Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 Robin Hood: Now some of you might think that our loyal host intended this treasure for the coffers of Prince John, instead of to ransom the king- and you`d be right. But a strange thing happened. A change of heart overtook him in the forest and there it is safe and sound!
Will Scarlett: Robin, I`ve just got word of-
[sees Friar Tuck and breaks off]
Robin Hood: It`s all right, he`s one of us.
Will Scarlett: One of us? He looks like three of us!
Robin Hood: Give way, little man.
Little John: Only to a better man than meself.
Robin Hood: He stands before you.
Will Scarlett: I`m tired.
Robin Hood: What? After a nice refreshing sleep in the green wood?
Will Scarlett: I pulled seven acorns out of my ribs.
Robin Hood: Lovely, fresh air...
Will Scarlett: My teeth ache with chattering.
Robin Hood: Nightingales singing...
Will Scarlett: An owl hooting in my ear.
Robin Hood: Hooting? He was singing you to sleep!
[first title cards]
Title card: In the year of Our Lord 1191 when Richard, the Lion-Heart, set forth to drive the infidels from the Holy Land, he gave the Regency of his Kingdom to his trusted friend, Longchamps, instead of to his treacherous brother, Prince John.
Title card: Bitterly resentful, John hoped for some disaster to befall Richard so that he, with the help of the Norman barons, might seize the throne for himself. And then on a luckless day for the Saxons...
[first lines]
Town Crier announcing capture of Richard: News has come from Vienna: "Leopold of Austria has seized King Richard on his return from the Crusades. Our king is being held prisoner. Nothing further is known. His Highness Prince John will make further public pronouncement tomorrow."
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: Robin!
Robin Hood: Yes?
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: Please.
Robin Hood: Then you do love me, don`t you? Don`t you?
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: You know I do.
Robin Hood: Well, that`s different. (Robin re-enters the window and they share an embrace and kiss.)
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: You know you`re very impudent.
Robin Hood: Me?
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: You are. And when my real guardian King Richard finds out about your being in love with me...
Robin Hood: I know, he`ll make me court jester.
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: He won`t. He`ll stick your funny head on London`s Gate.
Robin Hood: A very fine decoration it will be, my bold Norman beauty.
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: I`m not bold.
Robin Hood: But you`re a Norman... And you are a beauty. You are the most beautiful...
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: And you`re leaving here at once. Please darling! Every minute you`re here, you`re in danger.
Robin Hood: I know...
Prince John: Ho, varlets, bring Sir Robin food! Such insolence must support a healthy appetite!
Prince John: Any objections to the new tax, from our Saxon friends?
[Much is just leaving to head Dickon off]
Much-the-Miller`s-Son: [to Bess] Come on, lass! Give us a kiss and wish me luck!
[Bess kisses him and then smacks his face]
Bess: `Urry up and take that ugly face of yours out of `ere!
[Much turns to go]
Bess: [gently] Oh no. You will be careful, won`t ye?
Much-the-Miller`s-Son: Ha, of course I will!
Little John: It`ll take all the deer in Sherwood Forest to fill that belly!
Friar Tuck: And twice that to fill your empty head!
Sir Guy of Gisbourne: What is your name?
Much-the-Miller`s-Son: A better one than yours!
Sir Guy of Gisbourne: What the devil?
Robin Hood: Come now, Sir Guy. You would not kill a man for telling the truth, would you?
Sir Guy of Gisbourne: If it amused me, yes!
Little John: You`ll sweat the lard out of that fat carcass of yours before this day is over, my pudgy friend.
Friar Tuck: And I hope some Norman sword whittles you down to size.
Sir Guy of Gisbourne: Let me ram those words down his throat your highness!
Prince John: No... later. Let him spout for the moment.
High Sheriff of Nottingham: I hope our little golden hook will catch the fish.
Prince John: You hope?
High Sheriff of Nottingham: Oh it will... if he`s here.
Prince John: If he`s not we`ll stick your head upon the target and shoot at that.
Robin Hood: Welcome to Sherwood, my lady!
[last lines]
King Richard: What about you Robin?
Robin Hood: My sword is yours, sire, now and always.
King Richard: Is there nothing England`s king can grant the outlaw who showed him his duty to his country?
Robin Hood: Yes, your majesty: a pardon for the men of Sherwood.
King Richard: Granted with all my heart!
[the men cheer]
King Richard: But, uh, is there nothing for yourself?
Robin Hood: [looking at Marian] There`s but one thing else, sire.
King Richard: [to Marian] And, uh, do you too wish...?
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: More than anything in the world, sire.
King Richard: Kneel, Robin Hood.
[Robin does so, and King Richard taps his shoulders with his sword]
King Richard: Arise Robin, Baron of Locksley, Earl of Sherwood and Nottingham, and lord of all the lands and manors appertaining thereto. My first command to you, my lord Earl, is to take in marriage the hand of the Lady Marian... What say you to that, Baron of Locksley?
Robin Hood: May I obey all your commands with equal pleasure, sire!
Robin Hood: It`s injustice I hate, not the Normans.
Sir Guy of Gisbourne: You`ve come to Nottingham once too often!
Robin Hood: When this is over, my friend, there`ll be no need for me to come again.
Lady Marian Fitzswalter: Why, you speak treason!
Robin Hood: Fluently.
Robin Hood: I`ll organize revolt, exact a death for a death, and I`ll never rest until every Saxon in this shire can stand up free men and strike a blow for Richard and England.
Prince John: Are you finished?
Robin Hood: I`m only just beginning. From this night forward I`ll use every means in my power to fight you!
Robin Hood: Men, if you`re willing to fight for our people, I want you!
Trivia
Although it is said that the tournament winning arrow shoots the other arrow in two, in fact when the arrow shot by Howard Hill strikes the arrow embedded in the target, it splits the arrow into three pieces. It sounds better to split something in half or in two, but the details in the movie are real and not just a saying.
Heavily padded stunt players and actors were paid $150 per arrow for being shot by professional archer Howard Hill, who also played the captain of the archers, whom Robin Hood defeats in the tournament by splitting his own arrow. Splitting the arrow was Hill`s feat, too, done in one take with no trick photography.
Wilfred Lucas as "Archery Official" and Halliwell Hobbes are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie.
The studio files/records for this film are archived at the USC Cinema Television Library. Interoffice memos clearly indicate that Olivia de Havilland was not the first choice for the role of Marion. The original actress, whose name is blacked out in each of documents, became pregnant out of wedlock, and could no longer accept the role.
Originally budgeted at $1.6 million, the budget eventually ballooned to $2 million, the most expensive Warners film to date, but it turned out to be the studio`s biggest money-maker in 1939, making back far in excess of its cost.
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.
Maid Marian is from not an original Robin Hood ballad, but from the French romantic ballad "Jeau Robin et Marian" (Play of Robin and Marian). Robin was not Robin Hood but a shepherd, and Marian was a shepherdess whom he loved.
Errol Flynn was not happy when Michael Curtiz was assigned to the film, as he didn`t care for Curtiz`s dictatorial methods and the two clashed often while filming The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936).
At the time Olivia de Havilland rode the palomino, its registered name was "Golden Cloud" and was owned by Hudkins Stables, an outfit that leased horses and Western equipment for films. Roy Rogers bought "Golden Cloud" for $2,500. Character actor Smiley Burnette, who was Rogers` sidekick in his early movies, suggested the name of Trigger, as the horse was "quick-on-the-trigger". Rogers rode Trigger in his first starring Western, Under Western Stars (1938).
Maid Marion is never referred to by that name in this film. She is referred to as "Lady Marion Fitzwalter" twice, once in the banquet scene and the second time by Sir Guy just before she hands the Golden Arrow to Robin Hood.
The preview audience reaction was so positive that the film was released without any alterations to the plot.
A scene was filmed that was to have taken place before the scene where Will Scarlet comes riding into the forest clearing with Much the Miller`s Son on his saddle. This was the scene where King Richard challenges Friar Tuck to a fistfight and wins, after which Robin himself agrees to fight King Richard. The scene was deleted from the final version of the film, making it appear that King Richard and Robin are about to fight for no reason.
Two scenes - a jousting tournament and a christening - were cut from the script to save money and were never filmed.
During one fight sequence, Errol Flynn was jabbed by an actor who was using an unprotected sword - he asked him why he didn`t have a guard on the point. The other player apologized and explained that the director, Michael Curtiz, had instructed him to remove the safety feature in order to make the action "more exciting". Errol Flynn reportedly climbed up a gantry where Michael Curtiz was standing next to the camera, took him by the throat and asked him if he found that "exciting enough".
The swords used in the film were made of Duralumin, invented in 1908 by Alfred Wilm.
The Sir Joseph Hooker Oak (called the Gallows Oak in the film) where Robin Hood forms his outlaw band was supposedly the largest living oak tree in the world at the time of filming in 1937. The rock that Errol Flynn stands on in front of the tree is a prop.
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.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was invited by Warner Brothers to come from his native Austria to Hollywood to see the film with a view to scoring it. He initially turned down the chance as he felt that his musical style was ill-suited for adventure spectaculars. However, while in Hollywood, he learned that the Nazis were about to invade Austria and, feeling he had to secure a source of revenue in the United States, he accepted the assignment. He would go on to win the Oscar.
Although shot on location in California, indigenous English plants were added and the grass was painted to give a greener, more English look.
The scenes in which Marian is captured by Sir Guy of Gisbourne and then tried for treason are lifts from the Douglas Fairbanks movie, Robin Hood (1922)
The ending that exists now in the film is not the one that was originally written. In the original ending, King Richard and his forces help battle Prince John`s and Guy of Gisburne`s forces outside the castle - this ending was scrapped because it was too expensive to film. In the back-up ending, Prince John and Guy of Gisbourne`s forces chased Robin Hood`s and King Richard`s forces into Sherwood forest and the climax took place there. This second ending was really never satisfactory, and was scrapped too. Finally, a third ending was written, in which the climactic battle takes place inside the Castle of Nottingham. Now King Richard`s forces could be pared down to a handful of faithful retainers, and the new ending proved to be less expensive to shoot. To prepare the audience for the new ending, the abbot`s scenes were given to the Bishop of the Black Canons.
This film was originally intended as a much closer remake of the original Douglas Fairbanks’ Robin Hood (1922) film.
One of the original story concepts had Robin Hood die at the end of the film.
Feature film debut of Michael Hordern.
William Keighley was initially assigned to the project because he had made Warners` first excursion into three-strip Technicolor, when he directed God`s Country and the Woman (1937).
William Keighley had directed Errol Flynn the year before in The Prince and the Pauper (1937), which had turned out well for Warner Brothers. The studio had high hopes for this second teaming, but upon viewing the dailies coming in from the location shoot in Chico, California, they found the action scenes to be lacking in vigor and excitement. Michael Curtiz, who had effectively made Flynn a star with his agile handling of the actor in Captain Blood (1935) and cemented his reputation as a swashbuckling hero in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), was brought in to complete the picture. Consequently when Keighley returned to Hollywood from Chico, he found himself out of a job. Ironically, Keighley and Flynn got along quite well, but Curtiz and Flynn despised each other.
In an effort to assuage the Production Code Administration, aka the Breen Office - which was the official censorship authority at the time and was coming down especially hard on Warner Bros.` popular gangster films - the studio gave the go-ahead for this project, figuring that a harmless historical tale wouldn`t cause them to run afoul of the censors.
Despite his flamboyant performance as Robin Hood, Errol Flynn privately professed that he found the role a boring one.
Olivia de Havilland has only one scene in which she is not wearing a headpiece.
At the time this film held the distinction of employing the largest number of stuntmen on any one production.
The production used all 11 of the Technicolor cameras in existence in 1938 and they were all returned to Technicolor at the end of each day`s filming.
The stunt players wore heavy padding underneath a steel breastplate overlaid with some balsa wood to absorb the impact of arrows.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold used much of a classical piece he`d written in 1919 for his score.
One of the original writers on the project was Rowland Leigh.
Originally set to open with an elaborate jousting sequence, just as Douglas Fairbanks` Robin Hood (1922) did, but it was decided that this would be too expensive and the plans were scotched.
The role of Will Scarlett was originally intended for David Niven, but he was vacationing in England at the time, so the part went to Patric Knowles.
The film plays very fancifully with real history. Even the opening titles are full of inaccuracies.
At the time of its release, this was Warners` most expensive film, costing over $2 million.
The theatrical trailer contains footage of Robin and Marian kissing on horseback. This footage is from the deleted final scene of the film, immediately following the closing of the great doors, where the film now ends.
The sound of Robin`s arrow is the favorite sound of Skywalker Sound`s Ben Burtt. He has used that sound in almost all the Star Wars films.
Eugene Pallette was not the first choice for the role of Friar Tuck. Guy Kibbee was originally slated for the part.
German audiences will wait in vain for the notorious lines "You speak treason!" - "Fluently." In the German version, it is dubbed as "Ihr sprecht unbedacht!" - "Weiß ich." ("You speak before you think!" - "I know.") Probably they chose this quip (clever in its own right, but in a different vein than the original) because a more faithful translation would have lost the play on words completely.
Howard Hill, who is listed in the credits as "Captain of Archers", also played "Owen the Welshman" in the archery contest. Hill actually made the shot where we see one arrow split another and he did all the shots which required hitting human targets. He also worked closely with the sound department to produce the distinctive arrow sounds by using specially made arrows.
Michael Curtiz took over from director William Keighley when the producers felt that the action scenes lacked impact.
The golden palomino that Olivia de Havilland rides in this film is Trigger, shortly before he became the mount of Roy Rogers.
Originally planned with James Cagney playing the title role, but he quit Warner Brothers and production was postponed for three years.
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Errol Flynn
(as Robin Hood)
with Olivia De Havilland
(as Maid Marian)
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