Facts > Films > The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) Facts
| Director(s) | Michael Curtiz, William Keighley |
| Producer(s) | Hal B. Wallis (uncredited), Henry Blanke (uncredited), Jack L. Warner (uncredited) |
| Featured Cast | Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles |
| Total Facts | 62 |
The tune whistled by Little John before his fight with Robin is the medieval English round "Sumer is Icumen In".
This film was originally intended as a much closer remake of the original Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood film.
Two scenes - a jousting tournament and a christening - were cut from the script to save money and were never filmed.
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.
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.
In The Adventures of Robin Hood, padded stunt men and bit players were paid $150 per arrow for being shot by professional archer Howard Hill, who was cast as Owen the Welshman, an archer defeated in the tournament by Robin.
James Cagney was originally cast as Robin Hood, but walked out on his contract with Warner brothers, paving the way for Errol Flynn, although filming was postponed three years.
Robin Hood was produced at an estimated cost of $2 million, and was one of the first Warner Bros. films to be shot in the three-strip Technicolor process.
Scenes and costumes worn by the characters in Robin Hood have been imitated and spoofed endlessly. For instance, in the Bugs Bunny animated short film, Rabbit Hood, Bugs is continually told by a dim-witted Little John that "Robin Hood will soon be here." When Bugs finally meets Robin at the end of the film, he is stunned to find that it is Errol Flynn, in a spliced-in clip from this film. Other parodies were Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in Robin Hood Daffy and Goofy and Black Pete in Goof Troop's Goofin' Hood & His Melancholy Men.
The Adventures of Robin Hood was Errol Flynn's first film in Technicolor.
The Adventures of Robin Hood was filmed on location in various areas of California. Bidwell Park in Chico stood in for Sherwood Forest, although one major scene was filmed at the locations "Lake Sherwood" and "Sherwood Forest," so named because they were the location sites for the 1922 Douglas 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 Busch Gardens in Pasadena.
Trigger (then named Golden Cloud) was the horse ridden by Olivia de Havilland in Robin Hood. Roy Rogers admired the horse so much that he bought Trigger to use in his own films. This eventually made Trigger one of the most famous animals in show business.