On this International Women's Day, I would like to remember Joan Rice (1930-1997). She will skip forever along those sunlit glades of Sherwood Forest as Maid Marian...
Marian in Disguise
Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men has many scenes that still leave me in awe. One that I haven’t mentioned before is when Maid Marian (Joan Rice) decides to escape from Nottingham Castle disguised as a pageboy.
Giles the pageboy, is walking down the castle steps when he notices Marian looking gloomily out from an upper corridor window. He asks why she is looking so glum? She explains that the Queen has forbidden her to leave the castle. Giles wishes that Prince John would forbid him as he feels he has had to walk as far as Jerusalem and back making trips to Nottingham. He sighs and says he is on their way now to fetch the Sheriff.
This gives Marian the idea to borrow Giles's cloak and escape from the castle to find Robin.
The images above demonstrate how art director Carmen Dillon (1908-2000) and matte artist Peter Ellenshaw (1913-2007) managed to create a sense of isolation and imprisonment amidst the castle's towering stone walls and pillars.
The secret of Carmen Dillon's Oscar-winning success was her meticulous pre-planning and prefabrication. The grey ‘stone’ walls of Nottingham Castle were really plaster, cast in giant moulds and rigged onto movable steel scaffolding, while the forbidding curtain walls and towers, which looked as if they would defy an army, were in fact perspective cutouts. This was just one of twenty-five interior sets designed by her.
The four images in this article also demonstrate the visual beauty of this film. A lot of credit must go to legendary matte artist Peter Ellenshaw- another Disney legend, working many decades before the invention of computer-generated imagery.
Ellenshaw's artistic skill, together with Carmen Dillon's art department created that storybook quality to the film. It is not surprising it was voted one of the best Technicolor movies ever made in Britain. Disney Magic!
Friar Tuck & Mr Kipling
Out of all the many versions of Friar Tuck in film and television, my favourite has always been the interpretation by James Hayter.
James Hayter was chosen for the part of Friar Tuck by the director of Disney’s Story of Robin Hood, Ken Annakin. Hayter had just played the role of a verger in Annakin’s last production, Trio (1950) based on three stories by Somerset Maugham. During the early days of filming in March 1951, Annakin began screen testing Hayter for the part of the merry priest, exploring the character’s various possibilities. But as they fooled around and generally went ‘over the top’, Annakin was stunned to turn around and see Walt Disney and the producer of the film, Perce Pearce standing behind him.
Disney was not impressed and took Annakin to one side.
“You seem to have a very laid-back relationship with your actor, Annakin", he said.
The embarrassed director tried to explain that they had just finished a film together and were exploring how much joviality they could get away with, in the role of Friar Tuck.
“He can be played in several ways,” Disney interrupted, “I’ve always seen him quite clearly in one way. I’d like to see the stuff you have shot.”
As they turned to walk away, he said, “I hope you're not going to be cynical about these fine old English characters Annakin, they’re classics, you know and I don’t want them spoofed. I see the character something like this.......”
Then Walt Disney sat on a ‘prop rock’ by the river and began to sing Friar Tuck’s song from the film, "Come Sing Hi", including a conversation with an imaginary Robin Hood. He knew all the lines by heart and earned himself a round of applause from the film crew. James Hayter went on, of course, to become for many the archetype, of Friar Tuck.
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| James Hayter as Friar Tuck and Elton Hayes as Alan -a -Dale |
‘Jimmy’ Hayter was born in Lonuvla, India on April 23rd 1907, the son of a police superintendent. He began his education in Scotland and it was his school headmaster who spotted his obvious talent and encouraged him to become an actor. Hayter later graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA).
He made his stage debut in My Fair Lady as Alfred Dolittle in 1925, a part he played for five years in the West End and later on tour. Jimmy also went on to tread the boards in London in notable productions such as 1066 And All That and French Without Tears. After managing theatre companies in Perth and Dundee and appearing in various repertory theatre productions, his first film appearance came as the character Jock, in the mediocre Brian Desmond version of the play Sensation, in 1936. Hayter then went on to make five more movies before the outbreak of war.
After serving in the Royal Armoured Corps during the dark days of World War II, Jimmy made television history, when he was chosen to play the part of Mr Pinwright, the owner of a small multiple-store, in the BBC’s first recognised half-hour situation comedy series, Pinwright’s Progress in 1947.
His cherubic comedy style soon established him with a whole host of regular film parts and James Hayter became one of the busiest character actors in British film history. Notable early roles include Nicholas Nickleby (1947) in which he played the twins Ned and Charles Cheeryble, The Blue Lagoon (1949) as Dr Murdoch, Morning Departure (1950) Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951) as Old Thomas, The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, (1952) and The Crimson Pirate (1952) as Professor Prudence.
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| James re-creates his role as Friar Tuck in A Challenge for Robin Hood |
Apart from his memorable portrayal of Friar Tuck in 1952 (a part he would re-create in the 1967 A Challenge For Robin Hood), James Hayter is probably best remembered, in that very same year, for his ‘perfect’ role as Samuel Pickwick in the adaption of the classic Charles Dickens novel, The Pickwick Papers. The success of the movie prompted a BAFTA nomination for him as Best British Actor in 1953. Alexander Gauge, who played Friar Tuck in 89 episodes of the hugely successful TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, also appeared in the film, as Tupman.
Hayter later joined Alexander Gauge and the rest of the television crew of The Adventures of Robin Hood, when he played the part of Tom the Miller in 2 episodes of that classic series.
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| James as Tom the Miller in The Adventures of Robin Hood |
Jimmy remained just as busy in the television studio as on the film set and appeared in many early productions. Including, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents, Fair Game, The Moonstone, The Avengers, Man From Interpol, The Flaxton Boys, Wicked Women and Dr Finlay's Casebook.
With seven children to support, James Hayter continued to work phenomenally hard in the film industry. He went on to appear in over 90 movies, some classics such as: Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951), The Big Money (1958), I Was Monty’s Double (1958), The 39 Steps (1959) and Oliver (1968).
It was in 1970 that Jimmy re-joined Geoffrey Lumsden and Joan Rice; colleagues from Disney’s Story of Robin Hood, in The Horror of Frankenstein. This was the fifth in the series of Frankenstein films made by Hammer, but it is best described as a dreary and disappointing movie. Hayter’s television career was, on the other hand, far from dull, with continuing work in many popular productions of the time, including Doctor at Large, Hunter’s Walk and The Onedin Line.
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| James Hayter as Percival Tibbs |
Towards the end of his long and illustrious acting career, Hayter was chosen by comedy writer and producer, David Croft, to appear as a new assistant in his successful TV series Are You Being Served. Croft said:
"James Hayter had not worked for me before, but he was a well-known featured player in movies over here,” Croft remembers, “ and as far as I was concerned was the only candidate providing he was available and willing to play the part."
So as the mischievous Percival Tibbs, Hayter appeared in 6 episodes of Are You Being Served. Unfortunately for many years, Mr Kipling Cakes had used his distinctly fruity voice, for their advertisements on British television and the company did not like the character he now portrayed in this series.
They thought the personality of the character he portrayed was unpleasant and had an air of indignity that might put the viewing public off buying their “exceedingly good cakes”!
Hayter at first argued that he was free-lance and could choose to play any character he desired, but when Mr Kipling Cakes finally offered him three times his BBC salary for the next series, not to do it and terminate his contract, he accepted.
The cast of Are You Being Served were very disappointed to see such a successful comedy talent leave, but he confessed, “If they are prepared to pay me three times as much not to do it, then I won’t do it– at my time of life, I have no more ambition.”
James Hayter died in Spain aged 75 on 27th March 1985.
The Death of Maid Marian
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| Maidenhead Advertiser |
I made it into some newspapers back in 2009. It was after my research into an almost completely forgotten film star.
Dorothy Joan Mckenzie died in Maidenhead, Berkshire England on New Year’s Day 1997. She was the wife of former journalist Ken McKenzie and was just 66 years old. During the 1960s, she had various mundane office jobs, including working for the Inland Revenue in Slough. In between this, she trod the boards in stage productions. Then in 1970, she set up her own letting agency in Maidenhead.
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| Joan Rice |
But, it was as Joan Rice that Dorothy was better known and had touched stardom, wooed Hollywood and been sprinkled with Disney magic. After winning a beauty contest, this former Lyons Tea House waitress was picked out by a film agent and sent to attend the Rank Charm School, a training institution for young actors. At 21 years old, she was given a two-year Rank Film contract. After appearing alongside Dirk Bogarde in ‘Blackmailed’ she was personally chosen by Walt Disney from six others to play the part of Maid Marian alongside Richard Todd in his live-action ‘The Story of Robin Hood’ (1952).
I saw Disney’s ‘Story of Robin Hood’ during my school summer holidays in the early 1970s, it not only triggered my interest in the legend but I instantly fell in love with Joan. Back in the days before the internet, although there were plenty of biographies about stars in the film like Peter Finch and Richard Todd, I could not find anything about Joan. Who was she, and what happened to her? Meanwhile, this wonderful film faded from memory as Disney released a second movie about Robin Hood - a cartoon.
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| Richard Todd (Robin Hood) and Joan Rice (Maid Marian) |
So, in 2006, using the pseudonym Clement Glen, I started a blog about the film and began to inquire into her life. I dedicated the website to Joan. Gradually down the years, my readers and her friends and family contacted me with their memories and anecdotes about her. I soon realised what an amazing life she had led.
“It was nice to find something on the internet about my Aunt Joan. I miss her a lot… She and I wrote each other up until her death and I still have her letters. My Mum and I went to see her grave shortly after she died... it was a sad trip”.
(A relative of Joan Rice)
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| Joan Rice |
In 2009, a reporter from the Maidenhead Advertiser emailed me asking about my research into the life of their ‘forgotten’ resident. The reporter had been reading my blog and was surprised to read about Joan Rice’s short but glittering film career and learn she had lived first in Windsor and then settled in Maidenhead, Berkshire in 1964.
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| Joan Rice and Ken McKenzie in Cookham near Maidenhead 1983 |
Using details from my blog, including how Joan was personally chosen by the legendary Walt Disney to play Maid Marian, the reporter appealed for information on her and where her final resting was? By the following week, the reporter got back to me saying it was confirmed that Joan Rice was buried in Braywick Cemetery in Maidenhead.
Many local people were surprised to learn how this former resident had spent 8 years in a children’s home, became a waitress, and then experienced a Cinderella-like rise to stardom in Hollywood.
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| Walt Disney, Richard Todd and Joan Rice |
So, it was rewarding to know I had helped keep Joan's memory alive
and that this beautiful English rose had not been forgotten. If you want to know more about Joan's life and career just click on the blog label.
Merrie Christmas
When I began this blog seventeen years ago, I never imagined how it would grow. So, I sincerely want to thank everyone who has contributed over the years and helped keep the memory of this wonderful film alive. Merrie Christmas everyone and see you amongst the Sherwood glades in the New Year.
ROBIN HOOD E I COMPAGNI DELLA FORESTA
This wonderful Italian book (above) entitled, ROBIN HOOD E I COMPAGNI DELLA FORESTA, (Robin Hood and the Companions of the Forest), is owned by Laurence. It is a commemorative version of Walt Disney's live-action movie The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).
Laurence has very kindly scanned the pages so I can share some of the fabulous images. Enjoy!
A big thank you to Laurence for sending these pictures from this book.
Behind The Scenes
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| Richard Todd, Walt Disney and Joan Rice |
As we celebrate the centenary of the formation of The Walt Disney Company this year. I thought I would share a few publicity shots of the day the great man visited Burnham Beeches and Denham Film Studios in Buckinghamshire to oversee the filming of The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).
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| Elton Hayes, Walt Disney and Richard Todd |
In July 1951, just as his cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland was released in America, Walt Disney visited Europe with his wife Lillian and their daughters to supervise his second live-action movie, The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952) which was financed again by the blocked monies of RKO and Disney. Apparently, he was thoroughly pleased with the way things were going.
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| Walt Disney and family visiting England in 1951 |
Before leaving America, Walt had screened films at the studio, looking at prospective actors and directors and making what he called ‘merely suggestions’, while he left the final decisions to Perce Pearce, who was producing. For his part, Pearce had laid out every shot in the movie in thumbnail sketches, or storyboards, just as the studio had done with the animators, and sent them on along with photostats and the final script to Walt for his approval, which Walt freely gave, though not without a veiled threat that Pearce had better make the film as quickly as possible. “This is important not only to the organisation but to you as the producer,” he wrote.
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| Anthony Eustrel, Patrick Barr and Walt Disney |
Richard Todd is vague about how he was chosen to play the part of Robin Hood for Disney. He didn't remember if it was through his agent or the legendary filmmaker himself. But, after agreeing to play the part of the outlaw he met Perce Pearce and Maud Spector (the casting director) at the Dorchester Hotel in London and went through lists of candidates for parts in the film. Todd's only contribution was to suggest James Robertson Justice as Little John.
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| Joan Rice with Ken Annakin |
What is certain is Disney personally chose Joan Rice to play the part of Maid Marian. Todd doesn't mention Joan in his biography but, Ken Annakin, the director of The Story of Robin Hood, does. He depreciatingly describes Joan as Disney's, Achilles Heel and only fit to be somebody's housemaid!
Audiences around the world disagreed with Annakin.
Picture Strip
Back in 2011, Laurence kindly provided readers of this blog with a picture strip of the whole of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). It is an amazing piece of work and provides our fans of this movie with a keepsake of the story and every scene. To read it just go to ' Click on a Label' on this blog and click on 'Picture Strip'. Enjoy!
The Nobleman of the Woods
We have seen hundreds of promotional items for Walt Disney's live-action film The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). Many of them are on this blog and can be seen by clicking on the label 'Film Promotion' and 'Memorabilia.'
When a new Disney film was released, every form of advertising was used. Toys, books, clothing, games, sweets, records etc. Above is unusual stationery from Portugal, which I presume you would describe as a letterheading. Below Maid Marian (Joan Rice) and Robin Hood (Richard Todd) is O Fidalgo Dos Bosques, ' The Nobleman of the Woods'.
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