JohnHowardReid Singing coach for Mr Taylor: Arthur Rosenstein. Archery coach: Colonel John M.T.F. Churchill. Produced by Pandro S. Berman at M-G-M's Elstree Studios in England and on location in Hatfield Woods. Copyright 30 June 1952 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 31 July 1952 (ran 8 weeks). U.S. release: 20 February 1953 (sic). U.K. release: 13 September 1952. Australian release: 15 August 1952. 9,595 feet. 106 minutes. (Available on an excellent Warner DVD).NOTES: Nominated for the following prestigious Hollywood awards: Best Picture (won by The Greatest Show On Earth), Color Cinematography (won by The Quiet Man), Music Scoring of a Drama or Comedy (won by High Noon). With gross rentals of $6.3 million, number 4 at U.S./Canadian ticket windows for 1952. The film also took the number 4 position at the U.K. box-office. Perhaps because it was released for the winter-spring school holidays, the movie did far less business in Australia, though it did come in at the latter end of the top fifty box-office successes.COMMENT: The general impression that Ivanhoe is a schoolboy's movie is not borne out by the film itself. Crammed full of violent, exciting action in a fast-paced plot set in motion by a wonderfully dastardly trio of villains - superbly characterized by George Sanders, Robert Douglas and Guy Rolfe - Ivanhoe has been produced on a splendidly lavish scale that often staggers the senses. This is not to say that the actors are overwhelmed by pageant and panoply (though they do skilfully stand aside whilst hundreds of stuntmen do yeomen service in the many battle and siege scenes). True, Robert Taylor sometimes looks a trifle uncomfortable and out-of-place in medieval armor, but this clumsiness is due more to Thorpe's lack of competence in camera placement than to any deficiency of charisma on Taylor's part. Mostly he performs his chores with such dash, we forget his incongruous American accent. It's British-born Elizabeth Taylor who seems to have the wrong voice for the part (though she looks the beauty well enough).

Andreas Vilic Ivanhoe is a historical novel written by Sir Walter Scott in the early 19th century. The book itself is amazing and there is no need to say anything further about it. This movie on the other hand shows, how Hollywood production was able to cut out, twist and ruin a great story, presenting it in the end as a butchered,naive and twisted movie, such as this one. If you watch only the movie, then you wont know what I am writing about , so I do recommend to read the book, preferably after the movie,because if you do it opposite,maybe you wont have the stomach for the movie. It is a greatest shame,how some main characters were cut out, how story-line doesn't follow anything and mistakes made in the "historical" movie are just unforgivable.

Peter Hayes King Richard is captured while returning from the crusades and his evil brother, Prince John (Guy Rolfe), is appointed acting king in his absence. A middle-order knight (Ivanhoe) seeks natural justice for his country and freedom for his former ruler.Hard to know the correct approach to take on this crowd-pleasing historical epic. Falling short as a history lesson (other than a few random nods at reality) it quickly boils down to nothing much more than a good versus evil parable that even a small child couldn't lose. The masterful MGM reading the whole thing as nothing more than a well-financed and staged pot-boiler.The casting of Robert Taylor in the lead role is curious because being a knight and warrior is a young man's game and he is - despite his permed hair and clever make-up - clearly approaching middle-age. Still he does a good job when not being replaced by a stuntman.Evil brother and stand-in king Guy Rolfe is brilliant in the role and maybe the best acting on show. All snarl and beard stroking. Liz Taylor is a bit all-at-sea, which the director simply disguises by making her stand stock still while the camera takes in her staggering early beauty.The whole affair puts me in mind of Raiders of the Lost Arc where after being entertained for a couple of hours you are left reflecting of the things you could have been doing other than being entertained. Still simple entertainment isn't something to be sneezed at...

Red-125 Ivanhoe, directed by Richard Thorpe, is a rousing movie that doesn't faithfully follow the plot of Walter Scott's novel. Still, it works at its own level as a great story about a young Saxon knight who has pledged loyalty to King Richard. In the book, and the film, Ivanhoe's father has disowned him because Ivanhoe has betrayed his Saxon roots. Scott's hero is as much Richard the Lion-Hearted as it is Ivanhoe. The movie is all Ivanhoe (played by Robert Taylor.). Both book and novel are really about the fact that two women love Ivanhoe--a Saxon woman, Rowena, played by Joan Fontaine, and a Jewish woman, Rebecca, played by Elizabeth Taylor.The casting is where the movie gets into trouble. Scott's Ivanhoe is a young man, and both Rowena and Rebecca are young women. However, the studios wanted marquee names, and that's what they got. Youth is what they didn't get. When the film was made, Robert Taylor was 41 and Joan Fontaine was 35. Not exactly over the hill, but not the youthful lovers Scott (or we) envisioned.Taylor, on the other hand, was only 20. After all the scandals and the loss of her youthful beauty, it's easy for us to forget what she looked like at age 20. Just to remind everyone, she was impossibly, achingly beautiful. When she's on the screen, we don't see anyone else.This is a movie to see because it has a wonderful, rousing (invented) fight scene at the end, and because Taylor has to be seen to be believed. Don't expect a subtle, intellectual movie, and you won't be disappointed.