The Chestnut Hill Film Group kicks off its fall season at Woodmere with one of the greatest adventure films ever made. Released in 1938, “The Adventures of Robin Hood” was an immediate commercial and critical hit for Warner Bros. Pictures.
The film is notable for its early and vibrant use of Technicolor and for the almost superhuman charm of matinee idol Errol Flynn as its titular hero. The swashbuckling action was the subject of homage in films including “Return of the Jedi,” and loving parody in Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.”
However, thrilling action and a charming leading man aren’t enough to secure a film’s place in history. Born of an uncertain moment in global politics, “The Adventures of Robin Hood” synthesizes the anxieties of its era into a timeless vision of heroism that’s lost none of its luster in the nine decades since its release.
Written by Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. Miller, and directed by William Keighley and Michael Curtiz, “The Adventures of Robin Hood” pulls from an assortment of author and illustrator Howard Pyle’s 1883 novel “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood,” as well as the 1922 silent film “Robin Hood,” starring Douglas Fairbanks. What sets this adaptation apart from its predecessors are the particular stories it tells.
With King Richard the Lion-Heart (Ian Hunter) in captivity, his brother Prince John (a delectably oily Claude Rains) declares himself regent and the Normans as the ruling class in England. With the aid of his enforcer, Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone), Prince John implements heavy taxation against the Saxon people and reclaims their lands. With the Saxons driven into exile, Robin Hood and his merry men strike back at the prince and his forces.
To contemporary viewers, this action must have felt familiar. Just months prior to the film’s May 14 premiere, Nazi Germany annexed Austria, and the world moved closer to war. Raine and Miller couldn’t have been the only members of the production with their eyes on the global stage; composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whose lush Academy Award-winning score is key to the film’s power, credited “The Adventures of Robin Hood” for saving his life. Just after Warner Bros. hired Korngold, a Viennese Jew, to score the film, his home in Vienna was confiscated by the Nazis.
With such uncertainty on the horizon, “The Adventures of Robin Hood” provided viewers of the time with some much-needed catharsis.
While the film doesn’t comment as directly on events on the world stage as Curtiz’s other wartime epic, 1941’s “Casablanca,” it embodies the same qualities that gave its successor its tremendous staying power: sweeping romance, a grand sense of adventure, and a belief in selfless heroism when things seem their darkest. Many adventure films were made in the years before and after “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” but few have ever made that swashbuckling heroism so believable, or so vital.
“The Adventures of Robin Hood,” Thursday, Oct. 7 at Woodmere, 9201 Germantown Ave., Chestnut Hill. Part of the Chestnut Hill Film Group’s Tuesday Night at the Movies series. Light refreshments will be served prior to the screening. Admission is free, but donations at the door are greatly appreciated. For more information, contact 215-247-0476 or woodmereartmuseum.org.
This content was provided by the Chestnut Hill Film Group. Will Standish is membership and administration coordinator at the Chestnut Hill Community Association and can be reached at Will@chestnuthill.org.
