IVANHOE
US, 1952, 106 minutes, Colour.
Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Robert Douglas, Finlay Currie, Felix Aylmer, Francis de Wolff, Norman Wooland, Basil Sydney, Harold Warrender, Patrick Holt, Sebastian Cabot.
Directed by Richard Thorpe.
Ivanhoe was nominated for Oscar for best film of 1952, as well as for colour photography and music by Miklos Rosza. It was based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel of the same name and the screenplay was written by Aeneas Mac Kenzie, a Scotsman who moved to Hollywood and wrote a number of historical film screenplays including The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, They Died With Their Boots On, Buffalo Bill, Captain Horatio Hornblower RN and The Ten Commandments.
The film is colourful, has a very strong cast. Robert Taylor was very popular at this time and appeared in such mediaeval films as The Knights of the Round Table and Quentin Durward. Elizabeth Taylor was almost twenty when she made the film and shows the transition from child star in Lassie Come Home and National Velvet to adult star. Joan Fontaine was the Lady Rowena. George Sanders was Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert?.
The film was directed by Richard Thorpe who also directed Quentin Durward and The Knights of the Round Table.
This is still one of the most entertaining of the mediaeval epics.
1. The film as a classic medieval epic? The tradition of Sir Walter Scott?
2. The film’s reliance on colour, English locations, court pageantry, medieval music, the stars?
3. How well did the film illustrate the Norman / Saxon issues in medieval England? Hatred and rivalry? The plea for a united England, the nature of patriotism? The rule of Richard, the dubious rule of John?
4. The portrayal of the crusades as heroic? And yet the double dealing with Leopold of Austria? Richard and his imprisonment and ransom? John and the Normans and their conspiracy? The raising of money for ransom, involvement of the Saxons and the Jews? The irony of the religious wars in the crusades? The effect on the people involved in them?
5. Ivanhoe as the hero? A sympathetic hero? The nature of his quest after the crusades? His Saxon background, loyalty and patriotism? His involvement in helping Richard? How did the audience sympathise with Ivanhoe's quest?
6. The character of Ivanhoe? His standard heroic conventions? his clash with his father? His clash with the Normans and rivalry? His reputation in the tournament? His love for
Rowena? His courtesy for Isaac? His reliance on Rebecca? His heroism at the tournament? His response to Rebecca in his illness? Saving his family and friends in the siege? His involvement in the fight to the death? His vindication at the end?
7. How well did the film visualise the medieval heroics especially in the siege of the castle and the fighting, the tournaments?
8. Cedric and his castle and the way that he entertained visitors? The picture of a medieval castle and its way of life? His cutting off of his son? His attitude towards Rowena? His attitudes towards the Normans, the Jews? His change at the tournament and imprisonment and involvement at the siege?
9. The character of Womba and the jester at the court, the slave and his freedom, as a squire to Ivanhoe, the pathos of his death?
10. Rowena as a medieval heroine? Her role in Cedric’s castle? Her love for Ivanhoe, her attitudes towards Cedric, to the Normans? Her rivalry with Rebecca? Her allowing Rebecca in to look after Ivanhoe? her involvement at the siege? The happy ending? A typical medieval heroine?
11. The portrayal of John and the Norman knights? John as a sinister character, for example, at the tournament and at Rebecca's trial? The picture of the Norman knights and their arrogance, their complicity in the plot against Richard? Bois- Gilbert as a heroic Norman?
12. The sympathetic portrayal of Isaac of York visiting Cedric's castle, the attack on his life, his gratitude towards Ivanhoe, his helping to raise the ransom? His status amongst the Jews? His speeches about the Jews and their wanderings? Their place in medieval England and their loyalty to Richard? His love for Rebecca? Rebecca as her father's daughter? Her fascination for Ivanhoe and helping him? Her love and its unfulfillment? Saving Ivanhoe's life? Her trial as a witch? Her watching the ordeal?
13. Growing sympathy of the audience for Bois -Gilbert? His love for Rebecca? His impatience with the trial and its hypocrisy? John's shrewdness in making him fight to the death? His death and his love for Rebecca?
14. Comment on the graphic details of the siege in the castle with battering rams, stones, fire? The details of the tournament and the fight to the death?
15. The humane ending and the reinforcement of traditional values?
