The Adventures of Robin Hood

Film Score

• The 1938 film, The Adventures of Robin Hood recounts the traditional story with Errol Flynn as the titular hero, Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, Claude Rains as Prince John, and Basil Rathbone as the dastardly villain Sir Guy. Michael Curtiz and William Keighley directed the film.¹
• Fun fact – Korngold won his second academy award for the film score.²
• Korngold’s composition is regarded as one of the greatest film scores of all time.
• Special connection to broadcast radio – a few days before the film’s release, producers scheduled a special broadcast of substantial excerpts from Korngold’s score, to be conducted by its composer with story narration by Basil Rathbone, one of the film’s stars, as a radio trailer of sorts for the film. “The famous broadcast of [the film] score was an important milestone in the wider acceptance of music written for the cinema being considered an important art form in its own right.”³

Symphonic Suite (based on the film score)

• Arranged in 1938
• Movements:
  • I. Old England, The Poor People
  • II. Robin Hood and His Merry Men
  • III. Love Scene
  • IV. The Fight, Victory and Epilogue⁴

1. “The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938),” IMDB, accessed October 31, 2019, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029843/?ref_=tt_ch.
2. Brendan G. Carroll, “Korngold, Erich Wolfgang,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 30, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000015390.
3. Brendan G. Carroll, “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” Library of Congress (2018), accessed May 8, 2023, https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood.pdf.
4. “The Adventures of Robin Hood (Korngold, Erich Wolfgang),” IMSLP, accessed May 8, 2023, https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Robin_Hood_(Korngold%2C_Erich_Wolfgang).