In order to avoid the material copyrighted by Douglas Fairbanks Sr. for his 1922 Robin Hood, the scripters of this Flynn version relied on several legendary episodes that had never before been filmed, notably the battle between Robin and Little John (Alan Hale Sr., who played this part three times in his long career) and the "piggy-back" episode between Robin and Friar Tuck (Eugene Pallette). The film ties together the various ancient anecdotes with a storyline bounded by the capture in Austria of Richard the Lionheart (Ian Hunter) on one end and Richard's triumphant return to England on the other. Robin Hood is already an outlaw at the outset of the film, while Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland) is initially part of the enemy camp, as one of Prince John's (Claude Rains) entourage. Marian warms up to Robin's fight against injustice (and to Robin himself), eventually becoming a trusted ally. James Cagney was originally announced for the role of Robin Hood, just before Cagney left Warner Bros. in a salary dispute. William Keighley was the original director, but he worked too slowly to suit the tight production schedule and was replaced by Michael Curtiz (both men receive screen credit). A lengthy opening jousting sequence was shot but removed from the final print; portions of this sequence show up as stock footage in the 1957 Warners film The Story of Mankind. The chestnut-colored Palomino horse ridden by de Havilland in the Sherwood Forest scenes later gained screen stardom as Roy Rogers' Trigger. Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Category Costume Adventure, Romantic Adventure, Swashbuckler
- Theme: Daring Rescues, Righting the Wronged, Opposites Attract, Heroic Mission
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- Run Time: 01 hr 42 min
- Language: Spanish, English, French
- Subtitle Language: French, English, Spanish
- Format: DVD
- Release Date: October 5, 2010
- Lead Actor: Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Errol Flynn
- Supporting Actor: Ivan Simpson, Harry Cording, Lester Matthews, Colin Kenny, Robert Warwick, Kenneth Hunter, Robert Noble, Leonard Willey, Montagu Love, Herbert Mundin, Una O'Connor, Ian Hunter, Melville Cooper, Alan Hale, Eugene Pallette, Alec Harford, John Sutton, James Baker, Austin Fairman, Edward Dew, Val Stanton, Reginald Sheffield, Olaf Hytten, Crauford Kent, Peter Hobbes, Herbert Evans, Lionel Belmore, Marten Lamont, Hal Brazeale, Leyland Hodgson, Janet Shaw, Holmes Herbert, Wilfred Lucas, Charles McNaughton, Howard Hill, Leonard Mudie
- Director: William Keighley, Michael Curtiz
awards
- Awards: Academy Awards (3)
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Art Direction, 1938, Carl Jules Weyl
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Editing, 1938, Ralph Dawson
- Winner: Academy Awards, Best Score, 1938, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
guest rating
