For most film companies, 1937 was a boom year, the recession which followed the next year, was a devastating blow to the industry, but despite this the number of Technicolor films grew steadily throughout the late 1930s and early 40s. Perhaps the novelty value of color was regarded as a means of fighting the slump - certainly the three aspiring majors, Warners, Paramount and Fox. These studios saw color as a means of competing in prestige with the top company MGM, where the attitude was : 'If our films make money in black and white, what do we need color for?'
Warners first big prestige color film was 1938's Adventures of Robin Hood, which cost nearly 2 million. The striking color photography - with much of the picture filmed on location - was achieved by celebrated cinematographers Sol Polito, Tony Gaudio and W. Howard Greene. The film strikes an ideal balance between intimate moments. spectacle and action sequences, and between a diluted and restrained use of color and the brighter more lavish scenes featuring the costumes of prolific designer Milo Anderson.
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| In like Errol Flynn - here the ever ambitious archer. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) |
Despite this, the reaction of film audiences at the time of its screening was disappointing; the picture barely managed to recoup its substantial cost. A new incentive for filming in color with a new emphasis on musical fantasy - was supplied by the smash success of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). In addition Selznick finally embarked on filming Gone With The Wind which was ultimately released in 1939.