Robin and Marian
In 1976 Columbia Pictures released
Robin and Marian, a historic romance that picked up the legend of Robin Hood twenty years after the happy fade-out in
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). It heralded the return of Audrey Hepburn to film after a nine-year hiatus and also starred Sean Connery, who was still trying to break away from his James Bond screen persona. Directed by Richard Lester, the genesis of the film has an interesting story. Reputedly, Lester was approached by Columbia production chief Peter Guber with several film ideas printed on 3x5 index cards. Lester, riding on the heels of the enormously successful
The Three Musketeers (1973), was immediately intrigued by one idea in particular which was simply stated as "Robin Hood as an old man meets Maid Marian." The one line concept quickly took on a life of its own.
The resulting script, penned by James Goldman, was originally titled
The Death of Robin Hood but the studio brass declared the working title too grim and changed it to
Robin and Marian. It told the story of Robin of Locksley, returning to England after a twenty year absence, to find his beloved Maid Marian now a nun, and his old enemies waiting for him. Sean Connery was signed first, although Lester initially had him in mind for the role of Little John. Hepburn came on board next and was eager to play a different type of role for her return to the screen. Now forty-six, the actress stated, "Everything I'd been offered in recent years had been too kinky, too violent, or too young. I had been playing ingenues since the early fifties, and I thought it would be wonderful to play somebody of my own age in something romantic and lovely." But filmmaking methods had changed drastically since Hepburn had been out of the business and she found it difficult to adjust to the thirty-six day shooting schedule and Lester's working methods. In the biography,
Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris, the actress recalled, "I was literally petrified the first day on the set. Even after a few days, I was still shivering and shaking before each take. My hands were clammy. Making movies isn't like riding a bicycle. It doesn't all come back to you at once."
Lester's favored use of multiple cameras, as well as a one-take method of filmmaking, served to further unnerve Hepburn. On top of that, his cinematographer, David Watkin, used natural lighting and unfiltered close-ups that Hepburn feared would make her look unflattering. Hepburn also felt that Lester was downplaying the relationship of Robin and Marian in the film: "With all those men, I was the one who had to defend the romance in the picture. Somebody had to take care of Marian." Nonetheless, Hepburn - being the consummate professional - quickly overcame her concerns, at least externally, and made the best of a difficult situation.
Lester, who had been responsible for such landmark films as The Beatles'
Help! (1965) and
A Hard Day's Night (1964), not to mention the British New Wave cult comedy,
The Knack, and How to Get It (1965), certainly felt pressure to work quickly, though partly it was his own preference. As he stated in the aforementioned Barry Paris biography, "I'm prone to be impatient.
Hard Day's Night was just under seven weeks.
Juggernaut was six.
Musketeers was seventeen weeks for the two parts, about eight and a half apiece. On
Robin, I set out to shoot eight or nine pages a day. There were about fifty pages under a bloody tree, so why not? We had a location which suited the temperaments of the cast and, more important, their tax arrangements. There were five members of this distinguished English cast who couldn't set foot in England for tax reasons. In Nottinghamshire, where Sherwood Forest really is, there are very few trees left that aren't held up by rope and heavy bits of steel. So we shot in Spain," about two hundred miles north of Madrid in Pamplona (the location for
The Three Musketeers), where the director said it "looks like everyone's idea of what England looked like in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries."
Hepburn, who was living in Rome at the time, was delighted to be close to home and her two children, and brought them to the location to learn horseback riding and archery from the set experts. Her children were, in fact, a major impetus in her acceptance of the part: being avid James Bond fans, they convinced her to sign on in order to work with Connery. According to script supervisor Ann Skinner (in
Audrey Hepburn by Warren G. Harris), Hepburn, during production, "rarely joined us for supper in the hotel dining room, preferring to have it in her suite with the children. Sean Connery, however, would come down every night, go in the bar, and share in the jollity with every member of the crew."
While Hepburn and Connery were the focus of every press release on
Robin and Marian, the supporting cast was certainly impressive in their own right. Robert Shaw, best known as Quint in
Jaws (1975), and Richard Harris, who garnered acclaim for his role in
A Man Named Horse (1970), contribute strong performances as the Sheriff of Nottingham and King Richard, respectively. There are also memorable appearances by Denholm Elliott, well-remembered as Indy's sidekick Marcus Brody in
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and the versatile Ian Holm, who was recently seen in
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Elliott, incidentally, was the only cast member to not stay at the reserved hotel during shooting; he elected instead to reside in a nearby monastery, reportedly due to their abundant cheap, red wine!
Robin and Marian opened to glowing reviews, with one critic calling the pairing of Hepburn and Connery like "silk and chain mail." Frank Thompson in
American Film wrote that the film "is a sad and satisfying hymn to heroism, myth and lost youth...Hepburn's Marian is the heart of the film; for once, neither fragile nor innocent. Her performance has steel in it, and a touch of madness." The obvious hype of the film was Hepburn's return, illustrated by a standing ovation for the actress at a Hollywood screening. Columbia's promotion department, however, chose to put Connery in the limelight for the general public; a secret survey had revealed that the core potential audience - young people - really didn't know who Hepburn was. The film grossed a respectable four million, but more importantly, provided an admirable comeback for a screen legend, and proved that Connery was an intelligent actor capable of playing more challenging characters than James Bond.
Producer: Denis O'Dell, Richard Shepherd, Raymond Stark
Director: Richard Lester
Screenplay: James Goldman
Art Direction: Gil Parrondo
Cinematography: David Watkin
Editing: John Victor Smith
Music: John Barry
Cast: Sean Connery (Robin Hood), Audrey Hepburn (Maid Marian), Robert Shaw (Sheriff of Nottingham), Richard Harris (King Richard), Nicol Williamson (Little John), Denholm Elliott (Will Scarlett), Ian Holm (King John), Ronnie Barker (Friar Tuck), Kenneth Haigh (Sir Ranulf de Pudsey).
C-107m. Letterboxed.
by Eleanor Quin
Ronnie Barker (1929-2005)
Ronnie Barker, the British comic actor whose portly physique and jovial demeanor made him a star on British television and film through five decades, died on October 3 at his home in Oxfordshire, England after enduring a long battle with heart disease. He was 76.
He was born Ronald William George Barker in Bedford, England on September 25, 1929 and raised in Oxford.
Educated at the City of Oxford High School, he took a job as a clerk at Westminster Bank, all the while harboring dreams of becoming an actor.
He was offered his first break in 1948 when he joined the Manchester Repertory Company. His roles were small, but for a starry-eyed 19-year-old it could not have been more fascinating. Three years later, he joined the Oxford Playhouse where he gained more experience, particularly in comedy, and in 1955, director Peter Hall gave him his first big opportunity at the famed Arts Theatre in London, where he worked steadily and developed his craft over the next several years.
After some success on BBC radio, Barker moved into films. His parts were small, but his comic timing and avuncular mannerism made him memorable in some sharp
comedies: the little known Terry Thomas gem
Kill or Cure (1962); a put-upon customer at a railway station in
Doctor in Distress (1963); his first prominent film role as doleful sad sack in
The Bargee (1964); and a cameo in the pleasant if harmless family outing
Runaway Railway (1965).
Yet his achievements in film paled in comparison to his success on television, which would prove to be Barker's calling card. In 1966, commentator David Frost would hire him (along with Ronnie Corbett and John Cleese) for
The Frost Report, a wildly popular revue show that would satirize the popular fads and political situations of the day. From there, he moved onto
Frost on Sunday the following year which was also hit. Not coincidentally, his good fortune on television led to improved film parts: a dramatic turn in a spy thriller starring veteran character actor Van Heflin
The Man Outside (1967); and as a ghost who tries to help young children save a historical landmark in
Ghost of a Chance (1968).
Still, his success up to this point was marginal when compared to the golden stride he hit in the '70s. He starred in no less than three hit series that decade:
the popular sketch comedy opposite Ronnie Corbett in
The Two Ronnies (1971-1987); the endearing prison sitcom
Porridge (1973-1977); and as a frugal Northern shopkeeper with a penchant for stammering in
Open All Hours (1973-1985). All three of these programs had developed a huge cult following in America over the years due to their screening on public television, and it's safe to say that Barker was, if not an international star, a very welcome talent and presence to million of fans worldwide.
This decade would also contain his most lauded film performance - that of Friar Tuck in Richard Lester's
Robin and Marian (1976), co-starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn. Barker offered a cheeky take on this established character with just the right touch of pathos, making him an essential component to this robust adventure film. Oddly, despite his good critical notices, he made only one more film that decade, a full theatrical feature based on his television series,
Porridge (1979).
Barker was still a popular fixture in British entertainment when he semi-retired in 1987. He spent most of his time operating an antique shop in the Oxfordshire village of Chipping Norton, but he was always coaxed back for an occasional appearance, the most impressive by far were his two serio-comic turns in
The Gathering Storm (2002), playing the wise manservant to Albert Finney's Winston Churchill; and the HBO special
My House in Umbria (2003), a moving portrayal as a retired general maintaining his wit and dignity after tragic circumstances opposite Dame Maggie Smith. Barker is survived by his wife of
48 years, Joy; a daughter, Charlotte; and sons, Adam and Larry.
by Michael T. Toole
Richard Harris, 1930-2002
Two-time Best Actor nominee Richard Harris, who was also famous for his feisty, off-screen exploits, was once characterized along with Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole as one of Britain's most charismatic and unpredictable leading men during the heyday of their popularity in the '60s and '70s. He died at the University College of London Hospital on Friday, Oct. 25. He had been suffering from Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphatic cancer, and was 72 years old.
Harris was born October 1, 1930, in Limerick, Ireland, one of nine children born to farmer Ivan Harris and his wife, Mildred Harty. He was a noted rugby player as a youth, but shortly after his move to London in the mid-50s, Harris studied classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After a few years of stage experience, he made his screen debut in
Alive and Kicking (1958) and quickly developed a reputation as a talented young actor. His film career became increasingly impressive with such strong supporting turns in
Shake Hands with the Devil (1959),
The Guns of Navarone (1961) and
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).
Yet it wasn't until 1963 that Harris became an unlikely star after thrilling movie viewers and critics with his electrifying performance in
This Sporting Life. His portrayal of a bitter young coal miner who becomes a professional rugby star marked the arrival of a major international talent and won him the Best Actor award at Cannes and an Oscar nomination.
Strangely enough, Harris' next projects were multimillion dollar epics and he went largely unnoticed amid the all-star casts; he had a small role as Cain in John Huston's production of
The Bible (1966) and in
Hawaii (1966) he played a sea captain who falls in love with a married woman (Julie Andrews). He also tried his hand at a mod spy comedy opposite Doris Day -
Caprice (1967). A much better role for him was playing King Arthur in the film version of the Broadway hit
Camelot (1967). The movie was not well received critically, but Harris' singing skills proved to be a surprise; not only did he win a Golden Globe for his performance, but the film's soundtrack album proved to be a bigger commercial hit than the film itself. Even more surprising was his unexpected success the following year with the pop hit "MacArthur Park" - that kitsch cornerstone of lounge karaoke. The song just missed topping the Billboard singles chart in the "Summer of 1968;" It was topped by Herb Albert's "
This Guy's In Love with You."
The '70s proved to be a mixed bag for Harris. He scored a huge commercial hit with his best-known film of that decade,
A Man Called Horse (1970). It became a cult Western and featured him as an English aristocrat captured, tortured and eventually adopted by Sioux Indians. He also showed some promise behind the camera, co-writing the screenplay for the psychological thriller
The Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun (1970) and directing (as well as starring) in
The Hero (1972), a drama about an aging soccer star. But the quality of films in which Harris appeared declined as the decade progressed:
Orca (1977) - a terrible
Jaws rip-off,
The Wild Geese(1978), and worst of all,
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981), in which he had a thankless role as Bo Derek's explorer father.
Based on those films and his general inactivity in the '80s, Harris' comeback performance in
The Field (1990) was a wonderful surprise. In that film he played a man who has nurtured a field into a prized piece of real estate only to lose his sanity as the property is taken from him; the role earned him a deserved Oscar nomination and showed that he was still a vital screen presence. Harris took full advantage of this new spurt in his career by committing himself to many fine character roles: the cool, refined gunslinger in
Unforgiven(1992), his intense portrayal of a father mourning the death of his son in
Cry the Beloved Country (1995), the resident villain of
Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), and as the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in the epic
Gladiator (2000).
Yet Harris will probably be best remembered by current audiences for his portrayal of Dumbledore, the benevolent and wily head of Hogwarts School in
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) which will be released nationwide in just three weeks. Harris is survived by his three sons, Jared, Jamie (both actors) and the director Damian Harris.
by Michael T. Toole
