Ivanhoe
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Movie Reviews of Ivanhoe
Movie Review: This is a classic of the medieval ideal
Summary: 5 Stars
Great acting! Great actors and actresses. A classic. From time to time I'd see it again and again. If this is your genre you've got to see it. Fast shipping.Movie Review: Great Story and a Classic Film
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the true classics with an all star cast. If you like this genera of film, you'll love this!Movie Review: OLD CLASSIC
Summary: 5 Stars
I SEEN THIS MOVIE WHEN I WAS YOUNG THE OLDER MOVIES SEEM BETTER THAN THE MOVIES OUT NOWMovie Review: IF YOU EVER WANTED TO SEE AN EPIC FRONTAL ATTACK ON A CASTLE HERE'S THE FILM YOU WANT & MORE
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Movie Review: A great show - not terribly faithful to book
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are looking for a great spectacle - you'll like this. I've liked this movie since I was in high school. I first watched it because my grandmother named one of my aunts 'Rowena' and I wanted to find out who or what my aunt was named for.
Later, I read the book. This movie is not terribly faithful to the book except for the main plot. For simplicity's sake, they combined characters and attributed to Ivanhoe actions and scenes he didn't actually do in the book. But this is Hollywood of the 1950s. This is Robert Taylor at one of his best films, along with Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders and Joan Fontaine, I still love this movie, always mentally pointing out to myself what I like best about it while I watch it. It's a great introduction to the story of Ivanhoe if you're not familiar with it. My husband wasn't, and I got him to watch it last week, pointing out to him that it was a introduction to the main story. If you want to see more "book" accuracy, check out the 1982 version. I love that one too!
There are several, what I'd call "glamour" shots of Robert Taylor in the film. Where you see that shot and you think "Wow!" And the guy was 41 years old when he did the movie. The first is in the Great Hall scene. Ivanhoe is in disguise as a Pilgrim just returned from the Holy Land. He sits at the very back of the room with a robe and hood on. The family dog barks, giving him away to his father, at the front of the hall. They cut to Ivanhoe, and he looks up hopefully, with a smile, to his father. Wow. He looks terrific.
Another hood shot is right before he throws down the gauntlet in order to save Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor) from being burned at the stake. They show a hooded figure next to a pillar. He looks up, and as he does - there's that handsome face again. The other shots have to do with him in his knight's 'mail' part of the armor, but just shows his face. King Richard looks splendidly that way too in the last shot of so of the film.
I loved George Sanders. Hopelessly in love with Rebecca, and voraciously against Ivanhoe, you know something's gotta give here. Joan Fontaine as Rowena was too old for the part. Even with a long fall on, she doesn't look like she would be under 18, as the Lady Rowena was supposed to be. But I liked her anyway, just because.
Then, there's the beautiful, 19-year old Elizabeth Taylor, hopelessly in love with Ivanhoe, and yet, because she's a Jew and he's a Christian, at that time in history there was no way those two would ever get together.
But I would be remiss if I didn't mention Emlyn Williams as Wamba. He is the funniest guy! This jester was the comic relief to the film - much needed because it was a serious time in history, and the main plot is very serious - so there had to be something of comic relief. And Wamba's character was actually also a compilation of two characters from the book. He was terrific!
All in all, I still like the film, and I'll pull it out now and again when I want a great story - or I miss seeing Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine or George Sanders...or Emlyn Williams.