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Rating:  - Ivanhoe
This is a great movie that depicts honor, love and chivalry. I would recommend it to anyone. The movie is one that I am proud to own and that I will watch over and over again.
Rating:  - Great classic film from a great book useful in the classroom
This is a great classic film produced in the over the top old Hollywood style. Great way to introduce students to an even greater book. My students now have a visual picture of the early Middle Ages, though stylized, removed them out of their constant current culture mindset. The issue of racial prejudice prompted great in class discussion.
Rating: - A spectacular motion picture rich in action epics...
This loyal colorful classic account of Sir Walter Scott about knighthood flourishing in 12th Century medieval England is filmed under the direction of Richard Thorpe...
We see lavish sets, splendid scenery, castles, halls, courts, noble knights, gorgeous maidens, sumptuous ornaments, fancy dresses, jousting fields, tournaments, elegant pavilions, brilliant tents, costumed horses, armors, swords, shields, bows and arrows...
To seek the freedom of King Richard The Lion-Hearted imprisoned by Leopold of Austria, a Saxon knight, Wilfrid of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor), asks the help of Isaac of York (Felix Aylmer), a persecuted Jewish merchant, to raise l50,000 marks of silver... Prince John (Guy Rolfe), his treacherous brother, was conspiring with the Norman Knights to seize his throne..
The best moments of film were: When Ivanhoe, disguised as a Black Knight, enters the tournament at Ashby; the siege of Torquilstone Castle; the attack of Locksley and his bowmen; and the dramatic fight-to-the-death, with mace and ax, between Bois Guilbert and Ivanhoe...
Robert Taylor is the exact choice for a handsome, vigorous, gentile medieval hero who loves Rowena, and he is loved by Rebecca, creating a romantic triangle... Taylor plays the part with dignity, vitality and energy, rising high the age of Chivalry...
Elizabeth Taylor is sweet, sincere and beautiful... We see love through her beautiful violet eyes... Joan Fontaine, at the contrary, is far to be engaged with the part... She seems so cold and indifferent as the Saxon heiress...
George Sanders gives a splendid performance as the villainous Norman knight whose heart was stronger than his sword... He wants Rebecca at any price...
Robert Douglas plays the ambitious Sir Hugh De Bracy who had a taste for beauty and love for money... This great actor crossed swords with Errol Flynn in "Adventures of Don Juan," with Burt Lancaster in "The Flame and the Arrow," with Cornel Wilde in "At Sword's Point," and with Lawrence Harvey in King Richard and the Crusaders."
With three Academy Award Nominations for Best Picture, Best cinematography, and Best Score, "Ivanhoe" remains a spectacular motion picture rich in action epics...
Rating: - IF YOU EVER WANTED TO SEE AN EPIC FRONTAL ATTACK ON A CASTLE HERE'S THE FILM YOU WANT & MORE
AND MORE:
Besides a grand scale attack on a medieval castle by hundreds of bowmen, all in costume, there is more, much more that is grand and epically compelling about 'Ivanhoe', based on the novel written by Sir Walter Scott and Directed by Richard Thorpe.
-----> SOME HIGHLIGHTS WITHIN 'IVANHOE' - ABOUT A REBEL WITH A CAUSE - HIS KING'S REINSTATEMENT
-*- Jousting, with Ivanhoe [Robert Taylor] taking on not one, but all the Norman knights, admittedly one at a time -- of course.
-*- The royal trial of Elizabeth Taylor [Rebecca] for witchcraft. Elizabeth Taylor, here only 20 years old is stunningly beautiful -- period. Who in their right mind could accuse her of witchcraft?
-*- The final battle between Sir Brian Bois-de-Guilbert [George Sanders] and Ivanhoe [Robert Taylor], which includes horses, armor, battle axes and the venerable Mace & Chain. I must admit that I always wanted to see a battle between two knights with at least one of them using a Mace & Chain.
-*- Then there is that frontal attack on Torquilstone Castle to free Ivanhoe and his entourage. This is before CGI so these arrows are real, hundreds at a time. Naturally, nobody really dies from these arrows, but it looks really enormous in scale. Even the hollywood boulders that are showered upon Ivanhoe's men looks real though we know you can't drop barrels of 40 pound rocks on top of people heads -- presuming you may need these actors again, but it looks great.
IN A NUTSHELL:
Ivanhoe has found the missing king Richard the Lionhearted and finds him imprisoned within an Austrian castle for ransom. To raise this ransom he must overcome numerous obstacles including his own father who considers him [Ivanhoe] dead for siding with the Norman king.
The obstacles are epic as are the women in the film. Unfortunately, Robert Taylor is no Errol Flynn, a fact we are constantly reminded of when we see Ivanhoe doing the kind of things that Flynn's Robin Hood had done 15 years earlier.
Anyway, Ivanhoe is going to get the job, of restoring Richard to the crown, done no matter what it takes. He bargains with Jews, to whom he promises fair treatment in Richard's name if they aid him raising the ransom money, as if Jewish people need to pay tribute before they can expect fair treatment from the king. Ivanhoe also jousts against all the Norman knights in attendence at the royal tournament, as a sort of one man Saxon Cavalry and breaks in and out of Torquilstone Castle, and in the process finds himself the catalyst for the mother of all castle battles.
What is significant about all of this and more, is that Ivanhoe somehow maintained his chivilry throughout this spectacle and somehow won the favor and hearts of two prime maidens without violating either the trust or person of either. This is of course quite a trick, and perhaps only one that the incredible Ivanhoe is capable of.
*-- THE PRINCIPAL CAST --*
Robert Taylor - Ivanhoe
Elizabeth Taylor - Rebecca
Joan Fontaine - Lady Rowena
George Sanders - Sir Brian Bois-de-Guilbert
Emlyn Williams - Wamba (Ivanhoe's squire)
Robert Douglas - Sir Hugh de Bracy
Finlay Currie - Cedric
Felix Aylmer - Isaac
Francis de Wolff - Font De Boeuf
Norman Wooland - Richard I the Lionheart
Harold Warrender - Locksley
Patrick Holt - Philip de Malvaisin
Roderick Lovell - Ralph de Vipont
Sebastian Cabot - Clerk of Copmanhurst
John Ruddock - Hundebert
Michael Brennan - Baldwin
Megs Jenkins - Servant to Isaac
Valentine Dyall - Norman Guard
Lionel Harris - Roger of Bermondsley
Carl Jaffe - Austrian Monk
Guy Rolfe - Prince John
Basil Sydney - Waldemar Fitzurse
*-- THE PRODUCTION TEAM --*
Richard Thorpe - Director
Pandro S. Berman - Producer
Noel Langley - Screenwriter
Aeneas MacKenzie - Screenwriter
Walter Scott - Book Author
Freddie Young - Cinematographer
Miklos Rozsa - Composer (Music Score)
Frank Clarke - Editor
Alfred Junge - Art Director
Roger Furse - Costume Designer
Tom Howard - Special Effects
*-- THE MAJOR AWARDS --*
Best Color Cinematography (nom) Freddie Young 1952 Academy
Best Drama or Comedy Score (nom) Miklos Rozsa 1952 Academy
Best Picture (nom) 1952 Academy
Best Director (nom) Richard Thorpe 1952 Directors Guild of America
Best Original Score (nom) Miklos Rozsa 1952 Golden Globe
Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding (nom) 1952 Golden Globe
ABOUT THE DVD: EXCELLENT TECHNICOLOR TRANSFER IN DOLBY DIGITAL
Special Features are limited to a 'Tom & Jerry' cartoon, 'The Two Mouseketeers, the 'Swashbuckler Movie Trailer Gallery' and the choice of English or French audio and English, French or Spanish subtitles.
BOTTOM LINE:
This film lacks the fluid energy and crisp script that 'Robin Hood', starring Errol Flynn boasted some 15 years earlier. Nevertheless, it is a very real piece of English folklore that plays on the screen exactly the way a good fairy tale should. There are good kings and bad kings and good knights and bad knights. There are 2, yes, 2 damsels in distress and they are rather attractive as damsels go in beauty and character as well. However, there is something missing and something wooden about the acting, particularly by Robert Taylor in the lead as Ivanhoe. Somehow I was left thinking about what a terrrific film Robin Hood with Errol Flynn was after I saw this film.
Rating: - Best Ivanhoe Available
This is the best Ivanhoe available, and I believe most people who have been waiting for its release on DVD would agree. It was an excellent effort at historical accuracy for 1952, although it took liberties with the original storyline. Considering the amount of antisemitism that the Walter Scott book contained, that's probably just as well. Despite those changes, it's still more faithful in spirit to the original than any other Ivanhoe film. A really neat capability, now that it's out on DVD, is to freeze-frame the painted backdrops to get a better look at them. When Ivanhoe guides the Norman knights to his family castle in the beginning of the film, for example, there's a wonderful rendition of an early Motte and Bailey castle circa 1200. Where the Motte is a plain stone tower on a large mound, with a great house (or hall) in the bailey where everyone lived most of the time and had nightly feasts, such as the one the Normans barged in on. You could easily imagine yourself looking at Launceston, or one of several other Norman Motte and Baileys that still exist in England, France, and Italy. Of course, there were things out of place for the late 1100s, but it was close enough to help the viewer feel like 'you were there'. The camera work seemed excellent, being one of the first wide screen cinema-scope pictures. Stunts were basic by today's standards, with some sequences, like the arrows firing against the castle's gatehouse, appearing fairly comical. Most characters were above average in their acting abilities, although Elizabeth Taylor seemed to recite her lines in a machine-like tone at times. The music was well written, however it was magnetically recorded on monophonic film and sounds tinny and flat when compared to the Dolby THX encoded movies we're all used to hearing today. Certainly not in the same league with modern films like Lord Of The Rings, but for 1950's technology, it rates a full 5 stars.
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