'ROBIN HOOD'

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 5

'ROBIN HOOD'

LEGENDARY NERO ON THE SCREEN The legend of Robin Hood—there is a, Robin Hood in every language and literature—has charmed hundreds of millions for centuries. The legend is so highly regarded as motion picture material that, in various guises, it has been adapted as the premise of countless modernly conceived productions, said Gus McCarthy in Hollywood recently.

Successful in their cinematic interpretations of the legends of 1 The Charge of the Light Brigade ’ and ‘ The Prince and the Pauper,’ Warner Brothers, more than a year ago, became interested in the legend of Robin Hood, picturesque hero of English historical fiction, as a subject of screen endeavour. To writers Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. Miller was assigned the task of examining the thousands of tales which date back to the ballads of the 12th and 13th Century minstrels and contrive a screen, play that would preserve all the quali-

ties which have made the _ legend of Robin Hood a world favourite. Their job completed, the announcement came that ‘ Robin Hood ’ would be produced in natural colour. _ The production budget, which was originally £450,000, has been considerably expanded. William Keighley, whose achievements include ‘ The Prince and the Pauper,’ ‘ God’s Country and the Woman,’ and many other successful pictures, was named to direct. Almost automatically Errol Flynn, who leaped to fame in ‘ Captain Blood,’ was selected to be the dashing, lovable, formidable, fighting ‘ Robin Hood,’ and Olivia de Havilland to be the charming Maid Marian. Basil Rathbone will be seen as the villainous Sir Guy of Gisbourne, Claude Rains as Prince John, Eugene Pallette as the doughty Friar Tuck, Alan Halo (repeating the role he created 15 years ago) as mighty Little John, Melville Cooper as High Sheriff of Nottingham, lan Hunter as King Richard, Patric Knowles as Will Scarlet, Montague Love as Bishop of Black Canon, Herbert Mundin as Much, and Robert Warwick as Sir Geoffrey. Given a 90-day shooting schedule, the actual making of the story of the Saxon hero and his Merry Men of Sherwood Forest who defeated the plot of the invading Normans to seize England’s throne from King Richard, has been, and for weeks to come will continue to be, a tremendous endeavour. The scopes of the sets built on the lot which .authentically reproduce interiors and exteriors of Nottingham Castle and environs are the largest and most expensive which the studio ever constructed. The problem of costuming the principals and the hundreds of extras, as well as that of furnishing more than 25,000 props.—bows and arrows, quarter staffs, lances,, broadswords, battle axes, war clubs, chain mail armour, and other items of knightly gear and accoutrements taxed the facilities of the studio’s mechanical departments. , When illness forced Mr Keighley to relinquish direction at a time when the film was about one-third complete, Michael Curtiz, maker of 1 The Charge of the Light Brigade ’ and ‘ Captain Blood,’ assumed the responsibility of finishing the picture. •