Robin Hood of El Dorado (film)

Last updated

Robin Hood of El Dorado
The Robin Hood of El Dorado FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written byWalter Noble Burns
Screenplay byWilliam A. Wellman
Joseph Calleia
Melvin Levy
Based onThe Robin Hood of El Dorado: The Saga of Joaquin Murrieta, Famous Outlaw of California's Age of Gold (1932), by Walter Noble Burns
Produced by John W. Considine Jr.
Starring Warner Baxter
Ann Loring
Bruce Cabot
Cinematography Chester A. Lyons
Edited by Robert Kern
Music by Herbert Stothart
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • March 17, 1936 (1936-03-17)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Robin Hood of El Dorado is a 1936 American Western film directed by William A. Wellman for MGM. It stars Warner Baxter as real-life Mexican folk hero, Joaquin Murrieta, and Ann Loring as his love interest, with Bruce Cabot as Bill Warren and J. Carrol Naish as Murrietta's notorious partner, Three-Fingered Jack. The film is based on the life of Murrietta as the Robin Hood of Old California in 1850, a kind, gentle man who is driven to violence.

Contents

Plot summary

In 1848 in California, Mexican farmer Joaquin Murietta has become a criminal to avenge the rape and murder of his wife, Rosita, and lynching of his brother, Jose, at the hands of the Americans.

Cast

Notes

The screenplay was written by the actor Joseph Calleia, Melvin Levy and William A. Wellman, with assistance by Robert Carson. In 1937, Wellman and Carson won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for A Star Is Born . The Robin Hood of El Dorado was based on the biography of Joaquin Murrieta by Walter Noble Burns and was MGM's attempt to follow Viva Villa! .[ citation needed ]

Film historian Frank T. Thompson writes that "Wellman made a stronger statement on the subject of racism than a whole spate of later films (like Gentleman's Agreement )." [1]

The Robin Hood of El Dorado also anticipates the revisionist westerns of the 1960s, especially The Wild Bunch (1969), directed by Sam Peckinpah. Both films mix violence and sentimentality with an undercurrent of regret for a vanishing way of life. The Mexican folk song "La golondrina " is used to similar effect.[ citation needed ]

Art director David Townsend was killed in a car accident while scouting locations for the film. [2]

Crew

Related Research Articles

<i>Viva Villa!</i> 1934 film by Howard Hawks, Jack Conway, William A. Wellman

Viva Villa! is a 1934 American pre-Code film directed by Jack Conway and starring Wallace Beery as Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. The screenplay was written by Ben Hecht, adapted from the 1933 book Viva Villa! by Edgecumb Pinchon and O. B. Stade. The film was shot on location in Mexico and produced by David O. Selznick. There was uncredited assistance with the script by Howard Hawks, James Kevin McGuinness, and Howard Emmett Rogers. Hawks and William A. Wellman were also uncredited directors on the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warner Baxter</span> American actor (1889–1951)

Warner Leroy Baxter was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter is known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film In Old Arizona, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 2nd Academy Awards. He frequently played womanizing, charismatic Latin bandit types in Westerns, and played the Cisco Kid or a similar character throughout the 1930s, but had a range of other roles throughout his career.

<i>The Mask of Zorro</i> 1998 swashbuckler film by Martin Campbell

The Mask of Zorro is a 1998 American Western swashbuckler film based on the fictional character Zorro by Johnston McCulley. It was directed by Martin Campbell and stars Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Stuart Wilson. The film features the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega (Hopkins), escaping from prison to find his long-lost daughter (Zeta-Jones) and avenge the death of his wife at the hands of the corrupt governor Rafael Montero (Wilson). He is aided by his successor (Banderas), who is pursuing his own vendetta against the governor's right-hand man while falling in love with de la Vega's daughter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Mack Brown</span> American football player and actor (1904-1974)

John Brown was an American college football player and film actor billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career. He acted and starred mainly in Western films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Cabot</span> American actor (1904–1972)

Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong (1933) and for his roles in films such as The Last of the Mohicans (1936), Fritz Lang's Fury (1936), and the Western Dodge City (1939). He was also known as one of "Wayne's Regulars", appearing in a number of John Wayne films beginning with Angel and the Badman (1947), and concluding with Big Jake (1971).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joaquin Murrieta</span> Historical figure in early California (1829–1853)

Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo, also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexican figure of disputed historicity. The novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit (1854) by John Rollin Ridge is ostensibly his story.

<i>The Beast with Five Fingers</i> 1946 film by Robert Florey

The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 American mystery horror film directed by Robert Florey from a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on the 1919 short story of the same name by W. F. Harvey. The film stars Robert Alda, Victor Francen, Andrea King, and Peter Lorre. The film's score was composed by Max Steiner.

<i>The Hatchet Man</i> 1932 film

The Hatchet Man (1932) is a pre-Code film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Edward G. Robinson. Warner Bros. had purchased the David Belasco/Achmed Abdullah play The Honorable Mr. Wong about the Tong gang wars. Made during the few years before strict enforcement of the Production Code, The Hatchet Man has elements that would not be allowed later, such as adultery, narcotics, and a somewhat graphic use of a flying hatchet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonora Pass</span> Mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada in California

Sonora Pass is a mountain pass in the Sierra Nevada in California. It is the second-highest pass with a road in California and in the Sierra Nevada. It is 321 feet (98 m) lower than Tioga Pass to the south. State Route 108 traverses the pass, as does the Pacific Crest Trail.

<i>Ivanhoe</i> (1952 film) 1952 film by Richard Thorpe

Ivanhoe is a 1952 British-American historical adventure epic film directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was shot in Technicolor, with a cast featuring Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Finlay Currie, Felix Aylmer, and Sebastian Cabot. The screenplay is written by Æneas MacKenzie, Marguerite Roberts, and Noel Langley, based on the 1819 historical novel Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Love (lawman)</span> California Ranger (1810–1868)

Harry Love was the head of California's first state-wide law enforcement agency, the California Rangers, and became famous for allegedly killing the notorious bandit Joaquin Murrieta. The California Rangers were also considered to be part of California's early state militia, the predecessor to the current California Army National Guard, with Love holding the rank of Captain within the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Miller (actor)</span> American actor (1924–2022)

Mark Miller was an American stage and television actor and writer who starred in over 30 plays and made more than forty appearances in television programs and films since 1953. He is best known for his roles as Bill Hooten in Guestward, Ho!, as Jim Nash in the Please Don't Eat the Daisies TV series and as Alvie in the movie he wrote and produced, Savannah Smiles.

<i>Special Agent</i> (1935 film) 1935 American drama film

Special Agent is a 1935 American crime drama film directed by William Keighley and starring Bette Davis and George Brent. The screenplay by Laird Doyle and Abem Finkel is based on a story by Martin Mooney. The film was produced by Cosmopolitan Productions and released by Warner Bros.

<i>Star in the Night</i> 1945 film

Star in the Night is a 1945 American short drama film directed by Don Siegel and starring J. Carrol Naish, Donald Woods and Rosina Galli. The film was Siegel's directorial debut, and won an Oscar in 1946 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). The film is a modern-day retelling of the Nativity story, set on Christmas Eve at a desert motel in the Southwestern United States.

<i>The Bandit Queen</i> (film) 1950 film by William A. Berke

The Bandit Queen is a 1950 American Western film directed by William Berke. and starring Barbara Britton and Phillip Reed as the leaders of two Robin Hood types of bands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Townsend (art director)</span> American art director (1891–1935)

David Wood Townsend was an American art director.

<i>The Lash</i> (1930 film) 1930 film

The Lash is a 1930 American pre-Code Western film produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. It had an alternate title of Adios. The film was directed by Frank Lloyd and stars Richard Barthelmess, Mary Astor, James Rennie and Marian Nixon. The film was issued in two formats: Warner Bros. 65mm Vitascope wide screen and regular 35mm. The Vitaphone sound system was used for recording. Exteriors were filmed at the current Westlake Village, California and Russell Ranch of Thousand Oaks, California areas near Los Angeles. It was adapted for the screen by Bradley King from a story Adios by Fred Bartlett and Virginia Stivers Bartlett.

<i>Hideaway</i> (1937 film) 1937 film directed by Richard Rosson

Hideaway is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Richard Rosson. Based on the 1937 play A House in the Country by Melvin Levy, the screenplay was written by J. Robert Bren and Edmund L. Hartmann. Produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, it opened on August 13, 1937. The film stars Fred Stone, Emma Dunn, Marjorie Lord and J. Carroll Naish.

<i>The Finger Points</i> 1931 film

The Finger Points is a 1931 American Pre-Code drama film directed by John Francis Dillon and written by John Monk Saunders, W.R. Burnett and Robert Lord. The film stars Richard Barthelmess, Fay Wray, Regis Toomey, Robert Elliott, Clark Gable, Oscar Apfel and Robert Gleckler. The film was released by Warner Bros. on April 11, 1931.

Murieta is a 1965 American biographical Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Jeffrey Hunter, Diana Lorys, Sara Lezana and Sancho Gracia. The film is about Joaquin Murrieta.

References

  1. William A. Wellman by Frank T. Thompson, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1983.
  2. Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1935, "Crash Kills Film Expert, David Townsend, Art Aide, Dead and Three Injured as Car Falls in Canyon" pg. A2