Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Running time: 106 minutes
Ivanhoe (1952)
“Stand and pledge loyalty — or prepare to lie cold beneath your shields. Chivalrous knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe is determined to restore Richard the Lion-Hearted to England’s throne. Gallantry and costumed pageantry combine in this crowd-pleasing nominee for 3 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Robert Taylor plays the title role, and Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Fontaine also star in a rousing adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s novel. The film’s jousting tournament is a galloping display of steeds and stouthearted men. Most spectacular of all is the siege of Torquilstone Castle, a wave-after-wave onslaught of arrows, fire, boulders, battering rams and blades. To the battlements!” [From the Blu-ray]
Cast
Ivanhoe: Robert Taylor
Rebecca: Elizabeth Taylor
Rowena: Joan Fontaine
De Bois-Guilbert: George Sanders
Wamba: Emlyn Williams
Sir Hugh De Bracy: Robert Douglas
Cedric: Finlay Currie
Isaac: Felix Aylmer
Font De Boeuf: Francis De Wolff
Prince John: Guy Rolfe
King Richard: Norman Wooland
Waldemar Fitzurse: Basil Sydney
Locksley: Harold Warrender
Philip De Malvoisin: Patrick Holt
Ralph De Vipont: Roderick Lovell
Clerk of Copmanhurst: Sebastian Cabot
Hundebert: John Ruddock
Baldwin: Michael Brennan
Servant to Isaac: Megs Jenkins
Norman Guard: Valentine Dyall
Roger of Bermondsley: Lionel Harris
Austrian Monk: Carl Jaffe
Crew
Director: Richard Thorpe
Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Screenwriter: Noel Langley
Based on the Novel by: Sir Walter Scott
Adaptation: Aeneas McKenzie
Cinematographer: F. A. (Freddie) Young
Art Director: Alfred Junge
Musical Score: Miklos Rozsa
Editor: Frank Clarke
Costumes: Roger Furse
Did You Know?
The costumes Elizabeth wore in Ivanhoe were incredibly uncomfortable. “We wear long dresses of wool jersey and heavy capes, and it sometimes seems to take an hour to lace up,” she explained. As for her wig: “It weighs two pounds. It’s full of pins that stick into me all day long. By night, I have a neckache to add to my headache.”