Talk:Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood

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There's an excellent account of Douglas Fairbanks making his 1922 "Robin Hood" in Kevin Brownlow's book "The Parade's Gone By...", University of California Press, 1968, pgs. 247-257. The movie was originally going to be called "The Spirit of Chivalry". A slump had hit the movie industry so Fairbanks himself put up the money, a million dollars, and became sole owner of the movie. He established the Robin Hood library for accurate research. 500 workmen were employed to build the sets. The set was too big for ordinary arc lights so they built huge tin reflectors, 20 feet across, to reflect sunlight. Real chain mail was too heavy, it "would break your back", said Allan Dwan, the director, so they used heavy burlap sprayed with silver paint and just used chain mail for the close-ups. The work continued at night, lit by huge lights, which attracted mosquitoes. The silhouette of the huge castle could be seen from miles away. It was built on the old Jesse Hampton studio grounds on Santa Monica Blvd., near La Brea, which was just empty fields at the time. The structure towered 90 feet above the street. There was no detailed script during the shoot; Fairbanks, under his pseudonym Elton Thomas, with Allan Dwan and Lotta Woods, scripted the movie as they went along. The shooting of "Robin Hood" was Hollywood's big tourist attraction. The picture broke box office records almost everwhere; it ran for so long at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre that the streetcar conductors there announced "All out for Robin Hood" instead of announcing the street. "Robin Hood" ended up costing $1,400,000 but it earned $2,500,000. The picture was awarded the Photoplay 1922 Medal of Honor (this was before the Academy Awards). The film later became lost for many years but was discovered in America by a collector. The poem at the beginning ("So fleet the works of men...", etc.), is Charles Kingsley's "Old and New". The picture was shot to be shown at 22 frames per second (fps during this time period varied). Allan Dwan, the director, said "It was the atmosphere that we strived for far above anything else". The castle was designed by Wilfred Buckland and was said to be the biggest structure ever built for a silent film; its size was further increased by a glass shot. Fairbanks copyrighted his film as "Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood" as a caution against imitators. I hope this info improves the article. I'll let Wiki editors decide how to incorporate it.63.198.19.168 (talk) 02:50, 7 March 2010 (UTC)Sgt. Rock[reply]

This article is incomplete and is missing important information on the film's theatrical and home media releases which needs to be added to the article.--Paleface Jack (talk) 18:14, 7 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]