Editing The Adventures of Robin Hood (section)

==Production==
''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' was produced at an estimated cost of $2 million, the most expensive film [[Warner Bros.]] had made up to that time.<ref name=higgins>{{cite book |last=Higgins |first=Scott |date=2007 |title=Harnessing the Technicolor Rainbow: Color Design in the 1930s |url=https://archive.org/details/harnessingtechni00higg|url-access=limited |publisher=University of Texas Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/harnessingtechni00higg/page/n158 138]–139 |isbn=9780292779525 }}</ref> It was also the studio's second film utilizing the three-strip [[Technicolor]] process.<ref name=Ebert>{{cite news| first=Roger| last=Ebert| url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030817/REVIEWS08/308170301/1023| title=Roger Ebert's review of "The Adventures of Robin Hood"| newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]| date=August 17, 2003| access-date=March 30, 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430122135/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030817/REVIEWS08/308170301/1023 |archivedate=April 30, 2007}}</ref> The film was, in fact, planned to be shot in black and white for most of its development; the switch to Technicolor happened just three months before production started.<ref name=BehlmerAu>{{cite AV media |people=[[Rudy Behlmer|Behlmer, Rudy]] |date=2010 |title=The Adventures of Robin Hood - Audio Commentary |type=DVD |time= |publisher=Warner Home Video}}</ref> It was an unusually extravagant production for the Warner Bros. studio, which was known in the 1930s for socially conscious crime films.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/08/24/mob.movies/index.html| title=The mobster and the movies| access-date=July 9, 2008| date=August 24, 2004| work=CNN| archive-date=March 21, 2008| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321145715/http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/08/24/mob.movies/index.html| url-status=live}}</ref>

Producer Hal B. Wallis is generally seen as the film's creative helmsman.<ref name=Ebert/> The first draft of the script was written by Rowland Lee, but Wallis objected to its heavily archaic and fanciful dialogue (one line he cited was "Oh my lord, tarry not too long, for I fear that in her remorse she may fling herself from the window. Some harm may befall her, I know."). At Wallis's insistence, the script was heavily rewritten to modernize the dialogue, and whether any of Lee's work survives in the completed film is unclear.<ref name=BehlmerAu/>

The scene in which Robin Hood first meets Prince John, Guy of Gisbourne, and Maid Marian went through several iterations. Initially, the scene was to be at a jousting tournament with Robin tilting against Guy of Gisbourne, mimicking the 1922 [[Douglas Fairbanks]] production of ''[[Robin Hood (1922 film)|Robin Hood]]'', but screenwriter Norman Reilly Raine pointed out that a banquet scene would be much less expensive to produce, and so long as Technicolor was employed, would look just as lavish to the average moviegoer.<ref name=BehlmerAu/> In another draft, instead of a deer, a slain villager was who Robin Hood brought in and dumped on Prince John's table. Wallis felt the use of a dead villager expended all the tension of the scene in "a momentary kick", and preferred the use of a deer from an earlier draft, which allowed the tension to simmer with the threat of an explosion at any moment.<ref name=BehlmerAu/> 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.<ref>Turner Classic Movies, extraduction by Dave Karger, May 13, 2023.</ref>

[[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]].<ref name="Ebert" /> The filming was postponed three years as a result.<ref name="films">{{cite book |first1=Tony |last1=Thomas |first2=Rudy |last2=Behlmer |author-link2=Rudy Behlmer  |first3=Clifford |last3=McCarty |title=The Films of Errol Flynn |publisher=[[Kensington Books|Citadel Press]] |location=[[Secaucus, New Jersey]] |date=June 1969 |pages=62–67 |isbn=978-0806502373}}</ref> Though Olivia de Havilland was an early frontrunner for the role of Maid Marian, for a time, the studio vacillated between [[Anita Louise]] and her for the part. De Havilland was ultimately chosen because the success of ''[[Captain Blood (1935 film)|Captain Blood]]'' established the pairing of Flynn and de Havilland as a safe bet to help ensure box-office success.<ref name=BehlmerAu/>

Location work for ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' included [[Bidwell Park]] in [[Chico, California]], which substituted for [[Sherwood Forest]],<ref>The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations by Tony Reeves. The Titan Publishing Group. Pg.14 {{cite web |url=http://www.movie-locations.com/films.html |title=Film location titles |access-date=2015-06-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150625062004/http://www.movie-locations.com/films.html |archive-date=2015-06-25 }}</ref> although one major scene was filmed at the California locations "Lake Sherwood" and "Sherwood Forest", so named because they were the location sites for the Fairbanks production of ''Robin Hood''. Several scenes were shot at the [[Warner Bros. Studios Burbank|Warner Bros. Burbank Studios]] and the Warner Ranch in [[Calabasas, California|Calabasas]]. The archery tournament was filmed at the former [[Busch Gardens#Pasadena (1906–1937)|Busch Gardens]],<ref name="Higham72">{{cite book | last1 = Higham | first1 = Charles |author-link1= Charles Higham (biographer)| title = Sisters: The Story of Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine | year = 1984 | publisher = Dell Publishing | isbn = 0-440-17866-5 | page=72}}</ref> now part of [[Lower Arroyo, Pasadena, California|Lower Arroyo]] Park,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://abclocal.go.com/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=8153483 |title=Archery club, hikers clash over Lower Arroyo Park trail in Pasadena |date=May 25, 2011 |work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |access-date=April 4, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101223938/http://abclocal.go.com//story?section=news%2Flocal%2Flos_angeles&id=8153483 |archive-date=November 1, 2014 }}</ref> in [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]].

Scenes which were filmed, but not included in the final cut include the disguised King Richard brawling with Friar Tuck, and Robin riding off with Maid Marian; the latter would have been the concluding scene of the film, and appears in the theatrical trailer despite not appearing in the film itself.<ref name=BehlmerAu/>

===Stunts===
All the arrows in the film were shot by professional archer [[Howard Hill]].<ref name=BehlmerAu/> Those shot with arrows wore clothing padded with balsa wood on protective metal plates; the metal plates prevented injury (though impact was fairly painful), and the arrows lodged into the balsa wood to create the illusion of bodily penetration.<ref name=BehlmerAu/> Hill, although listed as the archer captain defeated by Robin, was cast as Elwyn the Welshman, an archer seen shooting at Robin in his escape from Nottingham Castle, and later, defeated by Robin at the archery tournament. To win, Robin splits the arrow of Philip of Arras, a captain of the guard under Gisbourne, who had struck the bullseye. Hill did, in fact, split one arrow with another during filming (albeit while firing from a much closer range than from which Robin Hood is portrayed as shooting), but it did not look good enough on film, so the shot was redone with some effects trickery.<ref name=BehlmerAu/> Stuntman Buster Wiles, a close friend of Errol Flynn's and his frequent on-set stand-in, maintained that the arrow-splitting stunt was carried out using an extra-large arrow (for the target) and that the second arrow had a wide, flat arrowhead and was fired along a wire. This wire can briefly be seen attached to the [[fletching]] of the arrow, in the final film. Wiles discusses the scene in his autobiography, ''[[My Days with Errol Flynn]]''.

Flynn performed most of his own stunts in the film; exceptions include Robin jumping onto a horse with hands tied behind his back (during the hanging scene), scaling the fortress gate and coming down the other side, and a few select shots in the duel between Robin and Guy of Gisbourne.<ref name=BehlmerAu/>

===Music score===
In 1938, [[Erich Wolfgang Korngold]] was conducting opera in Austria when he was asked by Warner Bros. to return to Hollywood and compose a score for ''The Adventures of Robin Hood''.<ref name=Thomas>Thomas, Tony. ''Korngold: Vienna to Hollywood'', Turner Entertainment (1996)</ref>{{rp|27}} Music historian Laurence E. MacDonald notes that many factors made the film a success, including its cast, its Technicolor photography, and fast-paced direction by [[Michael Curtiz]], but "most of all, there is Korngold's glorious music".<ref name=MacDonald>MacDonald, Laurence E. ''The Invisible Art of Film Music: A Comprehensive History'', Scarecrow Press (1998)</ref>{{rp|49}} Also, film historian [[Rudy Behlmer]] describes Korngold's contribution to this and his other films:
{{blockquote|Korngold's score was a splendid added dimension. His style for the Flynn swashbucklers resembled that of the creators of late 19th-century and early 20th-century German symphonic tone poems. It incorporated chromatic harmonies, lush instrumental effects, passionate climaxes{{mdash}}all performed in a generally romantic manner. Korngold's original and distinctive style was influenced by the Wagnerian ''[[leitmotif]]'', the orchestral virtuosity of Richard Strauss, the delicacy and broad melodic sweep of [[Puccini]], and the long-line development of Gustav Mahler.<ref name=Behlmer>Behlmer, Rudy. ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'', Univ. of Wisconsin Press (1979)</ref>{{rp|38}}}}

In reply to Warner Bros.’ request, Korngold told studio head of production Hal B. Wallis that he was a composer of drama and the heart, and felt little connection to what he perceived as "a 90% action picture."<ref name=BehlmerAu/> Wallis was persistent, and Korngold finally agreed to begin composing on the condition that he not have a contract, and work on a week-by-week basis so that he could withdraw if he were dissatisfied with the music he composed. However, Korngold later admitted that the real reason he changed his mind was [[Adolf Hitler]]'s November 1937 meeting with Austrian ministers, which convinced Korngold that the situation was no longer safe in his home country.<ref name=BehlmerAu/> As Korngold feared, Austria was [[Anschluss|annexed by the Nazis]], and his home in Vienna was confiscated.<ref name=Behlmer/>{{rp|35}} This meant that all Jews in Austria were now at risk, so Korngold stayed in America until the end of [[World War II]].<ref>Bernardi, Daniel. ''Hollywood's Chosen People: The Jewish Experience in American Cinema'', [[Wayne State University Press]] (2013) p. 48</ref>

Korngold called his film scores "''Opern ohne Singen''", operas without singing, but otherwise approached their composition just as he would for the operatic stage. ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' was, therefore, a large-scale symphonic work, and despite the studio music department's providing a team of orchestrators, including future Oscar-winner [[Hugo Friedhofer]], to assist Korngold, the amount of work was immense, especially for the limited time he was given to compose. In describing this dilemma to his father, Julius Korngold, one of Vienna's foremost music critics, the elder Korngold suggested that themes from his 1920 symphonic overture "Sursum Corda" ("Lift Up Your Hearts") would serve splendidly for much of the most demanding action-scene music, and Erich agreed.

It also gave him his second [[Academy Award for Best Original Score]] and established the symphonic style that was later used in action films during Hollywood's Golden Age.<ref name=MacDonald/>{{rp|50}} Modern-day epics such as the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' trilogies similarly included original symphonic scores.<ref name=MacDonald/>{{rp|50}} Composer [[John Williams]] has cited Korngold as his inspiration in scoring the ''Star Wars'' series.<ref name=Hischak>Hischak, Thomas S. ''The Encyclopedia of Film Composers'', Rowman & Littlefield (2015)</ref>{{rp|717}} The love theme of Robin and Marian went on to become a celebrated concert piece.