'Robin Hood' leaps into action at Leavitt Theatre on Wednesday, June 29
OGUNQUIT, Maine—He robbed from the rich, gave to the poor, and was the top box office attraction of 1922. He was Douglas Fairbanks Sr. starring in 'The Adventures of Robin Hood,' the original movie adaptation of the legendary tale. See it for yourself on the big screen on Wednesday, June 29 at 7 p.m. at the Leavitt Theatre, 259 Main St., Ogunquit.
Admission is $12 per person. Live music for the silent 'Robin Hood' will be provided by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based performer and composer who specializes in scoring and presenting silent films.
Set in medieval England, 'Robin Hood' tells the tale of the Earl of Huntingdon (Fairbanks), a dashing nobleman who joins King Richard the Lion-Hearted (Wallace Beery) on a Crusade to the Holy Land. Huntingdon later returns to England to find Richard's cruel brother, Prince John (Sam De Grasse), falsely claiming the throne, enriching his aristocratic cronies and tyrannizing the citizenry. Huntingdon takes to the woods and becomes 'Robin Hood,' soon joined by a band of merry men who undermine Prince John's reign by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.
Can Robin Hood and his men vanquish their enemy, the High Sheriff of Nottingham (William Lowery)? And can they rescue Lady Marian Fitzwalter (Enid Bennett), Huntingdon's betrothed, from the evil clutches of Prince John? Along the way, Fairbanks has ample opportunity to demonstrate his skills in archery, fencing, and acrobatics.
Directed by Allan Dwan, 'Robin Hood' amazed audiences with its enormous sets that recreated in full scale the castles and villages of medieval England. At a time when $200,000 was a hefty movie budget, 'Robin Hood' cost $1 million to produce. But the film proved an enormous hit, becoming the top box office attraction of 1922 and earning $2.5 million in its initial release through United Artists, the distribution company Fairbanks formed with fellow stars Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and his wife, Mary Pickford.
Fairbanks, among the most popular stars of the 1920s, was the inspiration for the character of George Valentin in the Oscar-winning Best Picture 'The Artist' (2011). Fairbanks was known for films that used the then-new medium of motion pictures to transport audiences to historical time periods for grand adventures and athletic stunts. He's often referred to as "Douglas Fairbanks Sr." to avoid confusion with his son, the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Also in the cast for 'Robin Hood' is Alan Hale Sr., who made such an impression at Little John that he was cast in the same role in the 1938 remake starring Errol Flynn. (Hale's son, Alan Hale Jr., played the role of the Skipper on the 1960s television series "Gilligan's Island.")
Live music for 'Robin Hood' will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who uses a digital synthesizer to create a traditional full orchestra "movie score" sound.
"Seeing a Fairbanks picture in a theater with live music and an audience is a classic movie experience," Rapsis said.
Rapsis emphasized the unique value of seeing early cinema as it was originally presented.
"These films were designed for the big screen, live music, and large audiences. Put it all together again, and you get a sense of why people first fell in love with the movies," Rapsis said.
The Leavitt's silent film series runs through October, concluding with a Halloween screening of 'Der Golem' (1920) on Saturday, Oct. 29. A total of nine programs will be offered, including Buster Keaton in 'Battling Butler' and 'The Temptress (1926), a Greta Garbo drama with two very different endings.
The Leavitt, a summer-only moviehouse, opened in 1923 at the height of the silent film era, and has been showing movies to summertime visitors for nearly a century. The silent film series honors the theater's long service as a moviehouse that has entertained generations of Seacoast residents and visitors, in good times and in bad.
For more info, call 207-646-3123 or visit www.leavittheatre.com. For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: 'Robin Hood' leaps into action at Leavitt Theatre on Wednesday, June 29
