James Mason REview:Ivanhoe
So I was in the mood to watch the work of actor James Mason and decided to check out one of his later works Ivanhoe
In this 1982 TV movie King Richard (Julian Glover ) has returned from the CRusades and has teamed up with Robin Hood (DAvid Robb ) to take on three knights who work for Prince John(Ronald Pickup):Sir Reginald Front-de-Boeuf (John Rhyse Davies) who wants to extort Isaac of York (James Mason ),Sir Maurice de Bracy(STuart Wilson ) who wishes to marry Lady Rowena (Lysette Anthony ) and Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert (Sam Niel ) who is in mad lust for ISaacs daughter REbecca(Olivia Hussey )....Oh and there is a guy named Ivanhowe(Anthony Andrews),hes there too
SO I very much enjoy this movie despite it having a big flaw ....IN THAT IVANHOWE IS THE LEAST INTERESTIN?G PART .Oh Anthony Andrews plays him well,and he connects all these threads...He just isnt given enough focus .He is out of commission for most of the movie and honestly....I dont care about his story ,which is about him reconnecting with his father (Played by Michael Hordern )...PArtially cause the father is such a dick I dont care about him either ,cause the movie doesnt care either.The film is far more focused on the stuff around Ivanhowe that he feels like an after thought
That said I do like the movie.....Because the rest of it is so damn good .The action is solid from the jousting scenes to an assault on the villains castle by Richard and Robin Hood to a very eintense sword fight between Ivanhoe and Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert.I also like that the film really focuses on prejudice ,both the feud of the Normans and Saxxons but especially the hatred Isaac and REbecca face for being Jewish
The cast is alll superb (I mean Sam Niel,Stuart Wilson and John Rhyse Davies are the villains how can I not love that),Both George Innes and Tony Haygarth bring levity as Wamba the Fool and Friar Tuck rspectfully ,Michael Hordern is appropriatly pigheaded as Cedric , Wilson and Davies are sinister ,Phillip Locke is scene stealingly evil as the leader of the Knights Templar ,ROnald Pickup is slimey and David Robb is a solid Robin Hood (He also gets the funniest line )
The best performances however go to Julian Glover,James Mason ,Olivia Hussey ,and Sam Niel .Lets Start with Niel who is a solid villain :Arrogant ,obsessive ,creepy and yet there are levels to it ,fighting genuine guilt for his actions .Julian Glover is an actor I associate with bad guys so its fun to see him as a noble king .Olivia Hussey is great as REbecca,on par with Elizabeth Taylors performance in the 1952 film.I think the scene stealer of the movie is James Mason ,Mason while associated with lets say darker parts,had great versitility and when he had the chance could make a very sympathetic characters cause he can make the audience feel his pain
Ovewralll its a fun movie,and I think its on par with the 1952 film
