Review of Ivanhoe (1952) by Kyle S — 16 Jun 2010

This is little more than a Robin Hood tale set against a story pretending to have greater meeting. It has the religious overtones that we saw last year with Quo Vadis and yet to see in Ben-Hur. But it's much too passively glanced over to have any teeth.

Ivanhoe finds King Richard of Lionheart, a captive in Austria. A ransom was made but Lion's brother won't pay it, taking the Saxon throne instead. The Saxon people, including Ivanhoe's father and lover, are smarting from the Roman crusades, but new brother-king is bed with the Romans. So Ivanhoe partners with some friendly jews, including a hot young Elizabeth Taylor, and the Saxon rebels in Sherwood Forest. Did I mention the Robin Hood reference? Yes he's here with bows and arrows and loincloths.

So as an adventure movie, it's still just a collection of some arrows flying, lame sword play, and a long joust sequence. Nothing as epic and passionate as Quo Vadis. Ivanhoe juggles two love interests, the aforementioned Taylor and Joan Fontaine. Neither has much value. Except when the jewish daughter is taken for ransom. She then, has a very specific value. She is put on a witch trial, which serves no purpose other than to give Liz more screentime and a chance to make one really awesome, bitchy move. George Sanders, who I'm starting to see as one of my favorite actors of this time, makes several great asides as support villain.

But as an epic period piece, this movie falls way short, closer to b-movie-in-technicolor territory.