Today on TV at 1:35 p.m.: a major American cinema success, ranked 4th at the box office upon its release

A good dose of adventure is offered to you by Arte this afternoon of August 15th since the channel is taking advantage of the public holiday to show a great entertainment film in the middle of the afternoon: “Ivanhoe” with Robert Taylor!

With a box office gross of over $10 million at the time (equivalent to $118.5 million today) on a budget of $3.8 million, Ivanhoe was MGM's biggest success at the time and the fourth highest-grossing film of the year. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

A huge success and a dream cast

And if Robert Taylor had to be convinced (forced?) to make the film, he who much preferred to shoot westerns, it is clear that his role as Ivanhoe, faithful knight of Richard the Lionheart who does everything to free his king, held prisoner in Austria, fits him like a glove.

Don't be fooled by the first few minutes that make you think the film is a musical: on the contrary, it is an adventure film as Hollywood knows how to make them! Shot in Technicolor in magnificent landscapes of England and Scotland (and Doune Castle), Ivanhoe is still superb to watch today.

Robin Hood is in the movie!

Elizabeth Taylor (not related to Robert)

Of course, History has been put through the mill of fiction (Ivanhoe allying himself with Robin Hood), but we can come across a cast that makes us forget everything: Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Robert Douglas and Harold Warrender (in the role of Robin).

The whole thing is staged with mastery by Richard Thorpe, who the following year and with Robert Taylor will make The Knights of the Round Table, but also The Black Pearl, Smuggling in Cairo, The House of the Seven Hawks, The Raiders of Kilimanjaro and The Adventures of Quentin Durward. Moreover, the two men knew each other since The Madding Crowd, in which Taylor played a young boxer dating the daughter of a mafia boss.