Robin Hood on stage and on screen

The legend of the heroic British outlaw Robin Hood and his Merry Men has inspired many authors and filmmakers over the years. The Medieval Robin was a highly skilled archer and swordsman in Sherman Forrest in Nottinghamshire. In some versions of the legend, he was of noble birth, and in modern retellings, he had fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff. But in the oldest known versions, he was a member of the yeoman class, ranking between the peasantry and the landed gentry. Traditionally Robin is dressed in green and he is robbing the rich to give the loot to the poor. Film producers especially love the fact that his character is in the public domain so there is no restriction on his use. In this post, we give a glimpse of Robin Hood on stage and screen with our postcards.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 4222 C. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Lewis Waller in the stage production 'Robin Hood' (1906).


Dutch card. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4632/2, 1929-1930. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922).


Belgian postcard by Editions Corna, Bruxelles (Brussels), no. 3303. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).


French postcard, no. A085. Kevin Costner in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991).

Robin Hood on stage

Whether Robin Hood really existed is unclear. The name is not found in official documents. Most critics still assume it is a fictional story largely based on Ballads. However, similar names and stories do circulate of three figures that may have inspired the legend. One fact is that Sherwood Forest was known as a haven for outlaws. They set traps to make others think the forest was bewitched.

The earliest preserved script of a Robin Hood play is the fragmentary 'Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham', which dates to the 1470s. Many versions followed. William Shakespeare makes reference to Robin Hood in his late-16th-century play 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona'. Robin Hood appeared on the 18th-century stage in various farces and comic operas. Alfred, Lord Tennyson would write a four-act Robin Hood play at the end of the 19th century, 'The Forrestors'. And Walter Scott featured Robin in his novel 'Ivanhoe' in 1819.

In the 19th century, the Robin Hood legend was first specifically adapted for children. Influential was Pierce Egan the Younger's 'Robin Hood and Little John', which was adapted into French by Alexandre Dumas in 'Le Prince des Voleurs' (1872) and 'Robin Hood Le Proscrit' (1873). Egan made Robin Hood of noble birth, but he was raised by the forester Gilbert Hood. Another very popular version for children was Howard Pyle's 'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood', which influenced accounts of Robin Hood through the 20th century. Pyle presented Robin as a staunch philanthropist, a man who takes from the rich to give to the poor. Robin takes no stand against Prince John and plays no part in raising the ransom to free Richard. These developments are part of the 20th-century Robin Hood myth. Pyle's Robin Hood is a yeoman and not an aristocrat.

In the early 20th Century, British stage actor Lewis Waller had a smash hit on the West End with 'Robin Hood' (1906), a play written by Henry Hamilton and actor-author William Devereux. 'Robin Hood' was Devereux's first play, and he also played the role of King John. He later wrote romantic plays such as 'Henry of Navarre' (1908), 'Sir Walter Raleigh' (1909) and the 'Wooing of Katherine Parr' (1927) and the film script for The Lifeguardsman (1916). 'Robin Hood' ran for 163 performances (as well as matinees) at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1906 and the next year, it was performed in Melbourne and in New York.

One year later, director Percy Stow made the English short film Robin Hood and his Merry Men (Percy Stow, 1908) for the Clarendon Film Company. It was the first in a wave of early Robin Hood films. In 1912 followed the American short Robin Hood (Herbert Blanche, Etienne Arnaud, 1912). In this 30-minute film, Robert Frazer starred as Robin Hood and Barbara Tennant as Maid Marian. That same year, British and Colonial films produced Robin Hood Outlawed (1912) with Brian A. Plant in the lead role and Ivy Martinek as Maid Marian. Then followed the American production Robin Hood (1913) with William Russell as Robin Hood, Gerda Holmes as Maid Marian, and John Dillon as the sheriff of Nottingham, and the English film In the Days of Robin Hood (1913), shot in and around Nottingham, and in Kinemacolor, with Harry Agar Lyons as Robin Hood. However, the best silent film version still had to come.


British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 4222F. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Lewis Waller in the play 'Robin Hood' (1906) by Henry Hamilton and William Devereux. Lewis Waller (1860-1915) was best known as a matinee-idol in the popular romantic plays of his day. He also worked as a playwright and stage manager and appeared in several films.


British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 4222H. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Lewis Waller in 'Robin Hood' (1906). The play by Henry Hamilton and William Devereux was performed at the Lyric Theatre in London. Evelyn Millard played Maid Marian.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 4359 G. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Evelyn Millard as Maid Marian in the British play Robin Hood, first performed in November 1906.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 4261 F. Sent by mail in 1907. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Ethelbert Edwards in 'Robin Hood'. In the Autumn of 1997, Ethelbert Edwards as Robin Hood and Fyfe Alexander as Lady Marian toured in the play. Their tour started in Blackpool. Ethelbert's performance was a huge success and led to his West End debut, a stint on Broadway and success as a film star under the name Henry Edwards.

Robin Hood on screen

The first screen production to include all the elements that later appeared in several Robin Hood films was the silent black and white production Robin Hood (1922) by director Allan Dwan. The full title under which the film was released was Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood. Douglas Fairbanks was not only the star of the film but was also responsible for the screenplay and the production. The film had a budget of $1 million, making it one of the most expensive films of the 1920s. A huge castle set, largely built of wood, wire, and plaster, and an entire 12th-century village of Nottingham were recreated at the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio in Hollywood for the film. Some sets were designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Fairbanks produced the film with his company Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation for United Artists, which he had founded with Mary Pickford, David Wark Griffith and Charlie Chaplin.

Robin Hood had its premiere at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on 18 October 1922. The film was a smash hit and generally received favourable reviews. The public loved Douglas Fairbanks in his role as Robin Hood, Enid Bennett as Lady Marian, Sam De Grasse as Prince Jan and Wallace Beery as King Richard. Alan Hale, Sr., even impressed audiences so much in his role of Little John that he got to play the role again 16 years later in the sound version of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Then Alan Hale, Sr., played the character again opposite John Derek as Robin Hood in Rogues of Sherwood Forest (Gordon Douglas, 1950), 28 years after his initial performance in the original Fairbanks film.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938), starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, had a budget of $2 million and was the first Warner Bros. film to be shot in three-strip Technicolour. The film marked a major turnaround for Warner Bros., which had hitherto been best known for low-budget crime films. The film received four Oscar nominations, winning three — Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson) and Best Original Score (Erich Wolfgang Korngold). In total, the film brought in $4 million and was the sixth-best-selling film of the year. Errol Flynn thrilled the public as the legendary hero. The Adventures of Robin Hood portrayed Robin as a hero on a national scale, leading the oppressed Saxons in revolt against their Norman overlords while Richard the Lionheart fought in the Crusades. The film established itself so definitively that many studios resorted to films about his son, who was invented for that purpose, rather than compete with the image of this classic.

In the animated Disney classic Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973), the title character is portrayed as a fox. Years before Robin Hood had even entered production, Walt Disney had considered doing a project on 'Reynard the Fox', but due to concerns that Reynard was unsuitable as a hero, animator Ken Anderson adapted some elements from Reynard into Robin Hood and created the first Disney film with an entirely non-human cast. Taking place in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, the story follows the adventures of Robin Hood, Little John, and the inhabitants of Nottingham as they fight against the excessive taxation of Prince John, and Robin Hood wins the hand of Maid Marian. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but it was nonetheless a box-office success, grossing $33 million worldwide against a production budget of $5 million. The film's reputation has grown positively over time and has since become a cult classic.

Since the 1980s, it has become commonplace that the Merry Men include a Saracen. The trend started with the character Nasir in the 1984 Robin of Sherwood television series. Later versions of the story have followed suit. In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), starring Kevin Costner as Robin, a version of Nasir appears in the person of Azeem, played by Morgan Freeman. Critic Roger Ebert praised the performances of Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman as the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, but ultimately decried the film as a whole: "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a murky, unfocused, violent, and depressing version of the classic story... The most depressing thing about the movie is that children will attend it expecting to have a good time." Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, grossing $390.5 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1991. Spoofs followed the trend of the Saracen. Mel Brooks' comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) featured Isaac Hayes as Asneeze and Dave Chappelle as his son Ahchoo. Robin Hood (Otto Bathurst, 2018), a badly received modern retelling of the Robin Hood legend, portrays the character of Little John as a Muslim named Yahya, played by Jamie Foxx. Robin Hood was nominated for three Razzies for Worst Remake, Worst Supporting Actor for Foxx, and Worst Picture.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4429/2, 1929-1930. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922). American actor Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Mark of Zorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), and The Thief of Bagdad (1924).


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 84. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks on the set of Robin Hood (1922), with Charlie Chaplin and Max Linder.


French postcard, no. 764. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938).


Spanish postcard by Sobe, no. 437. Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 1938).


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona, no. 121. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). The twenty-first Disney animated feature film is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John.


Belgian postcard by Editions Corna, Brussels, no. 5/3303. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Sent by mail in 1978. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). Maid Marian and Robin had once been sweethearts as children but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw, he and Marian have to wait for marriage.


Vintage postcard, no. 2036. Kevin Costner as Robin in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991). This Warner Bros film was the once-in-a-generation Robin Hood film of its time, a classic even if it did not quite reach the level of the 1922 and the 1938 versions.


Vintage card. Morgan Freeman as Azeem in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991).

Sources: International Robin Hood Bibliography, Robin Hood - the Facts and the Fiction, Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.