Week Twenty: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Directors: Michael Curtiz and William Keighley

Producers: Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blake

Writers: Seton I. Miller and Norman Reilly Raine

Cinematographers: Sol Polito and Tony Gaudio

Music: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Studio: Warner Bros.

Starring: Errol Flynn (Sir Robin of Locksley/Robin Hood), Olivia de Havilland (Lady Marion Fitzwalter), Basil Rathbone (Sir Guy of Gisbourne), Claude Rains (Prince John), Patric Knowles (Will Scarlett), Eugene Pallette (Friar Tuck), Alan Hale Sr. (Little John), Herbert Mundin (Much), Melville Cooper (Sheriff of Nottingham), Una O’Conner (Bess), Ian Hunter (King Richard), Montagu Love (Bishop of the Black Canons), Harr Cording (Dickon)

Before You Watch the Movie

(First make sure you have read the introduction to this series)
When Douglas Fairbanks retired from films in 1934, it left an immense void in the adventure genre of films. Other actors made admirable turns as swashbuckling heroes - Robert Donat in The Count of Monte Cristo and Leslie Howard in The Scarlet Pimpernel are prime examples – but there wasn’t a singular face of the genre like Fairbanks had been. That is until Warner Bros. gave a young Tasmanian actor his big shot in their new pirate picture. The film was Captain Blood (1935) and the actor Errol Flynn, both were hits and the successor to Fairbanks was found. Flynn shared Fairbanks dashing good looks, effortless charm and athletic ability but was better adapted to the talking picture than his predecessor. After Captain Blood, Flynn became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and formed, with his frequent leading lady Olivia de Havilland, an iconic screen partnership that is still celebrated today. The crowning achievement of Flynn’s career and his eight-film partnership with de Havilland is The Adventures of Robin Hood, a movie that is still today one of the most exciting and fun adventure films ever made.

No actor had more fun on the screen (and off it) than Errol Flynn

Find someone who looks are you like Errol Flynn looks at this hunk of mutton

It is also perhaps the best example of Hollywood studio system perfection. The big Hollywood studios had access to the most talented people in the business and the production values on their big budget pictures is second to none. With The Adventures of Robin Hood, all their pieces of production fell into place to create a perfect film. Directors Curtiz and Keighley (the former replaces the latter part way through production) create some beautiful and iconic images but also know when not to mettle and let the movie carry itself. The screenplay includes all the classic aspects of the Robin Hood legend and is full of heroic verve and villainous deviance. 

There has never been a more perfectly cast film. Flynn is the image of Robin Hood and manages the balance between wisecracking bandit and committed freedom fire; de Havilland embodies the chaste Marion with a steely toughness; Hale, Pallette, Knowles, and Mundin give the film both heroism and comic relief, each perfectly embodying the spirit of their legendary characters.

As good as the heroes are, it is the bad guys that really give the movie its bite. Rains, one of the most underappreciated actors of his time, is perfect is the sneering Prince John, who delivers some of the film’s most devastating blows seated on his throne. Rathbone, who also played opposite Flynn in Captain Blood, is a charming villain with a touch of humanity as he pines for Marion and takes humiliation from both his friends and enemies. Then there is Melville Cooper’s Sheriff of Nottingham, the straight comic relief among the bad guys and an early example of a common movie trope, the pompous and inept henchman. The rest of the supporting characters are picture perfect as well, even those with just a few moments of screen time completely look the part.

Part of that is due to the film’s tremendous costume and art design, courtesy of Milo Anderson and Carl Jules Weyl, respectively. The film contains an amount of detail, every set, dress, and uniform meticulously created by legions of studio employees that could only be found in a classic Hollywood movie studio. Even in far-off corners of the film, the craftsmanship remains top-notch. Make no mistake, the bright colors and pageantry of The Adventures of Robin Hood bare only a passing resemblance to reality, if that, but it is history through the eye of Hollywood. 

The art and costume designs of Robin Hood are a prime example of the limitless talent and resources of the studio system

In this case, that eye sees the world in beautiful, vibrant Technicolor. Unlike the two-strip process used in The Black Pirate, The Adventures of Robin Hood is filmed in three-strip Technicolor, a process introduced in 1932. Due to the expense and rarity of the equipment at the time, Technicolor had only been used on less than two dozen films when The Adventures of Robin Hood was made. Three-strip Technicolor added blue filtered film to green and red, creating a more complete palette. Technicolor is renown for the vibrancy and intense saturation, creating rich colors that pop off the screen and have a stark definition from one to another. Modern movies often have a muted, digitally filtered palette that reflects the more grim style of storytelling and couldn’t be more different from the bright, joyful color of Technicolor. Set and costume designers purposefully overloaded the color in their work, and that is taken to an extreme in The Adventures of Robin Hood, one of the most stunning examples of Technicolor, the first film that really took advantage of all that the technology offered.

An example of the two-strip Technicolor process, heavy on red and green, with no blues (from Stage Struck, 1925)

Full, three-strip Technicolor makes costumes pop off the screen...

...but it can also capture beautiful natural light.

Technicolor makes wine look like strawberry Kool-Aid.

Why are these guys dressed like this? Technicolor, that's why.

Though The Adventures of Robin Hood was landmark in color cinematography, its soundtrack was revolutionary. Prior to this, as you may have noticed, music in the films was often quite sparse and most dialogue scenes contained no music at all. The Adventures of Robin Hood, on the other hand, contains a fully symphonic score that runs throughout almost all of the film. The composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, was a child prodigy who wrote numerous non-film musical pieces but is best known for his film scores, including that for Captain Blood, an early sketch of the sophistication of Korngold’s The Adventures of Robin Hood score. Without a doubt, one of the best and most influential (just as John Williams) film scores ever written, Korngold’s work doesn’t just hit numerous heroic notes but also carries through in other ways as well. The romance theme is perhaps the most famous part of the score and during stirring emotional moments, the music is right there with it. For The Adventures of Robin Hood the music isn’t just a supplement to transition from scene to scene, it adds to every bit of the film. This is true of almost all modern film scores and Korngold’s work in the thirties is what started it all. For its music alone, The Adventures of Robin Hood is worth a spot in this discussion, even setting aside all its many merits.

Though not as groundbreaking as the music, The Adventures of Robin Hood also features great sound work, especially the extremely satisfying sound of arrows flying through the air and connecting with their target.

Robin Hood perfected sound of arrows in flight, just part of the film's amazing sound

Taken all together, The Adventures of Robin Hood is a leading example of all that was possible under the studio system; a system that had its drawbacks without a doubt but that was also capable of producing beautiful, stirring, adventure films like this.

You can rent The Adventure of Robin Hood from Amazon here

After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)

Though it is without a doubt a big budget studio film, The Adventures of Robin Hood does have quite a few moments of creative brilliance. Often, costume dramas and adventure films are satisfied with the action on the screen being enough and leaving it at that, Curtiz and/or Keighley also insert elements that are visually arresting on their own. Curtiz, a disciple of German Expressionism, favored the extensive use of shadows in his films, so there are some shots that can credibly be credited to him. 

Shadows and off-kilter camera, hints of Curtiz's Expressionist leanings

The sequence in which Robin utilizes his black arrow has some stunning mise-en-scene and of course, the epic final sword fight is a clear visual standout. Not so obvious is how much care is taken to give Robin several moments that define his character as both brave and carefree.

The black arrow sequence features inventiveness rarely seen in this genre.

Robin Hood's all-time great sword fight was choreographed by swordmaster Fred Cavens, the first great in his field, who also worked on The Black Pirate

Robin is often framed in such a way that there is no mistake who the hero is.

The Adventures of Robin Hood also established in the minds of many numerous aspects of the Robin Hood legend, such as the battle between Robin and Little John and the splitting of the arrow, elements that have now become almost cliché but are indelibly linked with Robin Hood, despite the fact that they don’t appear in every account. Hollywood mythmaking at it again.

Enjoyment of The Adventures of Robin Hood is incredibly easy and there isn't much analysis needed to appreciate it. What is interesting, however, is how the film both mirrors and evolves from Fairbank’s The Black Pirate and how the adventure film had changed in the ten-plus years between them. The Adventures of Robin Hood solves the problem of its hero much as The Black Pirate did. Robin Hood may be an outlaw - ostensibly a criminal and certainly a killer – but his cause is established as just right off the bat and therefore his actions are justified. Even more so than Fairbank’s pirate, who really just wants revenge, Robin Hood seeks justice for the oppressed above all else. 

“Robbing from the rich to give to the poor” is the classic Robin Hood mantra and can be used to define many of literature’s most selfless heroes, though it is a sentiment that has all by vanished from modern adventure stories that are more about personal gain or revenge. The forties introduced the “anti-hero” to movies and we’ve still never made it back from that direction. The Adventures of Robin Hood harkens back to a simpler, less complicated form of heroism that isn’t “cool” anymore but, no matter our age, touches a part of us that longs for the childhood view of a hero, complete with fun and devoted friends and a desire for adventure that never truly leaves us, even if it is buried deep.

In The Black Pirate, Princess Isobel is given one moment of heroism but for the most part is a non-character, we know nothing about her except that she is the apple of our heroes eye. Marion, on the other hand, is emblematic of the slow but steady advance of female characters in film. She is a much better defined character that has opinions of her own as well as some agency over her own life. Marion is against the Saxons and Robin at the beginning of the film (reminiscent of the antagonism on the part of Isobel as well as Ginger in Top Hat) but her opinion is based on ignorance, not a flaw in her character. 

Marion initially dislikes Robin...

...but comes around quickly when she learns the truth about the Normans and Saxons

When the truth is revealed to her, Marion shows herself to be just as honorable as Robin. In fact, when Robin asks her to come away with him, she refuses so she can be of more help to the cause where she is. Like Robin, Marion is willing to give up happiness in pursuit of justice for others. She may not swing a sword or shoot a bow, but Marion is just as heroic as the male heroes. 

Marion risks her life just as often as the male heroes in the film

Often actual strong female characters are replaced by “you go girl” action moments but Marion is brave in her own way and just as effective without resorting to violence. She helps devise the plan that saves Robin and is also responsible for saving King Richard (something even Robin doesn’t accomplish) both at risk to her life and position.

The depiction of female characters, especially in male-dominated genres like adventure, is still finding its way today but The Adventures of Robin Hood was a strong step in the right direction, just another way that it was a landmark along with its high production values.

See Also

Captain Blood (1935) dir. Michael Curtiz

Flynn and de Havilland’s breakout film, Captain Blood takes a lot from The Black Pirate but does a lot on its own as well. Tremendous swashbuckling action on a large scale.

The Sea Hawk (1940) dir. Michael Curtiz

Flynn teams with Brenda Marshall this time around and though de Havilland is missed, The Sea Hawk is still a very fun adventure replacing pirates with privateers and adding in Queen Elizabeth and the intrigues of her court.

The Flame and the Arrow (1950) dir. Jacques Tourneur
A later film in the tradition of Flynn, Curtiz, and Robin Hood featuring and ebullient performance by Burt Lancaster and remarkably inventive direction by Tourneur.

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