Robin Hood
About Robin Hood
Old Merwyn means his daughter Maid Marian to marry Guy de Gisbourne, but Friar Tuck helps her slip out to Robin Hood. Guy ambushes Robin, ties him to a tree, and goes to the Sheriff of Nottingham for a warrant; Little John, Will Scarlet, and Alan-a-Dale cut him free, and a later raid puts the band in jail. Marian and her friends draw the sentries off so the outlaws can climb the wall. At a tavern the Sheriff, Guy, and Merwyn attack a stranger who is King Richard. Friar Tuck brings him to camp, Robin loses a friendly sword bout, and Richard says he is the king. Dressed as monks, the band carries Marian off. Friar Tuck marries them under a cross of daisies, and Richard orders the Sheriff’s party out of the forest.
Cast & crew
More about Robin Hood
Étienne Arnaud and Herbert Blaché directed Eustace Hale Ball’s scenario for Éclair American. Universal Film Manufacturing Company released the three-reel picture in the United States on 22 August 1912. The Moving Picture World synopsis is the source for the plot above.
Themes
Technique
Animal images are superimposed for a moment on the characters to mark them as good or evil. Robin’s men wear oversized versions of the familiar hats.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Wikipedia reports a restored 30-minute copy, shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2006. Silent Era lists fragments from the Alois F. Detlaff collection, a 35mm nitrate positive and a 16mm color reduction negative. The film is in the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Robert Frazer plays Robin Hood, Barbara Tennant plays Maid Marian, Alec B. Francis plays the Sheriff, and Lamar Johnstone plays Guy de Gisbourne.
- Arthur Hollingsworth plays Richard the Lion-Hearted. M. E. Hannefy plays Friar Tuck. Guy Oliver plays Much.
- George Larkin plays Will Scarlet, Charles Hundt plays Little John, and John Troyano plays Alan-a-Dale.
- Muriel Ostriche plays Christabel and Isabel Lamon plays Fennel. John G. Adolfi plays Thomas Merwin.
- The 1922 Douglas Fairbanks feature of the same title came ten years later. Nothing in these sources says the Éclair film shaped it.
Scenes
- Guy ties Robin to a tree and goes for the Sheriff’s warrant.
- Marian’s friends flirt the sentries away while the outlaws scale the prison wall.
- Robin loses the sword bout, names the king as the only man who could disarm him, and Richard drops his coat.
- Friar Tuck marries Robin and Marian under a cross made of daisies.
Influenced by
- Walter Scott’s account of Richard the Lion-Hearted, which the Moving Picture World synopsis cites for the tavern episode
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Robin Hood (1912) - Full Movie.webm)
Quotes
Only one man in all England could disarm me.
I am the King!
