When we see a really famous movie from the golden age, it
is hard to see it through the prism of the time in which it was produced. Stars earned iconic status when they became
associated with a certain role. William
Powell did it as Nick Charles in the Thin
Man series, Clark Gable will forever be known as the only Rhett Butler, and
his Gone with the Wind costar Vivien
Leigh is firmly established as Scarlett O’Hara.
In 1938, Warner Brothers released The
Adventures of Robin Hood and its leading action star, Errol Flynn became the
most famous incantation of that fabled legend.
In the classic age of Hollywood, no film was more colorful (both
literally and figuratively) and fun than Warner Brothers’ The Adventures of Robin Hood, and though Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
could buckle the best swash during the silent era, Errol Flynn was the master
of such films in the ‘30s and ‘40s. The
legendary nobleman, who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor, has been
portrayed by many actors for many decades but above them all, Flynn is the
definitive Robin Hood (Although Daffy Duck gave a great animated rendition in
the 1958 cartoon short, Robin Hood Daffy).
The Robin Hood legend has been oft-told, but never so
colorfully full of pomp and pageantry. Flynn
plays Robin, Earl of Locksley, a Saxon noble in 12th century England, and
protector of the poor Saxons from the villainous and utterly corrupt Norman
nobles, who have taken power in the nation during the absence of the king,
Richard the Lionhearted (Ian Hunter). Worst
of these is Richard's brother, the treacherous Prince John (Claude Rains), who
plans to take over England’s throne with the help of the equally despicable Sir
Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone), while King Richard is away fighting in the
Crusades. The film is a great romantic adventure with the romance provided by
Lady Marian Fitzwater, aka Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland), Norman noblewoman
and orphaned ward of King Richard. At
first disdainful to the pompous yet charismatic Robin, she falls in love with
him when he reveals his true intentions of helping his suffering countrymen and
becomes his own personal “Norman conquest.”
In all, Flynn and de Havilland made nine films together
with their romp in Sherwood Forest being their third and most famous. But even as these iconic images are ingrained
into the national psyche for this film, alas, like so many other infamous roles
in Hollywood, they were not the original choices. On July 19, 1935, period authority Dwight
Franklin, who at the time was working as special visual consultant on Warner
Brothers’ Captain Blood, sent a memo to
the studio’s head Jack Warner suggesting that [James] Cagney “would make a
swell Robin Hood.” His memo found its
way to Warner’s desk as Franklin’s idea for a follow-up to the studio’s big
prestige picture of 1935, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, which starred Cagney in Shakespearean costume as the
whimsical Nick Bottom. Along with the resident
tough-guy gangster, Franklin suggested the same Warners’ roster of contract
players who appeared in Dream would
be cast as Robin’s Merry Men, including Guy Kibbee as Friar Tuck. Jack Warner agreed and the following month English
screenwriter Rowland Leigh was assigned the task of developing a film treatment
of the Robin Hood legend. However, when
Cagney and Warner butted heads in a contract dispute, the project was postponed
until a later date.
Newcomer Flynn proved himself a magnetic adventure lead
in Captain Blood (1935) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
and the Robin Hood project was put back into production. Beautiful blond Anita Louise, also a veteran
of A Midsummer Night's Dream (as
Titania), was first considered for the role of Lady Marian but with so much
riding on the picture financially (it was Warner Brothers’ most expensive and
elaborate production to that date and the final cost was $2 million), the
studio wanted to ensure a proven film team with Flynn and de Havilland. Other parts were recast for one reason or
another. First choice for Friar Tuck,
Guy Kibee was replaced by the gravel-voiced and corpulent Eugene Pallette and
Robin's sidekick, Will Scarlett, though originally slated for David Niven,
eventually went to handsome contract player, Patric Knowles.
Chosen by the movie’s director William Keighley to serve
as Sherwood Forest, Bidwell Park in Chico, California, was a twenty-four
hundred acre tract, lush with giant oak and sycamore trees. Due to local fire codes, Bidwell was cleared
of grass and brush so that artificial grass, as well as numerous ferns, flowers
and various bushes could to be transplanted to create the magical English
woodland. For the production, tents were
set up near the park’s entrance for makeup and hairdressing.
Filming began at Bidwell Park in September of 1937, and
the first scene to be shot was the meeting of Robin and Little John, played by
Warners’ veteran Alan Hale (the actor had the distinction of playing the same
part in the earlier Fairbanks version and would play it again in the
1950s). Shooting was well underway by
the time Olivia de Havilland was able to start work on it. The actress was finishing up a role in Gold is Where You Find It with George
Brent, and after making wardrobe tests on the studio lot, de Havilland
travelled north to Bidwell Park.
Although she was thrilled to be working with the handsome and virile
Flynn for a third time, her attitude was somewhat soured by the presence of his
wife, French-born actress Lili Damita, who was there, hawkishly watching her
husband and de Havilland. The days were
long and began at 5 a.m. when Olivia would arrive at Bidwell from the local inn
where she stayed during the film’s shooting.
Producer Hal Wallis was not happy with the slow pace that
director Keighley was taking on the picture, as well as the lack of machismo
that the scenes required for the lusty, action film he wanted to create. When production reached a period of over two
weeks behind schedule and more than a hundred thousand dollars over budget,
Keighley was out. Michael Curtiz,
Warners’ top action director was brought in to replace Keighley, who had been
popular with both Flynn and de Havilland. With the new director’s tight command of the
picture, the final product was superb, from the archery tournament to the final
duel between Robin and Sir Guy, the one-two punch of excitement never lets up.
As the evil duo of Prince John and Sir Guy, Claude Rains
and Basil Rathbone cannot be beat, with Rains, sly and cunning and Rathbone
vicious and sadistic in his attack of the hero, both verbally and physically. An excellent swordsman off-screen, Rathbone is
marvelous fencing against a very agile and able Flynn. Equally magnificent is the film's opulent
musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The talented Korngold did not want to undertake
the task, claiming he was “not a musical illustrator for a 90% action picture,”
but was persuaded by the studio brass to take on the challenge and his
brilliant score won an Academy Award. Also
winning Oscars for the film were Best Art Direction and Best Film Editing.
The movie, shot in the richest Technicolor, cemented
Errol Flynn's status as an action superstar. What he began with Captain Blood, three years earlier, he extended with Robin Hood. Both Curtiz and William Keighley were given
screen credit for their directing contributions. More successful than the popular Fairbanks’
version, The Adventures of Robin Hood
was Warner Brothers’ biggest moneymaker of the year and would continue to be
one of its most remembered classics.
Higham, Charles. Errol Flynn:
The Untold Story. Doubleday
& Company, Inc, 1980
Higham, Charles. Sisters:
The Story of Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine. Dell Publishing Company, 1986
