Finally, I’ve capped off watching the Robert Taylor 1950s-does-medieval unofficial trilogy, directed by Richard Thorpe and filmed in MGM’s British studios! Ivanhoe (1952) was the first of these and was the studio’s top film of the year and hit number four in overall box-office for 1952. Knights of the Round Table (1953) followed with Taylor as Lancelot, and lastly was a more obscure story (and less successful film, though my fave), Quentin Durward (1955), with Taylor in the titular role.
Ivanhoe is based on the historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott from 1819, so the story is a mishmash of actual historical figures and invented stuff. Set in the 1190s when England’s King Richard the Lionheart was held captive by Leopold of Austria after the Third Crusade, the movie starts with the king’s supporter Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Taylor) finding that Richard’s brother John has refused to pay the ransom so he can rule instead of Richard.
Returning home, Ivanhoe has some unexplained daddy issues, plus he’s engaged to his father’s ward, Rowena (Joan Fontaine). His family is Saxon, and they’re still pissed off at the Norman invaders (that whole 1066 thing, y’know), but they also support King Richard over John, even though the royal brothers are technically Norman too. Anyway, some Norman knights take shelter at Ivanhoe’s dad’s place that night, and so does an elderly Jewish man, Isaac of York, who the knights try to rough up. Ivanhoe rescues Issac, who is grateful and takes him back to his house in Sheffield. That’s where Ivanhoe meets Issac’s daughter, Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor), who instantly falls for him, thus giving the flick an (unrequited) love triangle.
Honestly, the whole thing is a bit convoluted and goofy (plus this movie version strays from the book’s already complicated plot), but it’s fairly entertaining. I feel like this, and the rest of the Taylor medieval trilogy, were like the Marvel superhero movies of their day. These were flashier than the typical Wild West serials which, sure, had action, but these movies had, not just horses and bows and arrows, but sword fights, jousting, battering rams, scaling castle walls, a smattering of European scenery, colorful costumes, and pretty girls in fancy dresses as love interests. Something for everyone!
They really serve up the spectacle! I bet this looks amazing on the big screen, because it’s still pretty wild on TV.
After various battles and trials, the good guys prevail, King Richard returns, and while not everyone gets their hearts’ desires, things are nobly sorted out.
I’m just pleased that so many folks in the crowd have fairly decent headgear! Hats aren’t just for losers.
Sure, the hair and makeup scream 1950s, but I can still take the headgear as a small win. In her series on how contemporary hairstyles affect historical costume movies, Kendra already compared this movie’s main character hair to historical sources:
Not terrible, maybe? You be the judge.
Costume designer Roger K. Furse had previously done Laurence Olivier‘s Henry V (1944) and would go on to do Olivier’s Richard III (1955), as well as Knights of the Round Table (1953). His designs for Ivanhoe seem a bit more simplistic than those, but equally as colorful, just highlighting the basics of the period.
The women’s gowns are likely worn over ’50s bullet bras, but otherwise they’re going for this style…
Rowena gets braids, an occasional tiara, and lots of filmy draperies, and she wears brighter, lighter colors.
Rebecca is contrasted as the brunette wearing mostly darker, earthier colors and stripes, and her hair is loose more often.
Only in the final scenes when she’s on trial does Rebecca wear white:
Rebecca also wears a Star of David on her clothing as an obvious mark that she’s Jewish:
While Kendra found in her review of the 1982 Ivanhoe:
“In general Jews in European countries did not wear any clothing that was distinctive or different from that worn by their Christian neighbors, though perhaps they dressed somewhat more lavishly, particularly the women” (Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia).
The Fourth Council of the Lateran of 1215, headed by Pope Innocent III, required that Jews “must be distinguished in public from other people by the character of their dress.” That’s a bit later than this movie is set, and even if the timeline is smudged up a bit, that doesn’t mean Rebecca (or her father, for that matter) would necessarily wear the Star of David. While the symbol has a very old (and not just Jewish) history and was long used in documents and architecture, there’s not much evidence it was worn by Jews before the 19th-century Zionist movement. But like using white for all weddings, movie costumes tend to trade in cliches more than accuracy.
But hey, they tried to go historical sometimes, like with Rebecca’s maid, who wears this nice little wimple.
What’s your take on this ’50s version of Ivanhoe?
Find this frock flick at:
Ivanhoe is a difficult book. I like the secondary characters, I love the main villain (Bois-Guilbert); I dislike the protagonist. Ivanhoe passes most of the book bedridden and not fit to fight. And when I read the book, I was certain that Ivanhoe loved Rebecca and married Rowena out of duty. The book is too complex to be condensed in just one movie. Well, but we’re not talking about the book, but this movie.
I watched it a long, long time ago, 30 or more years. I was in university, I’m a Historian, middle Ages is my field, and I disliked the movie. Robert Taylor was too old for the hole, it’s the minimum I’d say then. But looking at the photos, the characterization, the clothes, and the colors look amazing. I was very strict and more judgmental with movies and series when I was young. I must watch this movie again with kinder eyes.
The best approach to Ivanhoe was made by BBC in 1997. I liked it a lot, but the series uses the medieval pallete the is the rule from the 1980’s, maybe even before. People using dark colors, looking dirty, wearing raw fabrics, and so on. But the story is really good, and Ivanhoe is corrected to be a interesting character.
Movies from this era are what I based so much of my SCA “look” upon, back in the 1990’s when I did SCA. Not that I, or anyone else, could ever look as beautiful as Elizabeth Taylor’s Rebecca.
I think a lot of SCA costuming was inspired by these movies :)
loved this film. one of my favourites. Elizabeth Taylor is truly gorgeous in this movie
I’m pleased this production used non-mud dyes.
As I recall, medieval British Jews were required to wear a Star of David in some towns, but I would have to look this up (it’s evening here in London, and I’m tired after walking all day).
Oof, it seems like Ivanhoe is wearing not wearing a hood of any kind under that chainmail. I admit I’m not an expert, but I’d assume you wouldn’t want metal rings against bare skin? Other than that, I’m actually intrigued by this movie for how colorful it looks. Sure, everything’s not perfectly accurate, but I prefer this inaccuracy over the mud-filtered inaccuracy!
Hi, while it’s true Jews didn’t dress much differently than anybody else at that time, in the book Rebecca does wear Middle Eastern clothing and decorates her home with exotic pillows and hangings and so on. Sir Walter Scott simply wrote it that way.
From Chapter VII in the online Project Gutenberg version.
The figure of Rebecca might indeed have compared with the proudest beauties of England, even though it had been judged by as shrewd a connoisseur as Prince John. Her form was exquisitely symmetrical, and was shown to advantage by a sort of Eastern dress, which she wore according to the fashion of the females of her nation. Her turban of yellow silk suited well with the darkness of her complexion. The brilliancy of her eyes, the superb arch of her eyebrows, her well-formed aquiline nose, her teeth as white as pearl, and the profusion of her sable tresses, which, each arranged in its own little spiral of twisted curls, fell down upon as much of a lovely neck and bosom as a simarre of the richest Persian silk, exhibiting flowers in their natural colours embossed upon a purple ground, permitted to be visible—all these constituted a combination of loveliness, which yielded not to the most beautiful of the maidens who surrounded her. It is true, that of the golden and pearl-studded clasps, which closed her vest from the throat to the waist, the three uppermost were left unfastened on account of the heat, which somewhat enlarged the prospect to which we allude. A diamond necklace, with pendants of inestimable value, were by this means also made more conspicuous. The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants, was another distinction of the beautiful Jewess, scoffed and sneered at by the proud dames who sat above her, but secretly envied by those who affected to deride them.