History Film / TheAdventuresofRobinHood

* BlueBlood: Marian, Guy and Robin are all of the nobility, though Robin is a ''Saxon'' Earl -- an important distinction -- who clearly loves the life of the forester.

* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Not ''quite'' a compliment, but when Little John asks [[KingIncognito supposed abbot]] UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart: "What? Are you friendly to our good King Richard?" The "abbot" replies: "I love no man better."

* HeroicDimples:

* ImNotHungry: As Marian tells Robin after she has been captured with the Norman treasure-caravan, "I'm afraid the company has spoiled my appetite." (She tries to sneak a bite while he's not looking, though...[[WhatAnIdiot unsuccessfully]].)

* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** For all his awesome moments throughout, Robin's slip that gives him away at the archery tournament was his stupid downfall. The Merry Men had even said earlier that they think the tournament is a trap, but Robin Hood [[IdiotBall ignored them]] and said, "[[{{Pride}} Well, what of it?]]"
** Maid Marian claiming she wasn't hungry when offered food and then getting caught trying to nibble at it inconspicuously.

* FallenHero: A minor example in Dickon. He was a knight in Richard's court until he turned to evil and became a PsychoForHire, whereupon Richard stripped him of his knighthood, lands and titles. He thereafter drifted into John's service. The other knights, corrupt though they may be, don't seem to like him.

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Robin Hood, who is leading the revolt against Prince John.
** TheLancer: Will Scarlet, Robin Hood's right hand man.
** TheSmartGuy: Friar Tuck, who runs the SaintlyChurch.
** TheBigGuy: Little John, a BoisterousBruiser who beats Robin in a quarterstaff fight.
** TheChick: Lady Marian.
* {{Flynning}}: Fred Cavens deliberately designed all the movements of the duels to be as large and visible as possible. This is the benchmark for cinematic [[SwordFight Sword Fights]], rarely equaled and never surpassed.

* HeroBall[=/=]IdiotBall: For all the awesome in this movie, Robin's slip that gives him away at the archery tournament was pretty stupid.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]], in that all his men advise him that the archery tournament is a trap, and he replies, "Well, what of it?" Is there an "Arrogance Ball"?
*** I believe it's called {{Pride}}.

* KnightTemplar: ImpliedTrope. Prince John and his followers often get offended when accused of treachery, selfishness, and cruelty.

'''Sir Guy:''' ''(furious)'' Let me ram those words down his throat, your highness!

* RightfulKingReturns: Who says he "ought never to have left England." (Unlike the ''real'' [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart Richard]], who never regretted leaving and left again almost immediately.)

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/robinhood1938.jpg]]

** Most viewers likely applaud the film for the historical accuracy of Marian riding sidesaddle. In fact, the forward-facing sidesaddle wasn't invented until the 1500s, and it wasn't until three centuries later that the leaping horn was added, allowing women to control horses at a gallop -- until then, women who rode sidesaddle had their horses led by men, and women who rode independently rode astride (as Marion does in ''RobinOfSherwood''). This may have been artistic license for safety reasons -- an accurate period sidesaddle would have been an insurance nightmare -- or it may have been done to add to the period feel of the film.

''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 Creator/WarnerBros {{Swashbuckler}} film, directed by Creator/MichaelCurtiz, William Keighley, and B. Reeves Eason, and starring Creator/ErrolFlynn, considered by many the definitive cinematic version of the ''Mythology/RobinHood'' legend. The film won three [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], for Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson), and Best Original Score (Music/ErichWolfgangKorngold).

Other notable talents engaged for the film included fencing master Fred Cavens (yet another veteran of ''Film/CaptainBlood''!) to [[{{Flynning}} choreograph]] the [[SwordFight duels]] and champion archer Howard Hill to perform the film's archery (and to appear in the small part of the "Captain of Archers"). There is some debate as to whether Hill actually accomplished the famous shot with which Robin splits an arrow with another arrow (the Series/MythBusters actually tested this one out), but it seems most likely that some form of staging was used. Various stuntmen were paid an extra $150 (the equivalent of $2800 in 2016) to allow Hill to shoot them in their specially padded torsos.

When Much reveals John's plot and Marian's condemnation, they devise a plan to crash Prince John's [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning coronation]], disguised as the Bishop of the Black Canons' followers. A [[FinalBattle melee]] breaks out; Robin and Guy {{sword|fight}}s, and Guy is killed. Robin frees Marian. King Richard banishes Prince John, the Sheriff, the Bishop, and their followers from England for the remainder of his lifetime; pardons the men of Sherwood, and rewards Robin with an earldom and the hand of Lady Marian in marriage.

When Much reveals John's plot and Marian's condemnation, they devise a plan to crash Prince John's [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning coronation]], disguised as the Bishop of the Black Canons' followers. A [[FinalBattle melee]] breaks out; Robin and Guy [[SwordFight duel]], and Guy is killed. Robin frees Marian. King Richard banishes Prince John, the Sheriff, the Bishop, and their followers from England for the remainder of his lifetime; pardons the men of Sherwood, and rewards Robin with an earldom and the hand of Lady Marian in marriage.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_adventures_of_robin_hood.jpg]]

* MusicalisInterruptus (sort of): The film features Will Scarlet as Robin's sidekick, presenting him as a minstrel-like figure (the usual minstrel figure, Allan-a-Dale, does not appear in the film). In the original script, Will actually was to have sung a song; however, an agreement with [[MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]] prevented Warners from including any original musical numbers in their films in 1938, so Will's minstrelsy is reduced to a few chords on a mandolin at the beginning of Robin's quarterstaff bout with Little John. In effect, the [[MusicalisInterruptus Interruptus]] took place before he even...er...touched his G-string.

-->'''Sir Guy''': Not only has she consorted with this Saxon rebel, found guilty of outlawry, theft, murder, abduction, and high treason, but she has betrayed her own Norman people. Are you not ashamed my Lady Marian?

The film was originally intended as a vehicle for [[WTHCastingAgency James Cagney]], who had gained critical approval for playing Bottom the Weaver in Warners' 1935 production of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' -- but when Cagney walked out on his Warners' contract, the project was retooled to accommodate rising Warners' star Creator/ErrolFlynn, who had in that same year made a huge impression as the swashbuckling lead of the [[{{Pirates}} pirate]] romance, ''Film/CaptainBlood''. Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, having appeared in both movies, was a natural for the part of Lady Marian. Korngold, too, had been associated with the same two films, as adaptor of FelixMendelssohn's theatrical music for ''[[Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream Dream]]'' and as composer of a (mostly) original score for ''Film/CaptainBlood''. Creator/BasilRathbone, having displayed in ''Film/CaptainBlood'' as the evil pirate Levasseur a fine talent for fencing and sneering villainy, was tapped to play the part of Sir Guy of Gisbourne. When director William Keighley was determined by the Warner brothers to be too dilatory and measured in his approach to the film, he was replaced with yet another ''Film/CaptainBlood'' alumnus, hard-driving director Michael Curtiz.

The film was originally intended as a vehicle for [[WTHCastingAgency James Cagney]], who had gained critical approval for playing Bottom the Weaver in Warners' 1935 production of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' -- but when Cagney walked out on his Warners' contract, the project was retooled to accommodate rising Warners' star ErrolFlynn, who had in that same year made a huge impression as the swashbuckling lead of the [[{{Pirates}} pirate]] romance, ''Film/CaptainBlood''. Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, having appeared in both movies, was a natural for the part of Lady Marian. Korngold, too, had been associated with the same two films, as adaptor of FelixMendelssohn's theatrical music for ''[[Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream Dream]]'' and as composer of a (mostly) original score for ''Film/CaptainBlood''. Creator/BasilRathbone, having displayed in ''Film/CaptainBlood'' as the evil pirate Levasseur a fine talent for fencing and sneering villainy, was tapped to play the part of Sir Guy of Gisbourne. When director William Keighley was determined by the Warner brothers to be too dilatory and measured in his approach to the film, he was replaced with yet another ''Film/CaptainBlood'' alumnus, hard-driving director Michael Curtiz.

* AgeLift: The 48-year-old Creator/ClaudeRains is cast as Prince John -- who was actually 26 at the time of Richard's imprisonment. (By contrast, John's ''older'' brother [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart Richard]], 37 at the time of his return from Germany, was played by 38-year-old Ian Hunter.)

''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 Creator/WarnerBros {{Swashbuckler}} film, directed by Creator/MichaelCurtiz, William Keighley, and B. Reeves Eason, and starring Creator/ErrolFlynn, considered by many the definitive cinematic version of the ''RobinHood'' legend. The film won three [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], for Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson), and Best Original Score (Music/ErichWolfgangKorngold).

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Of the main cast, only Prince John, the Sheriff, the Bishop, Will Scarlet, and Much are played by actual Englishmen, although King Richard and Sir Guy, both South Africans, and Robin, a Tasmanian, still speak received English. Maid Marian was of British parentage, though born in Tokyo and raised in California, and her maid Bess was from Northern Ireland. Little John and Friar Tuck remain thoroughly American, particularly the latter -- yet somehow this seems less disturbing than in other RobinHood films. Sheer style, perhaps?

The film was originally intended as a vehicle for [[WTHCastingAgency James Cagney]], who had gained critical approval for playing Bottom the Weaver in Warners' 1935 production of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' -- but when Cagney walked out on his Warners' contract, the project was retooled to accommodate rising Warners' star ErrolFlynn, who had in that same year made a huge impression as the swashbuckling lead of the [[{{Pirates}} pirate]] romance, ''Film/CaptainBlood''. Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, having appeared in both movies, was a natural for the part of Lady Marian. Korngold, too, had been associated with the same two films, as adaptor of FelixMendelssohn's theatrical music for ''[[Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream Dream]]'' and as composer of a (mostly) original score for ''Film/CaptainBlood''. Basil Rathbone, having displayed in ''Film/CaptainBlood'' as the evil pirate Levasseur a fine talent for fencing and sneering villainy, was tapped to play the part of Sir Guy of Gisbourne. When director William Keighley was determined by the Warner brothers to be too dilatory and measured in his approach to the film, he was replaced with yet another ''Film/CaptainBlood'' alumnus, hard-driving director Michael Curtiz.

In the [[TheHighMiddleAges late 12th century]], [[WarriorPrince King Richard the Lion-Heart]] (Ian Hunter), returning from UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, has been taken prisoner, and his [[CainAndAbel treacherous brother]] [[TheEvilPrince Prince John]] (played delightfully by Creator/ClaudeRains as a [[WickedCultured silky]], effete DeadpanSnarker), with the help of [[LesCollaborateurs compliant Norman barons]] such as the brutal [[TheDragon Sir Guy of Gisbourne]] (Basil Rathbone) (whose support he gains by promising him marriage to [[PrincessClassic King Richard's ward, Lady Marian Fitzwalter]] (Olivia de Havilland)), the [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Sheriff of Nottingham]] (Melville Cooper), and the [[CorruptChurch Bishop of the Black Canons]] (Montague Love), is oppressing the Saxon peasantry in an attempt to squeeze money out of them, ostensibly to ransom Richard, but really [[BigBad to buy his way to the throne]].

He is opposed by the Saxon knight, Sir Robin of Locksley (ErrolFlynn), who, as the outlaw Robin Hood, gathers a band of Saxon [[LaResistance resistance fighters]], including [[TheLancer Will Scarlet]] (Patric Knowles), [[PluckyComicRelief Much the Miller's Son]] (Herbert Mundin), [[TheBigGuy Little John]] (Alan Hale, Sr., reprising the rôle he had played 16 years before in the Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., silent), and [[StoutStrength Friar Tuck]] (Eugene Palette).

''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 WarnerBrothers {{Swashbuckler}} film, directed by Creator/MichaelCurtiz, William Keighley, and B. Reeves Eason, and starring Creator/ErrolFlynn, considered by many the definitive cinematic version of the ''RobinHood'' legend. The film won three [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], for Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson), and Best Original Score (Music/ErichWolfgangKorngold).

** There were no Saxon earls. The Saxon nobility had been wiped out by the Norman Conquest, with much of them dying at Hastings and the rest being killed/driven away later.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: During a scene where a Norman lord is having a peasant whipped, he calls for the poor man to be whipped past what he can endure. The one who speaks up on the peasant's behalf is, interestingly, the guy who just got done doing the whipping. He looks somewhat distressed and refuses to continue, saying that if they keep it up, the man will die. Apparently, he's willing to beat a man within an inch of his life - but no further.

* RightfulKingReturns: Who says he "ought never to have left England."
** Unlike the ''real'' [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart Richard]], who never regretted leaving and left again almost immediately.

** Many people have cited the shots of people being shot with arrows as looking unrealistic. In actuality, stuntmen were paid $150 an arrow to be legitimately shot while wearing protection.

* ShoutOut: A number of subsequent (usually comic) versions of the Robin Hood story enjoy parodying specific moments or aspects of this film.
** In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes cartoon ''WesternAnimation/RabbitHood'' (1949), when WesternAnimation/BugsBunny assaults Little John, who has been announcing Robin's arrival throughout the cartoon, with a vehement "Well, where is he?" his question is answered with an actual clip from ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (Creator/ErrolFlynn received a personal copy of this short as compensation for the use of his image).
** The WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes short ''WesternAnimation/RobinHoodDaffy'' (1958) mocks both Robin's swinging on a vine ("Yoicks, and away!") and his overly jolly laughter after being trounced and dunked by an opponent.
** In the 1982 film ''My Favorite Year'', Creator/ErrolFlynn [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed avatar]] Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) stumbles drunkenly into a projection-room where one of his old films is playing: the actors dueling therein are costumed exactly like Robin and Sir Guy in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood''.
** In the ''[[Series/{{Alf}} ALFTales]]'' cartoon version of the RobinHood story (1988), the Merry Men spring off obvious trampolines during the attack on the treasure caravan (as they do in this film), and Gordon/Robin, painting a self-portrait, paints out what is obviously ErrolFlynn's face and substitutes his own.
** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration episode'' "[=QPid=]" (1991) is pretty much a WholePlotReference, down to a fight between Robin/Picard and Guy of Gisborne on a staircase--which makes Vash's absolute refusal to play Marian a whole lot funnier. (Oddly, though, someone somewhere seems to have gotten Guy of Gisbourne and the Sheriff confused, because Q is clearly playing Basil-Rathbone-Guy but calls himself the Sheriff, and Guy more resembles the dim-witted, rotund Melville-Cooper-Sheriff .)
** ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights'' (1993) obviously takes a few shots, but most notable is Robin's grand entrance into Nottingham Castle's hall, with a deer taken from the King's forests draped over his shoulders (though Mel Brooks switches it to a boar so that Robin can compare it with Prince John).
** The Howard Hughes film ''His Kind of Woman'' has a FilmWithinAFilm that's a copy of Robin's duel with Guy, with Vincent Price of all people standing in for Flynn.