A spectacular British-American historical adventure epic film, an allegory for the Crusades to the Holy Land, it comprises the 1st part of an MGM trilogy containing also KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (1953) and THE ADVENTURES OF QUENTIN DURWARD (1955).
The film is based on the 3 volumes of the historical novel IVANHOE, written by the distinguished Scottish judge, historian, novelist, poet, playwright and essayist Walter Scott in 1819 (for his non-fiction writings, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Scott).
Sir Walter Scott's novel was freely adapted to a screeplay for the wide screen by:
a) the American -former journalist- writer and screenwriter Marguerite or Maggie A. Roberts who had also written the script for several films of Robert Taylor and she was blacklisted at Hollywood by the House Un-American Activities Committee HUAC from 1951 until 1962,
b) the South-African novelist, playwright, screenwriter and director Noel Langley (who served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II and became a naturalised American citizen in 1961),
c) the Scottish screenwriter Æneas MacKenzie who also took the American citizenship.
Filmed in 1951 -the same year with QUO VADIS- at Doune Castle (SCOTLAND), Torquilstone Castle, Hatfield Woods of Essex & MGM Elstree studios in Borehamwood of Hertfordshire (ENGLAND) and Castles Leone, Pietra, Tasso & Cornedo on the area of Trentino-Alto Adige (ITALY). Part of the set was used in Errol Flynn's movie THE WARRIORS/THE DARK AVENGER (1955).
IVANHOE was produced by the Jewish American film editor and famous Hollywood producer Pandro Samuel Berman.
Directed by the prolific American director Richard Thorpe (a former actor, his full name was Rollo Smolt Thorpe).
Music by the prominent Jewish Hungarian -and later, American- composer Miklós Rózsa (Rosenberg).
According to the reviews, "This version of "Ivanhoe" holds up well and remains one of the more realistic films dealing with the myth, legends, and pomp of the High Middle Ages. The pictorial representation of Judaism at a time of wide-spread persecution of that religion throughout Europe by Christians who continually used the Jews as scapegoats was noble indeed for 1952, the height of the McCarthy witch hunts" and "One can read into "Ivanhoe" messages of both popular hysteria in Rebecca's trial for witchcraft and of the exploitation of the powerless, both Saxon and Jew. Anti-Semitism comes up often" and "The best aspect of the film is the FORBIDDEN ROMANCE of the Christian knight and the Jewish Princess".