an extra whose spear cut his foot badly, requiring eight stitches to close the wound.Turner Classic Movies, extraduction by Dave Karger, May 13, 2023.
James Cagney was originally cast as Robin Hood but walked out on his Warner Bros. contract, paving the way for the role to go to Errol Flynn. The filming was postponed three years as a result. Though Olivia de Havilland was an early frontrunner for the role of Maid Marian, for a time the studio vacillated between Anita Louise and her for the part. De Havilland was ultimately chosen because the success of Captain Blood established the pairing of Flynn and de Havilland as a safe bet to help ensure box-office success.
Location work for The Adventures of Robin Hood included Bidwell Park in Chico, California, which substituted for Sherwood Forest,The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations by Tony Reeves. The Titan Publishing Group. Pg.14 although one major scene was filmed at the California locations "Lake Sherwood" and "Sherwood Forest", so named because they were the location sites for the Fairbanks production of Robin Hood. Several scenes were shot at the Warner Bros. Burbank Studios and the Warner Ranch in Calabasas. The archery tournament was filmed at the former Busch Gardens, now part of Lower Arroyo Park, in Pasadena.
Scenes which were filmed but not included in the final cut include the disguised King Richard brawling with Friar Tuck, and Robin riding off with Maid Marian; the latter would have been the concluding scene of the film and appears in the theatrical trailer despite not appearing in the film itself.
Stunts All the arrows in the film were shot by professional archer Howard Hill. Those actors shot with arrows wore clothing padded with balsa wood on protective metal plates that prevented injury, though impact was fairly painful and the arrows lodged into the balsa wood to create the illusion of bodily penetration. Although listed as the archer captain defeated by Robin, Hill was cast as Elwyn the Welshman, an archer seen shooting at Robin in his escape from Nottingham Castle and later defeated by Robin at the archery tournament. To win, Robin splits the arrow of Philip of Arras, a captain of the guard under Gisbourne, who had struck the bullseye. Hill did in fact split one arrow with another during filming (albeit while loosing from a much closer range than that from which Robin Hood is portrayed as shooting). However, the resulting footage did not look good enough on film, so the shot was redone with some effects trickery. Stuntman Buster Wiles, a close friend of Errol Flynn's and his frequent on-set stand-in, maintained that the arrow-splitting stunt was carried out using an extra-large arrow (for the target) and that the second arrow had a wide, flat arrowhead and was loosed along a wire. This wire is briefly visible attached to the fletching of the arrow in the final film. Wiles discusses the scene in his autobiography, My Days with Errol Flynn.
Flynn performed most of his own stunts in the film; exceptions include Robin jumping onto a horse with hands tied behind his back during the hanging scene, scaling the fortress gate and coming down the other side, and a few select shots in the duel between Robin and Guy of Gisbourne.
Music score