The trouble with this film is mainly the casting of Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe. He is not swash buckler material and moves and speaks like a medieval It's a Flat World animatronic character. It's bad when the villains are more sympathetic than the hero. Joan Fontaine and Liz provide the sighs and heaving bosoms and a cast of English character actors provide the right accents and atmosphere. As Sir Walter Scott proved never letting historical accuracy get in the way of telling a good story has proved financially rewarding provided the story you're telling your audience buys into. As in "The Adventures Of Robin Hood" the Normans are the bad guys while Ivanhoe like Robin Hood is a hero to the downtrodden Saxon masses. The fact that a peasants life was brutally miserable whether under Saxon or the Norman conquerors makes no difference. Richard the Lion Heart and Prince John and their vassals spoke Norman French they didn't know or care to know what those dirty beggars spoke only as long as they obeyed. To rise to knighthood Ivanhoe would have to learn that language,manners,and ways of warfare familiar to the dominant class. In other words it was the Normans who shaped Angleland into Great Britain. History lesson and opinion over; the best aspect of the film and why I say it was George Sanders, not Guy Rolfe,who walked away with the best actor award was the FORBIDDEN ROMANCE of the Christian knight and the Jewish Princess. Miss Taylor just sighed and looked puppyeyed, while Sanders actually whether worrying about real life issues or acting,played a conflicted yet heroic character. His character was willing to give up all his social standing And feudal holdings to become a wandering free-lance or mercenary knight on the Continent to be with her character(Rebecca of York) and she is in love with an empty suit of chain mail that is Robert Taylor. Go figure.
