This film is often compared with Warner Brothers' "Robin Hood". In this case, comparisons are very odious. The major difference between the brilliance of "Robin Hood" and "Ivanhoe" is the vast gap in talent between the directors: "Robin Hood" was directed by Warners' top man, the vastly underrated Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca," "Yankee Doodle Dandy") whereas "Ivanhoe" was put in the hands of the ever-reliable Richard Thorpe a great favorite of the MGM studio head, Louis B. Mayer. Thorpe famously never came in over-budget. IMDb lists 128 films that Thorpe directed in a long career beginning in 1923 and ending in 1967; he was the ideal contract director, much valued by the management, who could direct everything competently and quickly from Tarzan to Elvis with rarely if ever a spark of inspiration. The action sequences in this film are spectacular, but they were probably staged by a number of second-unit directors, among them the great Yank Canuttt ("Ben Hur"). Freddie Young's cinematography in the subtle tones of English Technicolor and Miklos Rozska's atmospheric score only make Thorpe's mediocrity as a director more apparent.
Review of Ivanhoe
