The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) on Netflix
While King Richard is held captive, Prince John takes the regency and raises the Saxons' taxes. Sir Robin of Locksley fights the Normans and gathers an outlaw band in Sherwood Forest.
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Trailer
Plot summary
In 1191, King Richard the Lion-Heart is taken captive by Duke Leopold on his way back from the Third Crusade. His brother Prince John names himself regent of England, and with Sir Guy of Gisbourne at his side he raises the Saxons' taxes, claiming the money is a ransom for the king. Sir Robin of Locksley, a Saxon noble, refuses the oppression. He rescues Much the Miller's Son from execution for poaching, then appears at a banquet in Nottingham Castle, where he tells the guests that the regency is treason. Prince John orders his execution, but Robin gets away with Much and Will Scarlet into Sherwood Forest, where dozens of men join his band. Lady Marian Fitzswalter, King Richard's ward, takes Robin and his men for outlaws.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- James Cagney was originally cast as Robin Hood but walked out on his Warner Bros. contract, paving the way for the role to go to Errol Flynn; the filming was postponed three years as a result.
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold told Hal B. Wallis he was a composer of drama and the heart with little connection to "a 90% action picture", agreeing only to work week by week; he later admitted he changed his mind because Hitler's November 1937 meeting with Austrian ministers convinced him his home country was no longer safe.
- Stuntman Buster Wiles, a close friend of Errol Flynn's and his frequent on-set stand-in, maintained that the famous arrow-splitting stunt used an extra-large arrow for the target and a second arrow with a wide, flat arrowhead that was loosed along a wire.
- During the brawl where Robin escapes from the banquet hall, Basil Rathbone was trampled by an extra whose spear cut his foot badly, requiring eight stitches to close the wound.
- The film was planned to be shot in black and white for most of its development, and the switch to Technicolor happened just three months before production started.
- A fragment of one of the film's sword fighting scenes was converted to sprites by Jordan Mechner and used for his 1989 platform game Prince of Persia.
