The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner Bros.) (1938)

To Property Men One Used By Olivia de Havilland in ‘Robin Hood’ Specially Made Tt are more than five hundred beds of one kind or another in the property rooms.of the Warner Bros. studios and none of them is meant to be slept in, It takes all sorts and sizes of beds to make motion pictures, according to A. C. (“Whitey”) Wilson, the head of the Property department there, and it is not uncommon to have from fifty to sixty beds “in work” on the sets at one time. Long ago studio people learned to differentiate between “straight” beds and “character” beds. Character beds are either too poor or too elaborate, but being studio Props, they are all equally uncomfortable to sleep in, since the springs have, in each case, been removed to make the body of the Occupant stand out more prominently under the cover. You can’t find a character bed in the average furniture store. Those are all straight beds, according to Wilson, and he has a FE er oF itt Has Rese Ee Hy needs, but he is always in the market for a good character number and he attends auctions and special sales and makes trips about the country in the search for them. Often he has them built to his specifications, as was Carole Lombard’s bed in “Fools For Scandal.” That one was uncommonly long and wide and high — the sort of bed a movie queen ought to sleep in, even if doesn't. Among the five hundred odd beds in Wilson’s storerooms are to be found some rare old antiques and some sad examples of the bed-maker’s art: There are canopied beds, beds with mirrored head boards and others with satin upholstery on the head boards. There are some beautiful four-posters, studio-made for old First National pictures which Wilson has forgotten by name. He thinks he may find use for them, though, some day. There are gilt beds, not considered exactly “nice” by many, hand-painted beds and the boat-shaped couches used in “Madame DuBarry.” There are also a hundred iron beds in varying stages of em styles,” says Wilson. “That Now You atonal Lats) With thanks to Dr. Herman Lissauer, head of Warner’s Research, who made these discoveries while working on “The Adventures of * * While men of the Twelfth Century were considerably shorter than the average of today, they were pretty husky birds, as a suit of chain mail weighs 100 pounds. It took half a dozen lackeys to boost Sir Heavypants into his saddle when he went out to break a lance for his ladye faire. af * and their ladies at the dinner table used their fingers to since they had no forks, and when they got a bit smeared the mouth and hands, it gs very good etiquette to wipe hands and face on the table cloth. They had no napkins. If a knight, at the table, encountered a particularly tough piece of meat, he fished his dagger from his belt and hacked it into chunks suitable for swallowing. The only table implement was a large spoon used for eating meat pies, puddings and other soft foods. * When a knight or his lady finished with a hunk of meat, the Emily Post of the period decreed that it was very good form to * There was no glass used in England at the time except for a few ornaments, parchment and scraped deerskins being used to let a little light into houses and castles and keep the cold out. * King Richard’s ransom of 150,000 marcs to be freed from captivity in Austria was never fully paid, and that even if it had been it would have been the present day equivalent of about $350,000. * * In lieu of baths, the ladies of higher court circles in England doused themselves liberally with perfume imported from France. * Nobody knows for certain whether King Richard could read and write; two years of research at the studio leaves this still an open question. * * Three languages were used in England of the time: Latin, NormanFrench and Saxon-English, and that a great majority of all the people, both commoners and nobles couldn’t read and write any of them, which explains why detail on the existence and adventures of such outstanding heroes as Robin Hood is so hard to establish today. Ladies of the age never wore panties — just petticoats. * The “Sherwood Forest Gazette,” put out by the “Robin Hood” company while on location in Chico, advertised castles for rent — with outdoor plumbing, 16-foot moats and burglar proof beds! TRUCKING WITH THE CAMERA we soe Errol Fi the camera eye is trained on him from above. It’ the Technicolor picture now showing at the Radio Tz ghost,of Robin Hood the First leaped nimbly into a tg oak tree, settled comfortably on an overhanging limb and gazed in considerable amazement at the scene beneath him, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian, Will Scarlet and even his old enemy, Sir Guy of Gisbourne, spread their filmy garments of ectoplasm near him a moment later, and he motioned them to silence. On the ground a group of men, clad in Lincoln green tights and doublets, with quivers full of arrows on their backs, were gathered about a tall, handsome, virile figure, obviously their leader. Beyond this group were curious, huge box-like affairs on tripods with several men standing about them. A lean, nervous foreign-looking gentleman, dressed in a loud cowboy shirt, riding breeches and boots, stood at one side and suddenly shouted, “Action!” Instantly, the ghostly figures in the tree overhead stiffened and started adjusting their costumes with a rustling sound like wind stirring leaves. “Quiet!” roared a red faced man, obviously of Irish extraction and the shades on the limbs above -*% ' By Robert Burkhardt exchanged sheepish grins and relaxed as they watched the figures below. The tall leader leaped lightly upon a rock and held up his hand for attention. “Men,” he said, “this afternoon Sir Guy and his party, laden with stores of rich food and chests full of treasure wrung from Saxons as tax money, will enter the forest. We must prePare his welcome!” Loud cheers from the men greeted his speech, and the man dressed as Little John and resembling in a marked degree Little John the First perched on the limb, shouted, “Hurray for Robin Hood.” The red faced man yelled, “Cut,” and immediately everyone on the ground began to talk, giving the ghosts a chance, too. te doing our picture,” Sir Guy complained, a bit pettishly. “Well, why not?” demanded Maid Marian (Enid Bennett). “And it looks to me like they’re doing a great job of it,” said Robin Hood the First. (Douglas Fairbanks). “If we'd only had the amazing facilities to work with they have today—color film, sound recording, the great improvement in all technical lynn leaping nimbly from pillar to post high above the ground while s all for thrilling duel scene in "The Adventures of Robin Hood,” City Music Hall, in which Flynn plays the title role. (Mat 309—45c) Of: ‘Robin Hood’ branches of the business, think of what we could have done.” “Only thing that bothers me,” said the shade of Little John, “is that big lug who's playing my role. I think I was a lot better than he is. And what a voice!” Robin Hood the First burst into a gale of laughter, which swept through the tree and sent several leaves fluttering to tl. ground, “That ‘lug’, my friend,” he chortled, “is you. You're the only one of the whole cast of the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks production who is doing his original role in the new Warner Bros. picture.” “I guess the best we can do is wish them as much success as we had,” said Friar Tuck, as he followed the other of the ghostly cast into a sylvan retreat deep in Sherwood Forest where the Warner Bros. company, headed by Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Ian Hunter, Alan Hale and Herbert Mundin was on location. Alan Hale, who played Little John in the Douglas Fairbanks’ silent movie production fifteen years ago, is the only member of that cast included in “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” again doing his original role. YESTERDAY AND TODAY — Douglas Fairbanks and Enid Bennett in a scene from the 1922 version of “Robin Hood.” (Right) Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn head the cast of the 1938 all-Technicolor picture “The Adventures of Robin Hood" for which « new and original story was written around beloved old legends. (Mat 306—45c) SS eR SO Dn Se EE eS ADERS...GOSSIP COLUMN ae Castle Erected For ‘Robin Hood Big Technicolor Production Filmed In Woods 600 Miles From Hollywood HREE hundred 20th Century moderns who started north from Hollywood recently wound up the next day 600 miles and 800 years away. The 600 miles carried them to a beautiful natural park near the thriving city of Chico, Cal. The eight centuries carried them backward in time. So the park became fabulous Sherwood Forest and the moderns turned into Robin Hood's forest outlaws or the mailclad knights of Prince John. And thus began one of the most staggering projects ever launched by a motion picture studio. For Warner Bros. in filming “The Adventures of Robin Hood” on an outdoor location so far from the base of supplies, multiplied many times the problems of transport, commissariat and equipment, by undertaking to make the whole picture in Technicolor. It was like the departure of a circus when the company of 300, with personal baggage, pulled out one night by ten-car special train from Burbank — nearest suburban station to the studio. And as with the movement of a well-ordered circus, everything marched on schedule, But though like the movement of a circus in one respect, in another, the departure of the company resembled the boys of world war days going away to training camp. Incidentally, it was a company of men. There are only a handful of women in the cast —Olivia de Havilland, the principal one, co-starring with Errol was to later. hod che train pulled out, there were men leaning from every window and waving farewells to the women and children, the wives, sweet As a result of taking his role of Friar Tuck in Warner Bros.’ “The Adventures of Robin Hood” too literally, and doing a lot of sitting and eating, Eugene Pallette recently discovered he tipped the scale at 15 pounds than when the picture start “Now,” he says, “I’ll have to work hard on my ranch in Northern Oregon to knock off the surplus poundage. There’s a lot of trees there that need cutting down and chopping into firewood, so it won't take me long to get back to my normal 250.” If you call Ian Hunter “handsome” to his face these days, he'll merely shrug and grin a bit sheepishly and pay no further attention. But there was a time when “handsome” was a fighting word to the South African who enacts the role of King Richard in Warner Bros.’ “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” now playing at the Radio City Music Hall. He was terribly annoyed when he was called “London's handsomest leading man,” and still more so when he came to Hollywood and the label stuck. Now, he just doesn’t care. He's had a crack at half a dozen strong character roles, has won critical praise for them and feels that now he’s accepted on his acting ability rather than his good looks. If Basil Rathbone keeps on long enough staging fencing scenes in pictures, eventually he will be permitted to win one of his battles. So far, he has always been the loser. In “Captain Blood,” he was vanquished by Errol Flynn, and now the same star runs his rapier through Rathbone during the big fight scene in “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” the Warner Bros. Technicolor drama which is now showing at the Radio City Music Hall. hearts and offspring, left behind. When Errol Flynn, Alan Hale, Eugene Pallette, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter, Patric Knowles, Herbert Mundin and all the other actors and camp-followers reached Chico the next day, everything was ready for them. For preceding them a huge special baggage train had sped north, loaded with everything required to turn Chico’s Bidwell Park into 12th Century Sherwood Forest. Twenty thousand separate items were included in the baggage. Among them were such things as long yew bows, crossbows, war clubs, 10,000 arrows, ancient saddles and knightly gear for horses. Moreover Robin Hood’s camp covering five acres was all laid out in the heart of the forest. His cave hideout was built. And a medieval castle reared its massive walls over Nottingham way. And much of the material for all this construction likewise had been transported that 600 miles by train. But oddest item of all were the studio-built trees. In this virgin forest of giant oaks and sycamores, so carefully preserved by the city fathers, one would imagine any tree desired could be found. It could, too, But there must be trees for Robin Hood's Merry Men to clamber in and out of and swing from, and the park trees must be protected. So—the studio trees for stunt work. And so with all the cast and Props assembled, William Keighley and Michael Curtiz, ace di rectors, ensconced themselves in Forest to turn Norman Reilly Raine’s and Seton I Miller's original story of Robin Hood into a romance filmed in natural colors, Sticks O' Type | ever, when, enacting the role of a mounted knight in Warner Bros. production of “The Ad ances worn by titled gents of the twelfth century. “With this long skirt like arrangement,” he confessed, “I’m at a loss to figure out whether I'm supposed to ride astride or side-saddle.” “Maybe you'd better write to your aunt for advice,” a grinning bystander tans Ian Hunter and ‘itis: brother, Kenneth, are together in a picture for only the second time in their stage or screen careers, in Warner Bros.’ Technicolor production “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” at the Radio City Music Hall. Ian plays King Richard the Lion-Hearted; Kenneth plays Sir Mortimer, one of the villainous Prince John’s supporting Norman knights.