The Adventures Of Robin Hood - 1938

Originally planned with James Cagney playing the title role, but he quit Warner Brothers and production was postponed for three years.

The golden palomino that Olivia de Havilland rides in this film is Trigger, shortly before he became the mount of Roy Rogers.

Michael Curtiz took over from director William Keighley when the producers felt that the action scenes lacked impact.

Howard Hill, who is listed in the credits as "Captain of Archers", also played "Owen the Welshman" in the archery contest. Hill actually made the shot where we see one arrow split another and he did all the shots which required hitting human targets. He also worked closely with the sound department to produce the distinctive arrow sounds by using specially made arrows.

German audiences will wait in vain for the notorious lines "You speak treason!" - "Fluently." In the German version, it is dubbed as "Ihr sprecht unbedacht!" - "Weiß ich." ("You speak before you think!" - "I know.") Probably they chose this quip (clever in its own right, but in a different vein than the original) because a more faithful translation would have lost the play on words completely.

Eugene Pallette was not the first choice for the role of Friar Tuck. Guy Kibbee was originally slated for the part.

The sound of Robin's arrow is the favorite sound of Skywalker Sound's Ben Burtt. He has used that sound in almost all the Star Wars films.

The theatrical trailer contains footage of Robin and Marian kissing on horseback. This footage is from the deleted final scene of the film, immediately following the closing of the great doors, where the film now ends.

At the time of its release, this was Warners' most expensive film, costing over $2 million.

The film plays very fancifully with real history. Even the opening titles are full of inaccuracies.

The role of Will Scarlett was originally intended for David Niven, but he was vacationing in England at the time, so the part went to Patric Knowles.

Originally set to open with an elaborate jousting sequence, just as Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood (1922) did, but it was decided that this would be too expensive and the plans were scotched.

One of the original writers on the project was Rowland Leigh.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold used much of a classical piece he'd written in 1919 for his score.

The stunt players wore heavy padding underneath a steel breastplate overlaid with some balsa wood to absorb the impact of arrows.

The production used all 11 of the Technicolor cameras in existence in 1938 and they were all returned to Technicolor at the end of each day's filming.

At the time this film held the distinction of employing the largest number of stuntmen on any one production.

Olivia de Havilland has only one scene in which she is not wearing a headpiece.

Despite his flamboyant performance as Robin Hood, Errol Flynn privately professed that he found the role a boring one.

In an effort to assuage the Production Code Administration, aka the Breen Office - which was the official censorship authority at the time and was coming down especially hard on Warner Bros.' popular gangster films - the studio gave the go-ahead for this project, figuring that a harmless historical tale wouldn't cause them to run afoul of the censors.

William Keighley had directed Errol Flynn the year before in The Prince and the Pauper (1937), which had turned out well for Warner Brothers. The studio had high hopes for this second teaming, but upon viewing the dailies coming in from the location shoot in Chico, California, they found the action scenes to be lacking in vigor and excitement. Michael Curtiz, who had effectively made Flynn a star with his agile handling of the actor in Captain Blood (1935) and cemented his reputation as a swashbuckling hero in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), was brought in to complete the picture. Consequently when Keighley returned to Hollywood from Chico, he found himself out of a job. Ironically, Keighley and Flynn got along quite well, but Curtiz and Flynn despised each other.

William Keighley was initially assigned to the project because he had made Warners' first excursion into three-strip Technicolor, when he directed God's Country and the Woman (1937).

One of the original story concepts had Robin Hood die at the end of the film.

This film was originally intended as a much closer remake of the original Douglas Fairbanks’ Robin Hood (1922) film.

The ending that exists now in the film is not the one that was originally written. In the original ending, King Richard and his forces help battle Prince John's and Guy of Gisburne's forces outside the castle - this ending was scrapped because it was too expensive to film. In the back-up ending, Prince John and Guy of Gisbourne's forces chased Robin Hood's and King Richard's forces into Sherwood forest and the climax took place there. This second ending was really never satisfactory, and was scrapped too. Finally, a third ending was written, in which the climactic battle takes place inside the Castle of Nottingham. Now King Richard's forces could be pared down to a handful of faithful retainers, and the new ending proved to be less expensive to shoot.

To prepare the audience for the new ending, the abbot's scenes were given to the Bishop of the Black Canons.

The scenes in which Marian is captured by Sir Guy of Gisbourne and then tried for treason are lifts from the Douglas Fairbanks movie, Robin Hood (1922).

Although shot on location in California, indigenous English plants were added and the grass was painted to give a greener, more English look.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was invited by Warner Brothers to come from his native Austria to Hollywood to see the film with a view to scoring it. He initially turned down the chance as he felt that his musical style was ill-suited for adventure spectaculars. However, while in Hollywood, he learned that the Nazis were about to invade Austria and, feeling he had to secure a source of revenue in the United States, he accepted the assignment. He would go on to win the Oscar.

While filming Robin Hood's escape from the castle, actor Basil Rathbone was knocked down and trampled by extras, causing a spear wound in his right foot which required eight stitches to close.
The Sir Joseph Hooker Oak (called the Gallows Oak in the film) where Robin Hood forms his outlaw band was supposedly the largest living oak tree in the world at the time of filming in 1937.
The rock that Errol Flynn stands on in front of the tree is a prop.

The swords used in the film were made of Duralumin, invented in 1908 by Alfred Wilm.

During one fight sequence, Errol Flynn was jabbed by an actor who was using an unprotected sword - he asked him why he didn't have a guard on the point. The other player apologized and explained that the director, Michael Curtiz, had instructed him to remove the safety feature in order to make the action "more exciting". Errol Flynn reportedly climbed up a gantry where Michael Curtiz was standing next to the camera, took him by the throat and asked him if he found that "exciting enough".

Two scenes - a jousting tournament and a christening - were cut from the script to save money and were never filmed.

A scene was filmed that was to have taken place before the scene where Will Scarlet comes riding into the forest clearing with Much the Miller's Son on his saddle. This was the scene where King Richard challenges Friar Tuck to a fistfight and wins, after which Robin himself agrees to fight King Richard. The scene was deleted from the final version of the film, making it appear that King Richard and Robin are about to fight for no reason.

The preview audience reaction was so positive that the film was released without any alterations to the plot.

Maid Marion is never referred to by that name in this film. She is referred to as "Lady Marion Fitzwalter" twice, once in the banquet scene and the second time by Sir Guy just before she hands the Golden Arrow to Robin Hood.

At the time Olivia de Havilland rode the palomino, its registered name was "Golden Cloud" and was owned by Hudkins Stables, an outfit that leased horses and Western equipment for films. Roy Rogers bought "Golden Cloud" for $2,500. Character actor Smiley Burnette, who was Rogers' sidekick in his early movies, suggested the name of Trigger, as the horse was "quick-on-the-trigger". Rogers rode Trigger in his first starring Western, Under Western Stars (1938).

Errol Flynn was not happy when Michael Curtiz was assigned to the film, as he didn't care for Curtiz's dictatorial methods and the two clashed often while filming The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936).

Maid Marian is from not an original Robin Hood ballad, but from the French romantic ballad "Jeau Robin et Marian" (Play of Robin and Marian). Robin was not Robin Hood but a shepherd, and Marian was a shepherdess whom he loved.

Warner Brothers owned the rights to the original "Robin Hood" operetta, while MGM announced its intention to film a Robin Hood movie at the same time, based on the operetta, with Nelson Eddy as Robin and Jeanette MacDonald as Maid Marian. Warner Brothers agreed, providing it could film a movie called "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with James Cagney as Robin. The MGM film was eventually abandoned.

Originally budgeted at $1.6 million, the budget eventually ballooned to $2 million, the most expensive Warners film to date, but it turned out to be the studio's biggest money-maker in 1939, making back far in excess of its cost.

The studio files/records for this film are archived at the USC Cinema Television Library.

Interoffice memos clearly indicate that Olivia de Havilland was not the first choice for the role of Marion. The original actress, whose name is blacked out in each of documents, became pregnant out of wedlock, and could no longer accept the role.

Wilfred Lucas as "Archery Official" and Halliwell Hobbes are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie.

The second of eight films to feature Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.

James Cagney was the studio's original choice for Robin Hood. But when Cagney walked off set, the film's producer Hal B. Wallis made the decision to cast Errol Flynn, against Warner Bros' wishes. It was also Wallis' decision to keep Maid Marian, when the original scriptwriter wanted to dump her character. Wallis felt Marian was an indispensable fixture of a Robin Hood adventure.

Although this movie carries the VITAPHONE trademark, in fact, the sound was looped onto the film by a sound-on-film process. This was the result of Warner Brothers having to carry the trademark of the obsolete process until it expired.

At 28, Errol Flynn was the youngest actor to play Robin Hood.

The tune whistled by Little John before his fight with Robin is the medieval English round "Sumer is Icumen In".

>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<

Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.

SPOILER: Heavily padded stunt players and actors were paid $150 per arrow for being shot by professional archer Howard Hill, who also played the captain of the archers, whom Robin Hood defeats in the tournament by splitting his own arrow. Splitting the arrow was Hill's feat, too, done in one take with no trick photography.

SPOILER: Although it is said that the tournament winning arrow shoots the other arrow in two, in fact when the arrow shot by Howard Hill strikes the arrow embedded in the target, it splits the arrow into three pieces. It sounds better to split something in half or in two, but the details in the movie are real and not just a saying.

Cast of The Adventures Of Robin Hood

Errol Flynn as Robin Hood
Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian
Basil Rathbone as Sir 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 High Sheriff of Nottingham
Ian Hunter as King Richard the Lionheart
Una O'Connor as Bess
Herbert Mundin as Much the Miller's Son
Montagu Love as 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 Owen the Welshman (credited as "Captain of Archers")
Ivan F. Simpson as Proprietor of Kent Road Tavern