Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

HotToastyRag Taylor and Taylor! I couldn't resist. Ivanhoe is a Technicolor, Camelot splendor starring the pretty Elizabeth Taylor, and the equally pretty Robert Taylor. Although it's supposed to be a dramatic epic, I couldn't stop laughing when I watched it. I was raised on The Court Jester, and Ivanhoe seemed like prime material for Danny Kaye to spoof. The sets and costumes seemed like they were shared by both films, and even the plots are similar! Both heroes are unhappy with the kingdom and try to return the rightful owner to the throne, hoping a forest crusader will help them in their cause.See why I kept laughing? Well, if you haven't seen The Court Jester, or if you're able to take Ivanhoe seriously, you might like it. Robin Hood movie are usually entertaining, and this one has Elizabeth Taylor to add to the scenery, so you could do a lot worse. She made a lot of movies in the 50s, though, and quite a few of them were period pieces, so you might want to catch Raintree County instead.

hall895 Swashbuckler films should just by their nature always be quite fun. Unfortunately Ivanhoe is not much fun at all. This is a dull film, too serious-minded for its own good. When you think of swashbucklers Errol Flynn's Robin Hood is of course the first thing that comes to mind. This film suffers terribly by comparison. Robert Taylor, playing Ivanhoe, has none of the charm and charisma Flynn had. Taylor turns in a very bland performance. To be fair he is not helped by what is a rather lousy script. The dialogue in this film is so stilted and unnatural. The film looks good, colors pop off the screen, battle scenes are well done. But visual spectacle is not enough. The story has to engage. And, weighed down by that clunky dialogue, the story in this film falls flat.There are some saving graces here. Taylor is a bit of a dud and in a film like this if the hero is a dud that is a big problem. But the supporting players perk things up a bit. Joan Fontaine plays Rowena, the object of Ivanhoe's affection, and Fontaine falls comfortably into the role much like her sister did in Robin Hood. There is the sense though that, much as with Olivia de Havilland in that film, Fontaine's character is somewhat underdeveloped. The story would be helped if we got to know more about Rowena. We do get to know more about Rebecca, a young Jewish woman who finds herself in quite a difficult situation. Elizabeth Taylor plays the part very well, bringing some emotion to a film which desperately needs it. Of course she also brings her great beauty to the role, easy to see why a man would fall under her spell. It is De Bois-Guilbert, Ivanhoe's rival, who loves Rebecca. But she loves Ivanhoe. And Ivanhoe loves Rowena. But Rowena is jealous of Rebecca. All a bit messy.The romantic entanglements all sort themselves out in the end. But it's a bit of a slog getting to that ending. This is a rather dull, oddly lifeless movie. You can't help but compare this movie to Robin Hood. Heck, Robin Hood even shows up in this movie, serving to do little more than to reinforce the notion you'd rather be watching Errol Flynn. Ivanhoe is no Robin Hood. The women in the picture, Fontaine and Elizabeth Taylor, do good work. George Sanders, though saddled by that awful dialogue, is reasonably decent as well playing De Bois-Guilbert. But in a movie titled Ivanhoe the actor playing Ivanhoe obviously holds the key to the film's success. And Robert Taylor is not up to snuff. How can the hero of a swashbuckler film be so bland? The character of Ivanhoe disappoints so the movie can't help but disappoint. This is a movie which takes itself way too seriously. It is the type of movie you should be able to have some fun with. But fun is in desperately short supply here.

nerdomatic10-937-667230 This film made a HUGE impression on me as a small child while I watched it on the family TV, lying on the floor. So I have a very sentimental attachment to it. At that time I was a big fan of all Sir Walter Scott's novels - well, the Classic Comics versions, actually. Anyway, I was completely in awe of "Ivanhoe" and I enjoyed very second of it. The only thing I couldn't grasp was how Ivanhoe could prefer Rowena over Rebecca! I was only 6 or 7, but the 19-year-old Elizabeth Taylor made a deep, incomprehensible-at-the-time impression on me. She was literally incredible. How could anybody possibly turn her down? But, that's what happened for the sake of the story.I've watched "Ivanhoe" many times since, and my older, cynical self spotted a lot that I missed that first time. Robert Taylor was way too old and too stiff and was a very wooden actor. Put Tyrone Power in there and you'd have an all-time classic epic. But I also noticed the inimitable George Sanders. Wow! What a great villain he was! I thought his Sir Brian was actually far more realistic than Ivanhoe because he fell really hard for Rebecca, which made a lot more sense to me.But anyway, this is a great swashbuckler, very entertaining and colorful. I am now so old that I can just let it carry me along and take me back to my childhood for a couple hours. No matter what though, it's still impossible for me to comprehend someone not taking Liz when he had the chance. After it's over, I picture Ivanhoe in his castle being nagged by Rowena and kicking himself in the butt, over and over and over.

Spikeopath Out of MGM, Ivanhoe was spared no expense and became the costliest epic produced in England at the time. Though the studio millions that were tied into English banks is more telling than any sort of love for the project one feels.It's directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman. The cast features Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Finlay Currie and Felix Aylmer. The screenplay is by Æneas MacKenzie, Marguerite Roberts, and Noel Langley who adapts from the novel Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. The score is by Miklós Rózsa and Freddie Young is on Technicolor cinematography duties with the exterior location work at Doune Castle, Stirling, Scotland.Though the pacing is far from perfect and there's some saggy bits in the script, Ivanhoe remains arguably one of the finest and most under appreciated of MGM's historical epics. Naturally there's some differences from Scott's novel (a given in most genre pieces of this type), but Thorpe and his team come through with the material given and deliver a rousing treat.It looks tremendous courtesy of Young's lensing, where he brilliantly brings to life Roger Furse's costumes and Alfred Junge's majestic sets. Taylor (R), Fontaine and Taylor (E) look delightful, (especially Liz who can easily take you out of the movie such is her beauty here) and their romantic triangle makes for an ever watchable romantic spectacle.The action is on the money, with the attack on Front de Boeuf castle adroitly constructed (and not skimped on time wise), a jousting competition that vividly comes to life, and a Mano-Mano fight between Taylor's Ivanhoe and Sanders' De Bois-Guilbert that is grisly and adrenalin pumping in equal measure (check out the sound work here too).It's also worth acknowledging the anti-semitic part of the story, with the MGM suits thankfully deciding to not ignore this part of Scott's literary source. The three handsome lead stars are backed up superbly by a robust Williams, while the trio of villains played by Sanders, Robert Douglas and the excellent Guy Wolfe as weasel Prince John, deliver the requisite quota of boo hiss villainy.It made big money for MGM, setting records for the studio at the time. It's not hard to see why. It's a beautiful production across the board, and while it's not without faults per se, it holds up regardless as it firmly engages and stirs the blood of the historical epic loving fan. What a year 1952 was for MGM! 8/10