The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Directors:

Michael Curtiz
William Keighley

Writers:

Norman Reilly Raine (original screenplay) and
Seton I. Miller (original screenplay)

Release Date:

14 May 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance

Tagline:

The Best Loved Bandit Of All Time!

Plot:

When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army.

Plot Keywords:

Prince | Outlaw | Forest | Sherwood Forest | Usurper

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Robin Hood
Olivia de Havilland	...	Maid Marian
Basil Rathbone	...	Sir Guy of Gisbourne
Claude Rains	...	Prince John
Patric Knowles	...	Will Scarlett
Eugene Pallette	...	Friar Tuck
Alan Hale	...	Little John
Melville Cooper	...	High Sheriff of Nottingham
Ian Hunter	...	King Richard the Lion-Heart
Una O'Connor	...	Bess
Herbert Mundin	...	Much
Montagu Love	...	Bishop of the Black Canons
Leonard Willey	...	Sir Essex
Robert Noble	...	Sir Ralf
Kenneth Hunter	...	Sir Mortimer

Also Known As:

Robin Hood (Australia) (TV title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for adventure violence.

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG (DVD rating) | USA:Approved (original rating) (PCA #3790) | Portugal:M/6 | Canada:G (video rating) | West Germany:6 (nf) | Germany:6 (video rating) | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) (2003) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | New Zealand:G (single DVD) | New Zealand:PG (2 dvd set) | Sweden:Btl (uncut) (1969) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:F (Ontario) | Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-16 (1938) | Ireland:G | Norway:7 | Peru:PT | Sweden:Btl (cut) (1938) | UK:U | USA:PG (re-rating) (2003)

Filming Locations:

Alhambra, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

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.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Robin captures Sir Guy in the forest and his men open the treasure chest the "coins" are blank slugs.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Town Crier announcing capture of Richard: News has come from Vienna: "Leopold of Austria has seized King Richard on his return from the Crusades. Our king is being held prisoner. Nothing further is known. His Highness Prince John will make further public pronouncement tomorrow."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A New Wave (2007)

My favorite classical movie and a real masterpiece

This is it; this is THE classical movie I grew up adoring as a kid. It inspired my dreams of knights and virgin ladies, had me fight great battles against evil enemies in our backyard and made me conclude my quest with honor, courage and endless romance.

"Robin Hood" (as I shall call it henceforth) features all the criteria of a masterpiece: great actors, great staff, a great plot and a great overall product. Plus, this movie contains elements which, as normal as they may seem today, were revolutionary back in the late 1930s: a full-scale blockbuster that finally triggered the success of Technicolor and color movies as such, production costs of an astonishing 2 million dollars, sophisticated sword fighting and arrow shooting that even the masters of today's action sequences respect, a great score used to underline the peculiar character of every scene, huge crowds of people fighting simultaneously, and a romantic couple of Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland, who in their emotional harmony may be unrivaled to this day.

Even though this was a super-modern state-of-the-art blockbuster, "Robin Hood" has maintained a curious innocence which still strikes me today. Women are not raped by Prince John's soldiers; they are merely pushed to the ground, but the message is loud and clear ("the mistreatment of our women"). The very same soldiers could be knocked out by a wooden table or chair instead of being martially hacked into bits and pieces by the film's hero. In its entirety, "Robin Hood", though presenting so much hardship and violence, is as smooth and gentle as they come, just like a ferry-tale banned on celluloid.

Of course, some may say that the original Robin Hood is nobody but b/w star Douglas Fairbanks, and they may be right, but this "Robin Hood" is far from being a mere remake: It is another, even greater original. Today, of course, "Robin Hood" may seem simple and outdated, but this movie has more atmosphere and character than all but a dozen films I have seen ever since. In fact, it is my belief that this Curtiz/Keighley product paved the way for the great legends (Titanic, Casablanca, Braveheart) we are so accustomed to today.

I have decided to give this movie a 10 out of 10 score, which does not mean that it is perfect, but in my opinion its status as a timeless masterpiece, to be enjoyed by people for generations to come, and its revolutionary approach and features, which I mentioned above, allow no other judgment.