Ivanhoe is a 1952 British-American historical adventure epic film directed by Richard Thorpe and features one of the greatest casts ever assembled for a film.
Legendary actor Robert Taylor (Waterloo Bridge, High Wall) stars as knight Saxon Wilfred of Ivanhoe who is searching for the recently disappeared Richard the Lionheart, Norman King of England (Norman Woodland, Quo Vadis, Romeo and Juliet), while returning from the Crusades. Ivanhoe discovers that Richard is being held captive by Leopold of Austria for a large ransom. Richard’s evil brother, Prince John (Guy Rolfe, Puppet Master III, IV, V), knows about his disappearance but does nothing about it and is enjoying being a ruler.
Disguised as a minstrel, Ivanhoe returns to English and visits his estranged father Cedric (Finlay Currie, Ben-Hur) where he reunites with lovely Rowena (screen legend Joan Fontaine, Rebecca, Suspicion) after Cedric refuses to pay Richard’s ransom of 150,000 marks. Leaving with Cedric’s jester Wamba (Emlyn Williams,The Frightened Lady) as his new squire, Ivanhoe rescues the Jewish Isaac of York (Felix Aylmer, The Farmer’s Wife) and is helped by Isaac’s daughter Rebecca (screen icon Elizabeth Taylor, Suddenly, Last Summer) in his adventures which is jousting tournament attended by Prince John, Cedric, Rowena, Brian de Bois-Guilbert (screen legend George Sanders, All About Eve, Foreign Correspondent)and Robin Hood (Harold Warrender, Contraband) Ivanhoe is injured during the joust and looked after by Rebecca. She is also captured during a battle between the Saxons and Bois-Guilbert’s men. Ivanhoe must decide is she or Richard are to be set free with the ransom money. Bois-Guilbert has fallen smitten for Rebecca and offers another joust for her love. Ivanhoe and Bois-Guilbert duel to the death for the lovely Rebccca!
Supported by great direction and superb cast, Ivanhoe stands out as on the great adventure stories in our history. Freddie Young is the man behind excellent cinematography with the delicious musical scores are from legendary composer Miklós Rózsa.
Ivanhoe arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Archive. It has been sourced from a 4K scan of the original Technicolor negatives. The colors are bright, cheerful, and vibrant, ranging from blue skies to the costumes the performers wear. There is an exceptional amount of fine detail, texture, and clarity to the image. Flesh tones look spot on perfect as well. The image is super clean and polished, looking magnificent from start to finish. No DNR has been applied for this release.
The English DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mono track for this release is also flawless The dialogue is clean and clear throughout, with other action sounds blending in just fine with anything being overly aggressive. Miklós Rózsa’s soundtrack comes in perfectly clear as well. No age-old anomalies such as hissing, cracking or popping were detected. English (SDH) subtitles are available for this release.
Extras for this release include a Tom and Jerry cartoon “The Two Mouseketeers” and a theatrical trailer
Richard Thorpe’s Ivanhoe has finally received a Blu-ray release and it is a tremendous effort by Warner Archive. The audio and video quality for this release are top-notch and is highly recommended!
Ivanhoe
Director- Richard Thorpe
Cast- Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Warner Archive / Warner Home Video
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –1/17/2022