View source for Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood

{{Short description|1922 film by Allan Dwan}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood
| image          = Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood 1922 film poster.jpg
| director       = [[Allan Dwan]]
| writer         = Douglas Fairbanks
| producer       = Douglas Fairbanks
| starring       = Douglas Fairbanks<br>[[Wallace Beery]]<br>[[Sam De Grasse]]<br>[[Enid Bennett]]<br>[[Alan Hale Sr.|Alan Hale]]
| cinematography = [[Arthur Edeson]] & Charles Richardson
| editing        = [[Bill Nolan (animator)|William Nolan]]
| music          = [[Victor Schertzinger]]
| studio         = Douglas Fairbanks Pictures
| distributor    = [[United Artists]]
| released       = {{Film date|1922|10|18}}
| runtime        = 127 minutes<br>11 reels ({{convert|10680|ft|m}})
| country        = United States
| language       = [[Silent film]]<br>[[English language|English]] intertitles
| budget         = $930,000<ref name="tino">{{cite book
| last = Balio
| first = Tino
| title = United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars
| date = 2009
| publisher = [[University of Wisconsin Press]]
| isbn = 978-0-299-23004-3
}}p39</ref>
| gross          = $2,500,000 (US/Canada)<ref>''Variety'' list of box office champions for 1922</ref>
}}
'''''Robin Hood''''' is a 1922 [[Silent film|silent]] [[adventure film]] starring [[Douglas Fairbanks]] and [[Wallace Beery]]. It was the first [[film|motion picture]] ever to have a [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] [[premiere]], held at [[Grauman's Egyptian Theatre]] on October 18, 1922. The movie's full title, under which it was copyrighted, is '''''Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood'''''. It was one of the most expensive films of the 1920s, with a budget estimated at one million dollars (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|1|1922|r=2}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013556/trivia|title=Robin Hood (1922) |website=IMDb}}</ref> The film was a smash hit and generally received favorable reviews.
==Plot==
[[File:Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (1922).webm|left|thumb|thumbtime=3|The full film]]
The opening has the dashing [[Earl of Huntingdon]] besting his bitter enemy, Sir [[Guy of Gisbourne]], in a [[jousting|joust]]. Huntingdon then joins [[Richard I of England|King Richard the Lion-Hearted]], who is going off to fight in the [[Crusade]]s and has left his brother, [[John of England|Prince John]], as [[regent]]. The prince soon emerges as a cruel, treacherous tyrant. Goaded on by Sir Guy, he usurps Richard's throne. When Huntingdon receives a message from [[Maid Marian|Lady Marian Fitzwalter]], his love interest, telling him of all that has transpired, he requests permission to return to England. King Richard assumes that the Earl has turned coward and denies him permission. The Earl seeks to leave in spite of this, but is ambushed by Sir Guy and imprisoned as a [[deserter]]. Upon escaping from his confines, he returns to [[England]], endangering his life and honor, to oppose Prince John and restore King Richard's throne. He finds his friends and himself outlawed and Marian apparently dead.
Huntingdon returns to Nottingham and adopts the name of [[Robin Hood]], acrobatic champion of the oppressed. Leading a band that steals from the rich to give to the poor, including [[Friar Tuck]], [[Little John]], [[Will Scarlet]], and [[Allan-a-Dale]], he labors to set things right through swashbuckling feats and makes life miserable for Prince John and his cohort, the high sheriff of Nottingham. After rescuing Marian from Prince John's prison and defeating Sir Guy in a final conflict, Robin is captured. The timely reappearance of King Richard returns him to Marian and foils the efforts of Prince John.
==Cast==
* [[Douglas Fairbanks]] as Earl of Huntingdon/Robin Hood (Fairbanks's custom was to place his name last.)
* [[Wallace Beery]] as King [[Richard I of England|Richard the Lion-Hearted]]
* [[Sam De Grasse]] as [[John of England|Prince John]]
* [[Enid Bennett]] as [[Maid Marian|Lady Marian Fitzwalter]]
* [[Paul Dickey]] as Sir [[Guy of Gisbourne]]
* [[William Lowery]] as The High [[Sheriff of Nottingham]]
* [[Willard Louis]] as [[Friar Tuck]]
* [[Alan Hale Sr.|Alan Hale]] as The Squire/[[Little John]]
* [[Bud Geary]] as [[Will Scarlet]]
* Lloyd Talman as [[Allan-a-Dale]]
* [[Billie Bennett]] as Servant to Lady Marian
[[Wallace Beery]] played King Richard the Lion-Hearted again the following year in a sequel called ''[[Richard the Lion-Hearted (1923 film)|Richard the Lion-Hearted]]''.
[[Alan Hale, Sr.]], made such an impression as [[Little John]] in this film that he reprised the role 16 years later in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' (1938) opposite [[Errol Flynn]], then played the character again in ''[[Rogues of Sherwood Forest]]'' in 1950, 28 years after his initial performance in the original Fairbanks film.
==Production==
[[File:Fairbanks Robin Hood giving Marian a dagger.jpg|thumb|right|Robin and Marian]]
A huge castle set and an entire 12th-century village of Nottingham were constructed at the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio in Hollywood. Some sets were designed by architect [[Lloyd Wright]]. Director Allan Dwan later recalled that Fairbanks was so overwhelmed by the scale of the sets that he considered cancelling production at one point. The castle was largely built of wood, wire, and plaster.<ref name=Davenport /> The exceptions were the concrete floor and the (wood-covered) steel drawbridge.<ref name=Davenport>{{cite journal |last1=Davenport |first1=Delbert E |date=September 1922 |title=Castles of Plaster and Steel |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/castles-of-plaster-and-steel/ |journal=Scientific American |volume=127 |issue=3 |pages=176–177|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0922-176 |bibcode=1922SciAm.127..176D |access-date=7 March 2022}}</ref>
The story was adapted for the screen by Fairbanks (as "Elton Thomas"), Kenneth Davenport, Edward Knoblock, Allan Dwan, and [[Lotta Woods]], and was produced by Fairbanks for his own production company, Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation, and distributed by [[United Artists]], a company owned by Fairbanks, his wife [[Mary Pickford]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], and [[D. W. Griffith]]. This swashbuckling adventure was based on the legendary tale of the medieval hero, Robin Hood, and was the first production to present many of the elements of the legend that became familiar to movie audiences in later versions, although an earlier treatment had been filmed a decade before in the woods around Fort Lee, New Jersey, featuring even more flamboyant costumes than the Fairbanks version.
==Score==
At its premiere, ''Robin Hood'' was accompanied by an orchestral score especially commissioned by Fairbanks and composed by [[Victor Schertzinger]]. That score has also been adapted and conducted live by U.S. composer Gillian Anderson. Though the film has received many live and recorded scores since its first release, perhaps the two most significant are further orchestral scores written in 2007 by American composer and conductor [[John Scott (composer)|John Scott]], and in 2016 by eminent British [[silent film]] musician [[Neil Brand]].
==Reception==
[[File:Douglas Fairbanks, Enid Bennett, and Wallace Beery listening to radio.png|thumb|[[Wallace Beery]], [[Enid Bennett]], and [[Douglas Fairbanks]] listen to a recent invention only widely broadcasting for the previous three years: a radio.]]
[[File:Douglas Fairbanks, Photoplay January 1923.jpg|thumb|Fairbanks as Robin Hood on the cover of ''[[Photoplay]],'' illustrated by J. Knowles Hare]]
''Robin Hood'' generally received favorable reviews. It received an aggregate score of 100% and an average rating of 8.4/10 from [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on 10 reviews.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1054796-robin_hood/|title=Robin Hood|date=October 18, 1922|work=rottentomatoes.com|access-date=July 20, 2023}}</ref> Combustible Celluloid's Jeffrey M. Anderson rated the movie 4 stars out of 4, concluding "Director Allan Dwan had worked with Fairbanks on several two-reelers, and would go on to direct his last silent film, ''The Iron Mask'' (1929). Dwan would continue working, making "B" pictures up until the 1960s, and finishing up with something like 500 films on his resume before he died. But ''Robin Hood'' is his masterpiece.".<ref>Anderson, Jeffrey. [http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/classic/robinhood22.shtml Combustible Celluloid film review]</ref>
Fairbanks biographer [[Jeffrey Vance]] evaluated the film in 2008 as follows: "''Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood'' is the most important legacy of the rich life and career of Douglas Fairbanks. The towering sets are long gone, and the characters have been reimagined and reinterpreted, but the foundation the film was built upon—and the culture it created—exists to this day....The creation of ''Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood'' consumed nearly a year of his life, and the experience established the matrix for all of his subsequent silent film productions. Indeed, it was the first of his productions to be fully realized in every respect."<ref>Vance, Jeffrey. Douglas Fairbanks. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008. p.125 {{ISBN|978-0-520-25667-5}}.</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|Film|United States}}
* [[List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes]], a film review aggregator website
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{commons category-inline|Robin Hood (1922 film)|''Robin Hood'' (1922 film)}}
* {{YouTube|id=SGWNp0j6Vgg|title=''Robin Hood''}}
* {{IMDb title|0013556|Robin Hood}}
* [http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/R/RobinHood1922.html ''Robin Hood'' (1922) at SilentEra]
* {{Internet Archive film|id=FairbanksRobinHood1922|name=Robin Hood}}
* ''[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1054796-robin_hood/ Robin Hood]'' at [[Rotten Tomatoes]]
* {{Amg movie|41677|Robin Hood}}
* [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/film/11322/robin-hood ''Robin Hood''] at Virtual History
* [https://www.boldoutlaw.com/robspot/douglas-fairbanks-in-robin-hood.html ''Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood''] 100th anniversary retrospective
{{Allan Dwan}}
{{Robin Hood}}
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[[Category:1922 films]]
[[Category:1922 adventure films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American silent feature films]]
[[Category:Silent American adventure films]]
[[Category:Robin Hood films]]
[[Category:Films about royalty]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Allan Dwan]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Richard I of England]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of John, King of England]]
[[Category:Surviving American silent films]]
[[Category:Photoplay Awards film of the year winners]]
[[Category:Films shot in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:1920s American films]]