 Warner Brothers owned the rights to the original "Robin Hood"  operetta, while MGM announced at the same time to film a Robin Hood  movie based on the operetta with Nelson Eddy (qv) as Robin and  Jeanette MacDonald (qv) as Maid Marian. Warner Brothers agreed,  providing they could film a movie called "The Adventures of Robin  Hood" with James Cagney (qv) as Robin. The MGM film was eventually  abandoned