Film Review: Ivanhoe (1952)

about 2 years ago (Edited)

(source: tmdb.org)

Today, when the likes of Sora and other text-to-video AI generation models offer the creation of entire worlds at the snap of a finger, it is increasingly difficult to imagine the difficulties creators of historic documentaries had to face a long time ago. The author of this review remembers some of those documentaries being aired on state television as part of educational programming. Some of them dealt with the medieval period and, unlike documentaries about the 20th Century, didn’t have stock footage to serve as an illustration of some of the most spectacular aspects of that era, like castle sieges. Thankfully, Hollywood had provided an alternative in the form of its dramatic reconstructions, with scenes being used to illustrate events that factually had little to do with the events being portrayed on screen. One such example was provided by Ivanhoe, the 1952 historical epic directed by Richard Thorpe, which, among other things, provided stock footage for a documentary about warfare in medieval Serbia. The film’s literary source is the celebrated 1819 novel by Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, a work that blends popular folk legends with the actual history of late 12th‑century England.

The protagonist, played by Robert Taylor, is Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a young Saxon knight who has joined King Richard the Lionheart (played by Norman Wooland) on the Third Crusade. Upon return from the Holy Land, Richard had been captured and held for ransom by Duke Leopold of Austria, which was the perfect opportunity for his duplicitous brother Prince John (played by Guy Rolfe) to seize power and spread false news about the king’s death. Ivanhoe, while travelling disguised as a troubadour, discovers that Richard is alive and rushes back to England to collect the ransom. He stops at the home of his father Cedric (played by Finlay Currie) and briefly reunites with his ward and love interest, the beautiful Lady Rowena (played by Joan Fontaine). One of Cedric’s guests is Isaac of York (played by Felix Aylmer), a Jewish elder whom Ivanhoe rescues from being robbed by Norman soldiers. As a sign of gratitude, Isaac agrees to help with the ransom, while Ivanhoe is also aided by Isaac’s beautiful daughter Rebecca (played by Elizabeth Taylor). She becomes an object of interest for De Bois‑Gilbert (played by George Sanders), a Norman knight and Prince John’s ally, who has her, Cedric and Rowena captured and brought to Torquilstone Castle in hope of preventing the ransom being paid. Ivanhoe offers himself in exchange for the hostages, while Locksley, a.k.a. Robin Hood (played by Harold Warrender), surrounds the castle with his men.

Some film scholars tend to see Ivanhoe as a spiritual successor or companion piece to The Adventures of Robin Hood made fourteen years earlier. Both films have an identical setting and share much of the plot and even some characters. Both films are also visually appealing thanks to Technicolor and further enhanced by a likeable musical score, in this case authored by Miklós Rózsa, who is renowned. Both films also had large budgets, which were later justified by great success at the box office. However, inevitable comparisons are less favourable to the 1952 film. Unlike Robin Hood, which was Warner Bros.’ relatively bold experiment with the new technology of Technicolor, Ivanhoe was produced by MGM, a studio at the height of its power and aware of the danger of the emerging medium of television. Not only colour, but spectacle had to fight that threat, and the large budget was given to Richard Thorpe, a prolific and capable but unimaginative director. He did a solid job, keeping the pace tight and running time below two hours, while putting costumes, British locations and British cast to good use. His skills are best displayed in the castle siege scene, which features hundreds of extras, some impressive stunt work and realistic combat, with famous British WWII hero “Mad Jack” Churchill in an uncredited role as one of the archers.

Ivanhoe also differs from Robin Hood in being much darker and looking more like a serious historical drama than a swashbuckling adventure. The script deals with unpleasant facts of medieval life like ethnic and religious divisions, anti‑Semitic persecution and women being burned at the stake for witchcraft. The violence is more realistic, with the protagonist shown to be bleeding from his wounds and some of the characters meeting surprisingly gruesome demises. Thorpe, on the other hand, couldn’t have compensated for the rather uninspired script. The most noticeable flaw is the dialogue, which is simply too flowery and, even if taken verbatim from Scott’s novel, sounds terribly dated and destroys suspension of disbelief for modern audiences. And there is a lot of it before the actual action starts. The audience would also have plenty of opportunity to conclude that the actual casting wasn’t very fortunate. Robert Taylor in his late 30s seems a little old for the protagonist, and there is an apparent lack of chemistry between him and the rather bland Joan Fontaine. The 19‑year‑old Elizabeth Taylor, on the other hand, serves mostly as eye candy and can’t show her proper acting skills due to poor dialogue. The supporting cast is the most effective, especially George Sanders and Guy Rolfe as villains, as well as Emlyn Williams as the jester/squire Wamba.

Ivanhoe had success at the box office and even got nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. That honour doesn’t look justified from today’s perspective, but people of the day loved this kind of film. Thorpe and Taylor soon reunited for two other big‑budget films with a medieval setting – Knights of the Round Table and The Adventures of Quentin Durward. Scott’s novel was later adapted mainly for television, including the highly regarded 1982 television film starring Anthony Andrews.
RATING: 6/10 (++)