Ivanhoe (1952 film)
Encyclopedia
Ivanhoe is a 1952
1952 in film
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....

 historical (Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

) film made by MGM. It was directed by Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe was an American film director.Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred...

 and produced by Pandro S. Berman
Pandro S. Berman
Pandro Samuel Berman , was an American film producer.-Biography:His father, Henry Berman, was general manager of Universal Pictures during Hollywood's formative years. The younger Berman, Pandro Samuel, was an assistant director during the 1920s under Mal St. Clair and Ralph Ince...

. The cast featured Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor (actor)
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...

, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

, Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....

, George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...

, Emlyn Williams
Emlyn Williams
George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....

, Finlay Currie
Finlay Currie
Finlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...

 and Felix Aylmer
Felix Aylmer
Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...

. The screenplay was by Æneas MacKenzie, Marguerite Roberts
Marguerite Roberts
Marguerite Roberts was an American screenwriter, one of the highest paid in the 1930s. After she and her husband John Sanford refused to testify in 1951 before the House Un-American Activities Committee, she was blacklisted for nine years and unable to get work in Hollywood...

, and Noel Langley
Noel Langley
Noel Langley was a successful novelist, playwright, screenwriter and director. While under contract to MGM he was one of the screenwriters for The Wizard of Oz...

 from the novel Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...

by Sir Walter Scott.

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Pandro S. Berman
Pandro S. Berman
Pandro Samuel Berman , was an American film producer.-Biography:His father, Henry Berman, was general manager of Universal Pictures during Hollywood's formative years. The younger Berman, Pandro Samuel, was an assistant director during the 1920s under Mal St. Clair and Ralph Ince...

 for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

, Freddie Young
Freddie Young
Freddie Young OBE, BSC , was one of Britain's most distinguished and influential cinematographers...

 for Best Cinematography, Color
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

, and Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany , and active in France , England , and the United States , with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953...

 for Best Music, Scoring
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...

. In addition, Richard Thorpe was nominated by the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...

, USA for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. There were also two Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 nominations: Best Film Promoting International Understanding and Best Motion Picture Score, for Miklós Rózsa.

The film was the first in what turned out to be an unofficial trilogy made by the same director and producer and starring Robert Taylor. The others were Knights of the Round Table
Knights of the Round Table (film)
Knights of the Round Table is a 1953 Technicolor Cinemascope historical film made by MGM. Directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman, it was the first film in Cinemascope made by that studio...

(1953
1953 in film
The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A...

) and The Adventures of Quentin Durward
The Adventures of Quentin Durward
The Adventures of Quentin Durward, known also as Quentin Durward, is a 1955 historical film released by MGM. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman...

(1955
1955 in film
The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released....

). All three were made at MGM's British Studios at Elstree
Elstree
Elstree is a village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire on the A5 road, about 10 miles north of London. In 2001, its population was 4,765, and forms part of the civil parish of Elstree and Borehamwood, originally known simply as Elstree....

, near London.

Plot

Richard the Lionheart (Norman Wooland
Norman Wooland
Norman Wooland was a German-born British character actor who appeared in many major films, notably in several Shakespearean ones....

), King of England, vanishes while returning from the Crusades
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...

. One of his knights, the Saxon Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor (actor)
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...

), searches tirelessly for him, finally finding him being held for ransom by Leopold of Austria for the enormous sum of 150,000 mark
Mark (money)
Mark was a measure of weight mainly for gold and silver, commonly used throughout western Europe and often equivalent to 8 ounces. Considerable variations, however, occurred throughout the Middle Ages Mark (from a merging of three Teutonic/Germanic languages words, Latinized in 9th century...

s of silver. Richard’s treacherous brother, Prince John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

 (Guy Rolfe
Guy Rolfe
Guy Rolfe was an English actor born in London.He made his screen debut in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in Knight Without Armour. Notable roles include: Prince John in Ivanhoe , Ned Seymour in Young Bess , Caiaphas in King of Kings , and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba...

), knows about it, but enjoys ruling in his absence
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

.

Ivanhoe returns to England, to the house of his estranged father, Cedric (Finlay Currie
Finlay Currie
Finlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...

), to be reunited with his love and Cedric’s ward, the Lady Rowena (Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....

), and to beg his father’s help in raising the ransom. Cedric refuses to help a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 king and orders his son to leave. Wamba (Emlyn Williams
Emlyn Williams
George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....

), Cedric’s court jester
Court jester
A jester, joker, jokester, fool, wit-cracker, prankster, or buffoon was a person employed to tell jokes and provide general entertainment, typically for a European monarch. Jesters are stereotypically thought to have worn brightly colored clothes and eccentric hats in a motley pattern...

, begs to go with Ivanhoe and is made his squire
Squire
The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...

.

Two separate parties of travellers arrive and are granted Cedric’s hospitality: a Jew, Isaac of York (Felix Aylmer
Felix Aylmer
Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...

), and Norman knights Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert (George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...

) and Sir Hugh de Bracy (Robert Douglas
Robert Douglas (actor)
Robert Douglas was born as Robert Douglas Finlayson in Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire. He was a successful stage and film actor, a television director and producer....

), and their entourage. That night, two of the Normans try to rob Isaac, but are foiled by Ivanhoe. Not feeling safe, Isaac decides to return to his home in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

; Ivanhoe offers to escort him there.

When they reach Isaac’s home, Ivanhoe secures his help raising the ransom in return for better treatment for the Jews once Richard returns. Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

), Isaac’s daughter, visits Ivanhoe secretly in the night to reward him for rescuing her father; she gives him jewels to purchase arms and a horse for an important upcoming joust
Jousting
Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two knights mounted on horses and using lances, often as part of a tournament.Jousting emerged in the High Middle Ages based on the military use of the lance by heavy cavalry. The first camels tournament was staged in 1066, but jousting itself did not...

. She falls in love with him, despite the great social gulf between them.

Nearly everyone of note is at the tournament, including Prince John. Norman knights loyal to him defeat all comers. Just when it seems that they are victorious, a mysterious new Saxon knight appears, arrayed all in black, with white trim, his face hidden behind his visor. He does not give his name, but challenges all five Norman champions. He easily defeats the first three, Malvoisin, Ralph, and Front de Boeuf (Francis de Wolff
Francis de Wolff
Francis de Wolff was an English character actor. Large, bearded, and beetle-browed, he was often cast as villains in both film and television....

), one after the other, and also wins the fourth bout against de Bracy, but is seriously wounded in the shoulder. He is soon identified by many as Ivanhoe. When Ivanhoe salutes Rebecca after his first victory, Bois-Guilbert is immediately smitten by her beauty. In the last joust against Bois-Guilbert, the weakened Ivanhoe falls from his horse. He is carried off, to be tended to by Rebecca.

Fearing Prince John’s wrath, the Saxons depart; Ivanhoe is taken to the woods under the protection of Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....

 (Harold Warrender
Harold Warrender
Harold Warrender was a British film actor.His father was Sir George Warrender, 7th Baronet.-Selected filmography:* Leave It to Blanche * Lady in Danger * Mimi * Lazybones...

). The rest make for the city of York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

, but are captured and taken to the castle of Front de Boeuf. When Ivanhoe hears the news, he gives himself up, in exchange for his father’s freedom. However, the Normans go back on their word and keep them both. Robin Hood’s men then storm the castle, freeing most of the captives. In the fighting, de Boeuf drives Wamba to his death in a burning part of the castle and is slain in turn by Ivanhoe. Bois-Guilbert alone escapes, by using Rebecca as a shield, while de Bracy is defeated and captured by Ivanhoe after attempting to do the same with Rowena.

Meanwhile, the enormous ransom is finally collected, but the Jews face a cruel choice: free either Richard or Rebecca, for Prince John has set the price of her life at 100,000 marks, the Jews’ contribution. Isaac chooses Richard. Ivanhoe entrusts the ransom delivery to Cedric, but promises Isaac that he will rescue Rebecca.

John has her condemned to be burned at the stake
Execution by burning
Death by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft....

 as a witch
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

, but Ivanhoe appears and challenges the verdict, invoking the right to “wager of battle
Trial by combat
Trial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it is a judicially sanctioned duel...

,” which cannot be denied. Prince John chooses the conflicted Bois-Guilbert as his champion. The Norman makes a last desperate plea to Rebecca: in return for her love, he is willing to forfeit the duel, though he would be forever disgraced as a knight. She refuses, saying “We are all in God’s hands, sir knight.”

In the battle to the death, Ivanhoe’s axe prevails over Bois-Guilbert’s mace and chain
Flail (weapon)
The flail is a hand weapon derived from the agricultural tool.The handle is attached to the striking part of a weapon by a flexible chain or cord...

. As he lies dying, Bois-Guilbert reaffirms to Rebecca that he is the one who loves her, not Ivanhoe. Rebecca accepts that Ivanhoe’s heart has always belonged to Rowena, and Richard and his knights (with Cedric as an escort) return to reclaim his throne from his usurping brother.

Cast

  • Robert Taylor
    Robert Taylor (actor)
    Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor...

     as Ivanhoe
  • Elizabeth Taylor
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

     as Rebecca
  • Joan Fontaine
    Joan Fontaine
    Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....

     as Rowena
  • George Sanders
    George Sanders
    George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...

     as De Bois-Guilbert
  • Emlyn Williams
    Emlyn Williams
    George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....

     as Wamba
  • Robert Douglas
    Robert Douglas (actor)
    Robert Douglas was born as Robert Douglas Finlayson in Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire. He was a successful stage and film actor, a television director and producer....

     as Sir Hugh De Bracy
  • Finlay Currie
    Finlay Currie
    Finlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...

     as Cedric
  • Felix Aylmer
    Felix Aylmer
    Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:...

     as Isaac
  • Francis de Wolff
    Francis de Wolff
    Francis de Wolff was an English character actor. Large, bearded, and beetle-browed, he was often cast as villains in both film and television....

     as Front De Boeuf (also as Francis DeWolff)
  • Norman Wooland
    Norman Wooland
    Norman Wooland was a German-born British character actor who appeared in many major films, notably in several Shakespearean ones....

     as King Richard
  • Basil Sydney
    Basil Sydney
    Basil Sydney was an English actor who made over fifty screen appearances, most memorably as Claudius in Laurence Olivier's 1948 film of Hamlet. He also appeared in classic films like Treasure Island , Ivanhoe and Around the World in Eighty Days , but the focus of his career was the legitimate...

     as Waldemar Fitzurse
  • Harold Warrender
    Harold Warrender
    Harold Warrender was a British film actor.His father was Sir George Warrender, 7th Baronet.-Selected filmography:* Leave It to Blanche * Lady in Danger * Mimi * Lazybones...

     as Locksley - Robin Hood
  • Patrick Holt
    Patrick Holt
    Patrick Holt was a British film and television actor.-Biography:Patrick Holt's real name was Patrick G. Parsons. Some of his childhood was spent in India with his Uncle. Patrick was sent to Christ's Hospital, a famous charity school in England, UK...

     as Philip DeMalvoisin
  • Roderick Lovell as Ralph DeVipont
  • Sebastian Cabot
    Sebastian Cabot (actor)
    Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot was an English film and television actor, best remembered as the gentleman's gentleman, "Giles French," opposite Brian Keith's character, in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair. He was also known for playing Dr...

     as Clerk of Copmanhurst
  • John Ruddock
    John Ruddock
    John Ruddock was a Peruvian-born British film and television actor.-Selected filmography:* Escape to Danger * The Way Ahead * Waltz Time * Pink String and Sealing Wax * Lisbon Story...

     as Hundebert
  • Michael Brennan
    Michael Brennan (actor)
    Michael Brennan was an English film and television actor.Born in London, Brennan was married to actress Mary Hignett. He appeared in such films as Nicholas Nickleby, Thunderball, The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, Tom Jones, and The 39 Steps...

     as Baldwin
  • Megs Jenkins
    Megs Jenkins
    Muguette Mary "Megs" Jenkins was an English character actress who appeared in British films and television programmes.-Life and career:...

     as Servant to Isaac
  • Valentine Dyall
    Valentine Dyall
    Valentine Dyall was an English character actor, the son of veteran actor Franklin Dyall. Dyall was especially popular as a voice actor, due to his very distinctive sepulchral voice, he was known for many years as "The Man in Black", narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment With Fear.In...

     as Norman Guard
  • Lionel Harris as Roger of Bermondsley
  • Carl Jaffe
    Carl Jaffe
    Carl Jaffe was a German Jewish actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career took off....

     as Austrian Monk
  • Guy Rolfe
    Guy Rolfe
    Guy Rolfe was an English actor born in London.He made his screen debut in 1937 with an uncredited appearance in Knight Without Armour. Notable roles include: Prince John in Ivanhoe , Ned Seymour in Young Bess , Caiaphas in King of Kings , and Prince Grigory in Taras Bulba...

     as Prince John
  • Robert Brown (uncredited) as castle guard yelling "Horseman Approaching from South"
  • Martin Benson
    Martin Benson (actor)
    Martin Benjamin Benson was an English character actor, who appeared in films, theatre and television. He appeared in both British and Hollywood productions.-Career:...

     (uncredited) had a minor role

Production

In 1951, the film's scriptwriter Marguerite Roberts was ordered to appear before the House on Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...

 as she was a member of the American Communist Party. At the hearing, Roberts and her husband, John Sanford, refused to name fellow members of the party and both were blacklisted. MGM received permission from the Screen Writers Guild to remove Roberts' credit from the film.

Scenes were filmed at Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios
"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and on location at Doune Castle
Doune Castle
Doune Castle is a medieval stronghold near the village of Doune, in the Stirling district of central Scotland. The castle is sited on a wooded bend where the Ardoch Burn flows into the River Teith. It lies north-west of Stirling, where the Teith flows into the River Forth...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...


Reception

Ivanhoe was released in the summer of 1952. In its opening 39 days, the film took $1,310,590 at the box office, setting a new record for an MGM film. It eventually grossed $6.2 million, making it MGM's biggest earner for 1952 and one of the top four money-makers of the year.

Differences from Scott's novel

The film omits the characters Aethelstane, Lucas Beaumanoir, and Gurth, while the Crusaders play no role. Ivanhoe's early injuries are modest and he plays a very active role throughout the film. Unlike the novel, King Richard is not involved until the final scene, when he and his knights ride in (costumed as Crusaders).

In the film, Wamba the Jester (in whom the book's characters of Wamba the Jester and Gurth the Swinehered are combined), dies in the course of freeing Cedric and the other captives from the castle of Front de Boeuf.
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