This is a reminder to all my blog readers that I have a Facebook page, Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men. It currently has 614 readers and is regularly updated.
Robin Hood's Props
Did you know about Robin Hood’s Props? In 2011, while watching a re-run of TV’s The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene, I recognised those distinct chairs designed by Carmen Dillon for Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952). Later, during an episode of Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986), I noticed the Sheriff (Nickolas Grace) sat in one!
But, that was not all! I also noticed Allan Wheatley, the Sheriff of Nottingham in TV’s Adventures of Robin Hood series often wore Peter Finch’s ‘Sheriff’ costume from The Story of Robin Hood.
After my blog post about this, my readers noticed those chairs appeared in several other medieval adventure films. These included Men of Sherwood (1954), which used other props and costumes from the Disney movie.
No doubt, ‘Robin Hood’s Chairs’ were shipped out of Denham Studios with all the other thousands of props after Rank Organisation stopped film production after Disney’s Story of Robin Hood was completed. Probably, they were hired out for various projects for the small and silver screen. Laurence points out that The Black Knight was made at Pinewood, which could explain the availability of the chairs as props.
With the help of my blog readers, I started a small list of some of the film and television productions that have used props from Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952) up to 64 years later:
The Men of Sherwood Forest (Film:1954)
The Black Knight (Film:1954)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV:1955-58)
The Dark Avenger (Film:1955)
Ivanhoe (TV:1958) Ep.The Night Raiders
(featuring Joan Rice. Joan would have remembered those chairs from her days filming on the sound stages at Denham Studio).
Sword of Sherwood Forest (Film:1960)
Robin of Sherwood (TV:1984-86)
The Mission - Stay With Me (Official Video) 1986
Horrible Histories (TV: 2013-15)
If you can add more, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.
Richard Todd
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| Richard Todd |
British actor Richard Todd (1919-2009) made three live-action movies for Walt Disney and became close friends with the legendary filmmaker. Below is Todd with Walt Disney and Joan Rice while filming The Story of Robin Hood in 1951.
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| Walt Disney, Richard Todd and Joan Rice |
Todd would star in two of the greatest World War II films.
He portrayed Wing Commander Guy Gibson in the 1955 movie The Dam Busters which told the story of Operation Chastise.
The final scene has Gibson notify Dr Barnes Wallis he has letters to write. Todd later commented he hated filming that scene because it brought back memories of all the letters he had written during the war.
For the 1962 film The Longest Day, Todd was cast to portray Major John Howard who led the glider attack on the Orne River bridges on June 6th 1944. Todd had been one of the relief unit paratroopers who had jumped and met with Howard's glider unit. In his portrayal of Howard Todd wore the pin and Beret he had worn on June 6th 1944 (photo above).
Aware of Todd's history the filmmakers feature a moment when the relief group arrives Howard gives a slight nod to an actor portraying paratrooper Richard Todd.
Giles & The Loyal Sheriff
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| Cavan Malone as Giles with Martitia Hunt as Queen Eleanor |
Several actors in Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952), remain uncredited in the film.
In 2012 we finally discovered the actor who had played Giles the page boy. This was Cavan Malone (1939-1982). Cavan appeared in several scenes of The Story of Robin Hood, including lending Marian his costume and allowing her to visit Sherwood Forest.
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| Cavan Malone with Joan Rice as Maid Marian |
Cavan Malone (born 25th November 1936) was the son of the Irish tenor Danny Malone. His mother Hazel Malone, ran the famous Corona Stage School in Chiswick, London, during WWII. As a child actor, he appeared with Alec Guinness in the movie classic Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
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| Cavan Malone |
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| Cavan Malone in TV's Coronation Street |
Cavan appeared in TV shows as far back as 1947 like No Hiding Place, Dixon of Dock Green and also played Gordon Davies, husband to Joan Walker, in Coronation Street in 1961. But after appearing in the classic war film 633 Squadron during the mid-sixties he seems to have quit acting.
Cavan sadly passed away in 1982, aged 46.
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| Fred Johnson as the loyal sheriff |
Recently, I was asked by Chrisandmike Smith if I knew the actor's name who portrayed the loyal sheriff who begged King Richard to let him join the Crusade?
I had overlooked this character in the movie, but regular contributor Christian did some research in 2014.
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| The old sheriff begs King Richard to take him on Crusade |
The old Sheriff appears only once but plays a pivotal role in the film since it justifies the whole plot of Robin becoming an outlaw. Should the sheriff have remained in England, the story would have been very different for obvious reasons.
Fred Johnson was born in Dublin on August 6th 1899 and went on to appear in films like Martin Luther (1953), The Curse of Frankenstein (1971), Dr. Blood's Coffin (1961) and a favourite of mine, A Christmas Carol (1951).
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| Fred Johnson (left) in A Christmas Carol |
Christian believes the sheriff was played by Irish actor Fred Johnson (1899-1971), a character actor who unfortunately made very few films (mostly horror pictures). He is uncredited in the Story of Robin Hood and no filmography lists him as one of the actors in this film.
Making The Story III
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| Richard Todd and Antony Forwood on bicycles |
Richard Todd as Robin Hood and Anthony Forwood (Will Scarlet) arrive in Burnham Beeches on bicycles for some location shooting, just seven miles from Denham Studios. And, is that the actress Martitia Hunt on a motorbike (below)?
We will also see Joan Rice on a bicycle later. Let's take another glimpse behind the scenes of the making of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).
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| Is this Martitia Hunt? |
This is the third and final part of my look at Walt Disney's Riddle of Robin Hood (1951). This promotional film was for his live-action Technicolor movie The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).
I must apologise for the quality of the images in this article as they are simply taken from the grainy original film. But they give us an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes of the making of The Story of Robin Hood.
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| Joan Rice arrives at Denham Studios |
The director Ken Annakin bemoaned in his autobiography how Joan Rice (1930-1997) would ride her bike everywhere and sometimes fall off. In the latter part of The Riddle of Robin Hood, we see the beautiful actress (above) leave her cottage and ride through the gates of Denham Studios.
Nearly all of The Riddle of Robin Hood has been uploaded on YouTube and can be seen under the title: How Disney Made The Story of Robin Hood (1952) | You Asked For It. But, sections are missing, including Walt Disney with art director Carmen Dillon examining a model of Nottingham castle's drawbridge (below).
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| Carman Dillon and Walt Disney |
Another interesting shot (below) shows director Ken Annakin and producer Perce Pearce planning a scene, while some of the cast take a break.
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| Kan Annakin and Perce Pearce |
A young award-winning director of photography, Guy Green is shown using one of the huge Technicolor cameras in the castle (below).
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| Guy Green filming in the castle |
The narrator of The Riddle of Robin Hood (possibly Hans Conried, the voice of Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan) claims that the animals used in The Story were authentic to the medieval period. The horses, shown below were English hunters and proved quite temperamental during filming.
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| The horses on set in Nottingham Square |
And finally below, is an interesting shot of the mastiff with its trainer and the crew filming the scene when Friar Tuck's dog chases the sheriff across a stream.
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| The mastiff with its trainer |
A huge thank you to Neil Vessey for making The Riddle of Robin Hood available for me to see.
Making The Story II
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| Ken Annakin starts filming inside Nottingham Castle |
This is my second blog post about the short promotional film 'The Riddle of Robin Hood'. My first article described how this 12-minute movie was the idea of Disney legend Bill Walsh (1913-1975), pictured below. The film showed some fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of the making of 'The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men' (1952). The image above is a good example and shows director Ken Annakin starting to shoot a dramatic castle scene.
As you can probably guess, I have always loved the movie, 'The Story of Robin Hood'. It triggered not only my interest in the legend of the outlaw but a love of history.
There were reports that Warner Brothers, the makers of the classic 1938 'Adventures of Robin Hood' starring Errol Flynn, resented the fact, that an animation studio, was lining up to film a new live-action version in the early 1950s. Producer Perce Pearce admitted that at that time, it would be the 14th film interpretation.
So, Walt knew that he needed to approach the story differently. The main message put across in the 12-minute promotional film, 'The Riddle of Robin Hood,' is that their Robin Hood film would be historically 'accurate' and shows the research crew's trip to England.
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| One of the team inspected a medieval manuscript |
Richard Todd, producer Perce Pearce, scriptwriter Lawrence Edward Watkin, historical advisor Dr Charles Beard and art director Carmen Dillon visited Nottingham City Library, Nottingham Castle, Newstead Abbey, Edwinstowe, Sherwood Forest, Ollerton, Creswell Crags, Nottingham’s Caves, the Salutation Inn and the Trip to Jerusalem Inn. Their quest was to 'bring the REAL story of Robin Hood to the screen.'
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| Richard Todd explores a limestone cave |
The narrator describes how they sifted through hundreds of manuscripts and old documents in museums and libraries across England. Even inspecting the ballads sung by minstrels.
We get to see art director Carmen Dillon's original drawings and model for Nottingham Square (above) that have been inspired by all the historical research.
One of the research crew and advisors on the film was Dr Charles Beard, seen above, described as a historical scholar and expert on the "mode and the manners and customs of medieval England". But, I don't think they had cigarettes in those days!
A very interesting moment in the 'Riddle of Robin Hood' is seeing Richard Todd being trained by Rupert Evans, 'England's outstanding authority on ancient and medieval combat'.
"Even the horses typical of Robin's time and place were sought", says the narrator, "not Hollywood cow ponies or Arabian stallions, but English hunters, of a breed familiar to the period."
Evidence of attention to historical detail by Carmen Dillon's art department can be seen in the still above showing an example of a Norman arch of the 11th and 12th Centuries.
It was Perce Pearce, Disney's director on 'The Story of Robin Hood' who was tasked to find a young British actress - 'perhaps someone relatively unknown, who suggests the countryside, but is also aristocratic.'
Six girls auditioned for the role. Out of the six, it was twenty-one-year-old Joan Rice (1930-1997) who was chosen for a screen test at Denham Studios, in full costume in February 1951. The tests were then sent back to Walt in America. After seeing Joan he told Perce Pearce, that she has quality, a "great little emoter, the camera loves her, she gets my vote!"
During the beginning scenes of 'The Riddle of Robin Hood', I spotted Perce Pearce carrying an image of Joan Rice (above).
The image above of Joan (above) might possibly have been used for a screen test.
I want to thank regular contributor Neil Vessey who originally tracked down the 'Riddle of Robin Hood'.
More to follow.
Making The Story
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| Walt Disney reading Robin Hood |
In 2008, I was lucky enough to watch Walt Disney’s 12-minute promotional film ‘The Riddle of Robin Hood.’ This is an extremely rare piece of cinematic history. What it reveals is the amount of groundwork and research Disney and his staff carried out before a single frame of his lavish Technicolor movie ‘The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men’ was shot.
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| Producer Perce Pearce, Richard Todd and the research team |
Walt Disney’s production crew, including producer Perce Pearce, scriptwriter Lawrence Edward Watkin, historical advisor Dr Charles Beard art director Carmen Dillon and Richard Todd visited Nottingham City Library, Nottingham Castle, Newstead Abbey, Edwinstowe, Sherwood Forest including Robin Hood’s Larder (now gone) and the Major Oak, Ollerton, Creswell Crags, Nottingham’s Caves, the Salutation Inn and the Trip to Jerusalem Inn.
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| Richard Todd climbs the Major Oak |
The idea for this short promotional film came from Bill Walsh (1913-1975). His career with Walt Disney began in June 1943. Initially, he started as a joke writer and publicist, which led to work on the syndicated Micky Mouse cartoon strip. But this portly, cigar-chomping New Yorker would later become one of the most successful producers in entertainment history.
Disney soon noticed Walsh's talents in publicity and put him in charge of the studio’s first television production ‘One Hour in Wonderland,’ which aired on Christmas Day in 1950. Later, when the studio began planning their second live-action movie, ‘The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men’ in 1951, Disney invited Walsh over to England.
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| Left to right. Perce Pearce, Walt Disney, Lawrence Watkin |
Once in England, Walsh put his instinct as a publicist to good use and conceived the idea of a 12-minute promotional film about the making of this new Disney live-action movie. He called it 'The Riddle of Robin Hood' and it included details about the amount of research the studio had made into the ancient legend and backstage production scenes. The Riddle of Robin Hood was shown in schools, cinemas and TV stations across the country. Walsh described Disney as being delighted because:
“We were getting a lot of mileage out of this goofy little film and Walt was sort of enchanted by all that free space promoting the film.”
Today, Walsh's 'goofy little film' gives a fascinating insight into the Disney studio’s live-action production of Robin Hood. It takes you behind the scenes, right from the early research, the planning stages, set construction and on to the filming at Denham Film Studios in 1951.
To be continued soon…
Our Maid Marian
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!
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