Ivanhoe **** (1952, Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Robert Douglas, Finlay Currie, Felix Aylmer) – Classic Movie Review 3654

Finding first choice Stewart Granger otherwise engaged, MGM studios cast their then waning star Robert Taylor as the disowned knight Ivanhoe in director Richard Thorpe’s thoroughly enjoyable Normans versus Saxons 1952 mediaeval swashbuckler Ivanhoe, derived from the classic adventure novel by Sir Walter Scott. It turned out to be one of the hits of the year.

Ivanhoe is the first in a trilogy made at MGM’s British Studios at Elstree and on location by the same director and producer (Pandro S Berman) and starring Taylor, followed by Knights of the Round Table (1953) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955).

Robert Taylor’s image may have appeared as too bland and goody-goody for the role, but his fired-up performance revived his career and led his star casting in Knights of the Round Table and The Adventures of Quentin Durward.

A tremendous cast, an expensive production, pretty Technicolor location and studio photography (Freddie Young) in Britain, a fine score (Miklos Rozsa) and classy direction are the big pluses. The minuses are the shortcomings in adapting Walter Scott’s novel – the movie is strong in the action scenes but slow in the dialogue and character development between – and that the American accents grate, at least to British ears.

Any eyes distracted from the young Elizabeth Taylor’s extraordinary, glowing beauty as Rebecca could focus on appreciating the polished performances of George Sanders and Robert Douglas as the amusingly menacing rotten Norman knights Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Sir Hugh de Bracy. Joan Fontaine is a weak link as an uninspired Saxon heroine Lady Rowena, but then the part is dull. Felix Aylmer compensates as Isaac of York.

Rowena (Joan Fontaine) at the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Ironically Fontaine received her first of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress in Hitchcock’s film Rebecca in Rebecca. Sadly, after Ivanhoe, her film career began to decline. Winning an Academy Award for her role in Suspicion makes Fontaine the only actor to have won an Oscar for acting in a Hitchcock film. Rebecca is the only film directed by Hitchcock to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Ivanhoe was nominated for three Oscars. Pandro S Berman, Freddie Young, and Miklós Rózsa were nominated for Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Color, and Best Music, Scoring, respectively. There were two Golden Globe nominations: Best Film Promoting International Understanding and Best Motion Picture Score for Miklós Rózsa.

Rózsa’s score is one of his best regarded. But, he said: ‘I re-read my Walter Scott and was again delighted. When I read the script I was less delighted. It was a typical Hollywood historical travesty and the picture for the most part was cliché-ridden and conventional. So I turned back to Scott, and Scott it was, rather than Robert or even Elizabeth Taylor, who inspired my music. In Ivanhoe I went back to mediaeval musical sources.’

Also in the cast are Francis de Wolff, Norman Wooland, Basil Sydney, Harold Warrender, Patrick Holt, Roderick Lovell, Sebastian Cabot, Guy Rolfe, Valentine Dyall, Carl Jaffe, John Ruddock, Michael Brennan, Megs Jenkins, Lionel Harris and Robert Brown.

The screenwriters are Noel Langley, Aeneas MacKenzie [Æneas MacKenzie] and Marguerite Roberts, the film’s main scriptwriter, who was blacklisted by the House on Un-American Activities Committee after she and her husband John Sanford cited the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions about whether they had been members of the American Communist Party. MGM got permission from the Screen Writers Guild to remove her credit from the film, since restored. It was nine years before Roberts was allowed to work in Hollywood again.

In February 1944, Taylor helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. In October 1947, he was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities regarding Communism in Hollywood, and did, naming names.

Scenes were filmed on sound stages at MGM-British Studios, Borehamwood, Herts, near London, and on location at Doune Castle, Scotland. The Ashby-de-la-Zouch tournament and the Torquilstone Castle siege were shot on the large Borehamwood backlot. Woodland scenes were shot in Ashridge Forest, Herts and Bucks.

Ivanhoe opened at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on 31 July 1952 with an opening week record gross of $177,000. In its first 39 days, the film took $1,310,590 at the box office, a new record for an MGM film. It cost $3,842,000 and made $10,878,000, resulting in a profit of $2,762,000, MGM’s biggest earner for 1952 and one of the top four money-makers of the year. It was the UK’s fourth most popular film in 1952.

The cast are Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe, Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca, Joan Fontaine as Rowena, George Sanders as De Bois-Guilbert, Emlyn Williams as Wamba and Narrator, Robert Douglas as Sir Hugh de Bracy, Finlay Currie as Cedric, Felix Aylmer as Isaac, Francis De Wolff as Front de Boeuf, Norman Wooland as King Richard, Basil Sydney as Waldemar Fitzurse, Harold Warrender as Locksley/ Robin Hood, Patrick Holt as Philip de Malvoisin, Roderick Lovell as Ralph de Vipont, Sebastian Cabot as Clerk of Copmanhurst/ Friar Tuck, John Ruddock as Hundebert, Michael Brennan as Baldwin, Megs Jenkins as Servant to Isaac, Valentine Dyall as Norman Guard, Lionel Harris as Roger of Bermondsley, Carl Jaffe as Austrian Monk, Guy Rolfe as Prince John, May Hallatt as Elgitha, Robert Brown as Castle Guard at Torquilstone, Martin Benson as Jewish Delegate, and Jack Churchill as Archer.

It is remade for TV in 1982 as Ivanhoe with Anthony Andrews, James Mason, Sam Neill and Michael Hordern.

Roger Moore features in his first starring role as Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe in the British TV adventure series Ivanhoe shown on ITV network in 1958–1959 (39 episodes). ‘Shout a cheer, adventure is here, Riding with Ivanhoe, With I-van-hoe’. Moore recalled: ‘I felt a complete Charlie riding around in all that armour and damned stupid plumed helmet. I felt like a mediaeval fireman.’

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3654
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