Robin Hood, king of the vagabonds
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Robin Hood, king of the vagabonds |
| Original title | The Adventures of Robin Hood |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1938 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Michael Curtiz , William Keighley |
| script |
Norman Reilly Raine , Seton I. Miller |
| production |
Hal B. Wallis , Henry Blanke |
| music | Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
| camera |
Tony Gaudio , Sol Polito |
| cut | Ralph Dawson |
| occupation | |
| |
The Adventures of Robin Hood , also known as The Adventures of Robin Hood (Original title: The Adventures of Robin Hood ), an American adventure film by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley from 1938. The main roles are Errol Flynn , Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone .
At the time, The Adventures of Robin Hood was Warner Brothers' most expensive production at around two million US dollars . The film gained significance in film history primarily through the use of the Technicolor process, which was new at the time, and through Erich Wolfgang Korngold's well-known film music. Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds was awarded three Oscars , only in the category Best Film the production went empty. Today the film is considered a genre classic and is often referred to as the best film adaptation of the legend of Robin Hood .
action
In 1191 King Richard the Lionheart was captured by Leopold of Austria on his way back from the crusade . In England , Richard's power-hungry brother, Prince John, saw his chance and, with the help of other Norman nobles, seized control of the country. He raises taxes on the Anglo-Saxons to allegedly use the extra money to raise Richard's ransom, but in fact he fills his own coffers with it. The Saxon population is impoverished because of the high taxes, and those who do not pay the taxes or criticize Prince John are tormented in all possible ways by his henchmen . When the Saxon Much shoots a deer out of hunger in the royal forest , although it is the death penalty , Sir Guy von Gisbourne, Prince John's influential advisor, picks him up and wants him to be killed. But the Saxon nobleman Robin von Locksley, also known as Robin Hood , appears and is able to chase Gisbourne away. The rescued Much joins Robin in thanks.
In the evening, Guy von Gisbourne gives a banquet with Prince John and other nobles as guests, which also includes Robin Hood. He enters the hall and briskly accuses Prince John of treason against King Richard. When Prince John announces that he will be regent until his brother returns, Robin openly declares war on him. The guards try to catch Robin, but he fights his way free and escapes. Because of Robin's actions, Prince John declares him outlawed and deprives him of titles of nobility and property. Robin retires to Sherwood Forest with his loyal friend Will Scarlet . Here he meets Little John and the monk Dick, whom he can win as friends and campaigners. He gathers a rapidly growing number of tormented Saxons around him. The men take up the fight against the reign of terror by attacking and robbing opportunistic nobles and clergymen, among other things .
One day Sir Guy von Gisbourne accompanied a transport of Saxon taxpayers' money together with the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham and the beautiful maiden Lady Marian Fitzwalter, a ward of King Richard. Robin and his men ambush the train and drag it to their camp in Sherwood Forest, where they hold a banquet and take away their sumptuous clothes and taxpayers' money from the Normans. Robin takes the opportunity to open Marian's eyes to the real political issues and the two grow closer. After Robin has released the Normans unharmed, the Sheriff of Nottingham devises a ruse to catch him: He organizes an archery tournament, which Robin, as the best archer in the country, cannot miss. After the disguised Robin wins the tournament, he is arrested by Gisbourne and sentenced to death. With Marian's help and through the intervention of Robin's companions, he manages to escape before the execution. Robin and Marian become a couple and from now on she provides him with information from Prince John's court.
Richard and some of his crusaders return to England disguised as merchants. In a pub they meet the Bishop of Blackcanons, who is devoted to Prince John. The bishop recognizes Richard and immediately informs Prince John that the king is back in England. Prince John orders Dickon Malbete, captain of the court guard, to kill Richard. Marian overhears the intrigue, but before she can notify Robin, she is captured by Gisbourne. Because she stands by Robin, Prince John sentences her to death and has her thrown in dungeon. Marian's servant Bess can notify Much, with whom she is friends. Much ambushes Dickon on the way and can kill him in battle. Believing Richard was murdered, Prince John wants to be crowned king the next day in Nottingham Castle.
Meanwhile, Robin meets the disguised King Richard in the forest, who reveals himself when he becomes aware of the loyalty of the outlaws to their king. They force the Bishop of Blackcanons, who is to perform the coronation, to lead Robin and his men disguised as monks into the castle without being disturbed. Together with Richard's crusaders, they take up the fight against Prince John's followers. Robin manages to kill Guy von Gisbourne in a fencing duel . Then he frees Lady Marian from the dungeon. King Richard banishes Prince John and his followers into exile , pardons Robin and his men and gives Robin his lands back, and Marian as his wife. Finally Robin leaves the castle with Marian at his side.
backgrounds
Pre-production and script
The first Robin Hood film was made in 1912 with Robert Frazer in the title role. In 1922, the medieval legend of Robin Hood was filmed as Robin Hood in one of the most lavish productions of its time by the silent film star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. After the Fairbanks film, there was no major film adaptation until this film 16 years later.
In the mid-1930s, the Warner Brothers film studio planned to get out of its image that it could mainly only shoot socially critical and at the same time inexpensive gangster films or melodramas. However, important prestige projects like Max Reinhardt 's Shakespeare film A Midsummer Night's Dream flopped at the box office. Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds meant another attempt to get out of this image with an expensive " blockbuster ": The planned costs of 1.5 million US dollars were an unusually high sum at the time. It was all the more problematic that work on the script was making slow progress. Even when filming began, the script was not yet complete.
In the mid-1930s, Warner Brothers acquired the rights to the opera Robin Hood , which premiered in Chicago in 1890 with music by Reginald de Koven and texts by Harry B. Smith . At the same time, however, the MGM film studio also bought the rights to a non-musical film adaptation of the legend. MGM and Warner Brothers then exchanged the rights to the respective templates and agreed that the two Robin Hood films should run at different times in the cinema. MGM originally wanted to realize the original as a film musical with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in the lead roles, but that never materialized.
The screenwriter Rowland Leigh worked on a first script for Warner producers Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke . After Rowland Leigh had finished his work on the script in November 1936, the producers initially criticized it as being too poetic in the dialogues. Therefore, in April 1937, Norman Reilly Raine , another author, was commissioned to write a screenplay. Seton I. Miller also joined Rine's work at a later stage . In contrast to the Fairbanks film, the script also includes medieval legends. But the difficulty was that the film with the built-in ballads and little storylines would seem too episodic. The climax of the original script was supposed to be the storming of Nottingham Castle, but that would have been too complicated. In addition, a tournament sequence was planned at the beginning of the film, but this idea was rejected by Hal B. Wallis as too expensive. In the main roles, the script consisted of the now classic figure triangle consisting of hero (Robin Hood), woman (Lady Marian) and villain (Sir Guy).
The scriptwriters also had to take into account that the film should be shot in Technicolor color . Color films were new and expensive at the time, and this innovation should be exploited accordingly with colorful scenes.
Robin Hood , who sees himself more as an adventure flick than a period film, places little value on historical authenticity . The characters of Richard the Lionheart and Johann Ohneland actually existed, as did the characters Leopold of Austria and Wilhelm von Longchamp mentioned in the film . The other characters, including Robin Hood, on the other hand, are invented or at least not historically guaranteed. The uprising of Prince Johann against his brother Richard and his vassals actually did exist. At the end of this film, however, Richard banished Johann from England forever. The real Richard had forgiven Johann immediately after his uprising and after Richard's death in 1199, Johann became King of England.
occupation
Originally, the film was supposed to serve as a star vehicle for James Cagney as Robin Hood, the greatest star of the Warner Brothers at the time. However, there was a dispute between Cagney and Warner Brothers regarding his contract, so that he left the project in November 1935 and was not available for the studio and thus for the film for the next two years. Originally Guy Kibbee was also considered as Friar Tuck, but this line-up did not come about later because he was prevented by another film project.
According to the high budget, they relied on a well-known and experienced cast, in which most of the actors had already worked together. The up-and-coming Australian Errol Flynn was finally cast by the producers, mainly because he celebrated his breakthrough and great success in Unter Piratenflagge , a comparable material, in 1935. His pirate flag co-stars had been Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone , who represented similar roles in the film.
In the supporting roles Alan Hale plays the role of Little John for the second time after the filming of 1922. In total, Hale should make 13 films with him as Flynn's Sidekick by 1947 . In his last film role, he played the role of Little John in Robin Hood's Retribution for the third time in 1950 . Herbert Mundin in the role of Much and Una O'Connor as Lady Marian's servant portray an elderly couple in the film; they had previously worked together as a married couple in several films, for example in the Oscar-winning drama Kavalkade (1933). Mundin died the following year as the first actor in the film in a car accident. The silent film villain Montagu Love , who at that time only appeared in numerous smaller but high-profile supporting roles, portrays the Bishop of Blackcanons.
In small supporting roles play among others: Ivan F. Simpson as the landlord of the Kent Road Tavern ; Lionel Belmore as Master Prim, host in the Sarrazinerkopf; Holmes Herbert as referee at the archery tournament; Robert Warwick as Sir Geoffrey; Lester Matthews as Sir Ivor; Leonard Mudie as the town screamers in the first scene; John Sutton as a crusader to Richard the Lionheart and Carole Landis as a guest at the banquet. Olivia de Havilland also rides a horse called Golden Cloud . After the film it was bought by the singing film cowboy Roy Rogers and named Trigger one of the most famous animals in show business.
Filming
The shooting took place between September 26, 1937 and January 14, 1938.
The producers were dissatisfied when half of the film had been shot because their budget was actually $ 1.5 million. The production costs increased to then exorbitant two million dollars (corresponds to today's inflation-adjusted 40 million dollars). This made it the most expensive Warner Brothers production at the time. When Wallis and Blanke feared that the director William Keighley would not be able to cope with the action scenes so well, the producers brought in the Austro-Hungarian Michael Curtiz for the external scenes. There are various theories about this replacement, one says that Keighley was fired less gently, other sources report that Keighley fell ill while shooting. Other well-known directors such as William Dieterle also worked on small scenes of the film as secondary directors, but are not mentioned in the opening credits.
The exterior shots were taken north of Sacramento and west of the San Fernando Valley in California . The Californian forest near Chico served as a replacement for the Sherwood Forest , so the famous Hooker oak was also shown as a gallows oak in the film . The archery competition was filmed at the Busch Gardens theme park in Pasadena . The scenes at Nottingham Castle were shot on a Warner Brothers ranch in Calabasas . A small modern mistake crept into the shooting: When Will Scarlet jumps off his horse to take care of Much, who was injured after the fight with Dickon, the roof of a moving car is visible behind Will's horse for a short time.
The movie trailer also showed a scene in which Robin rides a horse with Lady Marian and kisses her. This scene was supposed to end the film, but was cut out. Instead, the film ends with the closing of the gate to the castle hall after Robin and Marian have left, and so this scene optically closes the film. In addition, a tournament scene at the beginning of the film was cut out of the original script to save money; it was never filmed. However, the scriptwriters expanded the role of the bishop during the shooting phase by writing the scene in the pub.
Technical implementation
The technical implementation was very advanced for the time, but also extremely complex. The art shooter Howard Hill actually split the arrow with one shot as a double for Errol Flynn (a documentary about it is on the special edition DVD). He also starred in a supporting role as the leader of the archers. The supporting actors and stunt men hit with an arrow only wore iron armor over their chests, so only Howard Hill was allowed to shoot the arrows. For the risk, they got $ 150 per shot.
The Belgian Fred Cavens and his son were brought in as fencing masters, who are said to have tyrannized the entire film set with precise instructions. The main actor Errol Flynn ignored Caven's instructions in the fight scenes and relied entirely on his natural talent for the duel scenes. His duel partner Basil Rathbone was considered the best fencer in Hollywood, who is said to have even taught Flynn to some extent so that he could later defeat him in a duel.
Music, camera and costumes
The Technicolor process, which was still relatively new at the time, was very important both during the shooting and in the advertising of the film. All eleven existing Technicolor cameras were used for the film. After each day of production, they had to be returned to the company and picked up the next day.
The music for the film comes from the pen of the Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Before his emigration to the USA he was already known for compositions such as the opera Die tote Stadt . Errol Flynn and Claude Rains played together in the film The Prince and the Begging Boy , shot a year earlier , and Korngold was also responsible for the music there. Some music sequences can also be recognized from the aforementioned film. Korngold's film music is now regarded as one of the best of all time and has influenced many later composers.
The camera technology by Sol Polito and Tony Gaudio is primarily characterized by the contrast between the castle and the forest. While the forest was filmed in predominantly light, mostly greenish tones and in bright light, the castle appears expressionistically gloomy and barren. While Robin is mostly close to the camera and at eye level with the audience, the actors in the castle are shown at a distance. The same principle was applied to the costumes: the figures in the forest wear colorful clothes, Flynn himself appears in lush green with a brown hat and Will Scarlet sometimes dressed entirely in red. The actors wore tights, which Mel Brooks also recorded in his famous parody Robin Hood - Heroes in Tights . The costumes of the characters in the castle are very elaborate, but on the other hand also appear rather decadent and gloomy.
The fencing duel
The minute-long and wild fencing duel at the end of the film between Robin Hood and Guy von Gisbourne became very well known and influenced many duels in later films. The actors Rathbone and Flynn are said to have fought much of the duel themselves and only a few scenes, e.g. B. Gisbournes fall into the dungeon after the fatal hit, left stuntmen . Even Rathbone's stuntman seriously injured himself in the fall into the dungeon.
reception
Box office
The film was released in American cinemas on May 14, 1938, grossing almost four million US dollars at the box office. Robin Hood was a blockbuster in its day, but the costs ate up a large part of the profit. The film was only released in theaters in some European countries in the late 1940s because of World War II . In June 1950 the largest open-air cinema in the world with 22,000 spectators was opened at the Berlin Waldbühne with Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds . The film was officially released in West Germany on September 19, 1950, and in Austria on October 6, 1950. TV viewers in Germany were able to see the film for the first time in a two-part version entitled The Adventures of Robin Hood on November 18 and 19, 1972 in the afternoon on ZDF .
Parodies and influences
The film had a great influence on its successors, such as the Disney cartoon version Robin Hood and Mel Brooks Parody, which already targeting the costumes of this film with the title ( Robin Hood - Heroes in Tights ). The film is also parodied in the comedy Der Hofnarr (1955) starring Danny Kaye , with Basil Rathbone even ironically targeting his role as Sir Guy of Gisbourne as the sinister Lord Ravenhurst .
Reviews
At Rotten Tomatoes , all 44 reviews for the film are positive, giving it a rating of 100%.
“Without a doubt the best adventure film ever made. A feast for the eyes, a stimulant for heart and mind. A masterpiece."
“A splendid adventure yarn, rousing operatic in design, with brisk action highlights, fine comedic balance and all-round concise play. Historically notable for its use of the early three-color Technicolor system, and also for the convincing re-creation of Great Britain in California. " (Four stars, highest rating) ( "A splendid adventure story, rousingly operatic in treatment, with dashing action highlights, fine comedy balance, and incisive acting all round. Historically notable for its use of early three-color Technicolor; also for convincingly recreating Britain in California. " )"
“Colorful adventure film (...). Entertaining, largely exciting and humorous. "
“This excavation from Hollywood of the 1930s should not only offer enjoyable entertainment for children: the film is one of the most glamorous, exciting and humorous coat and epee films that Hollywood has produced. - Süddeutsche Zeitung , Munich "
"Magnificent color film."
"This film is 50 years old, but time has not affected it, has taken none of its glamor, of its fascination."
“The 1938 film adaptation of Robin Hood was to determine the image of Robin in the world's cultural consciousness for decades. […] All Robin Hood films have to relate to this film to this day, they have to be measured against it, they set themselves apart from it. In fact, this film turned out to be so dominant that for almost forty years no other Robin Hood film was made that had a similar charisma or even tried to give the Robin Hood myth its own touch. And no big star dared to take on the role. [...] The aesthetic and political liberation against Flynn's overpowering Robin did not take place until 1976 with Richard Lester's revisionist Robin and Marian . "
synchronization
The German synchronized editing was created in 1950 in the studios of the Motion Picture Export Association. Erika Streithorst wrote the dialogue book and Josef Wolf directed the dubbing .
One scene remains relatively unclear due to a synchronization error: In the original English version, the Bishop of Blackcanon becomes suspicious of the disguised King Richard the Lionheart, as one of his companions addresses him with the royal salutation " Sire ". This was not taken into account in the German translation, so that the bishop's sudden mistrust and shocked look seem somewhat unfounded. Here the bishop only becomes suspicious, as the strangers know Robin Hood, which would be surprising the other way round due to its great popularity among the population.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Robin Hood (Sir / Baron Robin of Locksley) | Errol Flynn | Hans Nielsen |
| Maid Marian Fitzwalter | Olivia de Havilland | Ilse Werner |
| Sir Guy of Gisbourne | Basil Rathbone | Curt Ackermann |
| Prince John | Claude Rains | Harald Wolff |
| Little John (Engl. Littlejohn) | Alan Hale Sr. | Otto Wernicke |
| Much the Miller's Son | Herbert Mundin | Bum Kruger |
| Sheriff of Nottingham | Melville Cooper | Klaus W. Krause |
| Bess, Marian's servant | Una O'Connor | Gertrud Spalke |
| King Richard the Lionheart | Ian Hunter | Wolfgang Eichberger |
| Bishop of Blackcanons | Montagu Love | Walter Holten |
Awards
- Best production design : Carl Jules Weyl
- Best film editing : Ralph Dawson
- Best film music : Erich Wolfgang Korngold
- nominated:
Later awards
- 1995: Inclusion in the National Film Registry as historically, aesthetically and culturally significant
- 2001: Channel 4's Best Movies of All Time : # 84
- 2001: American Film Institute : 100th place of the 100 best "suspense films " of all time
- 2003: American Film Institute: Errol Flynn ranked 18th out of 50 greatest movie heroes
- 2004: Saturn Award for the best re-release on DVD
- 2005: American Film Institute: 11th place of the 25 best film scores of all time for Erich Wolfgang Korngold
DVD
On November 20, 2003, The Adventures of Robin Hood was released as a German-language double DVD in a special edition. The film has been digitally revised. The version won a Saturn Award in the Best Republication category.
literature
- Andrew James Johnston: Robin Hood. Story of a legend. CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64541-9 , pp. 100-104.
Web links
- The Adventures of Robin Hood in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds in the Lexicon of International Films
- Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds in the online movie database
- Sound carrier with the film music
- Mysterium Errol Flynn - Chapter about production (PDF; 250 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2003 (PDF; test number: 95 101 V / DVD).
- ↑ imdb.com
- ↑ “Mysterium Errol Flynn” - chapter on production ( memento of the original from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 250 kB)
- ↑ imdb.com
- ^ Leslie Halliwell, John Walker: Halliwell's Film & Video Guide 2000. 15th edition. HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-653165-2 , p. 9.
- ^ Leslie Halliwell, John Walker: Halliwell's Film & Video Guide 2000. 15th edition. HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-653165-2 , p. 9.
- ↑ imdb.com
- ↑ Howard Hill is Robin Hood ( memento from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) and Howard Hill Archery ( memento from August 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Howard Hill doing a "double arrow shot" trick ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Turner Classic Movies: Trivia
- ↑ books.google.de
- ↑ Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ^ Leslie Halliwell, John Walker: Halliwell's Film & Video Guide 2000. 15th edition. HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-653165-2 , p. 9.
- ^ Lexicon of International Films . (CD-ROM edition.) Systhema, Munich 1997.
- ^ Heyne Film Library. No. 127. Heyne, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-453-03009-5 , p. 154.
- ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . (Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism). 3. Edition. Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 358.
- ↑ Gudrun Lukasz-Aden, Christel Strobel: The Children's Film A to Z . Heyne Film Library No. 127. Heyne, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-453-03009-5 , p. 154.
- ↑ Andrew James Johnston: Robin Hood. Story of a legend. CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64541-9 , pp. 103f.
- ↑ Thomas Bräutigam : Lexicon of film and television synchronization. More than 2000 films and series with their German voice actors etc. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-289-X , p. 307 / Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds in Arne Kaul's synchronous database ; Retrieved October 12, 2008.
