Le retour d'Ivanhoé

12th century, England. King Henry I dies y lord Stephen Cunningham (Luis Dávila) claims to own the "Sword of Normandy", rightful symbol of royal power King . But Ivanhoe (Mark Damon) , veteran of the crusades, knows where the real sword is hidden. Ivanhoe gathers a few followers, most of them from a group of traveling actors (Manuel Zarzo, Aldo Berti ,Nello Pazzafini, Luciano Pigozzi or Allan Collins) and heads north into the lands of Scotland, to the country of the barbarian Picts, where the Norman sword is found hidden in a cave. But the usurper also wants the sword, so he kills the king of the Picts and by any means will try to seize the Norman sword (similar to Arthur's sword in the stone) that assures him as the legitimate king of England along with a royal medallion. As Ivanhoe fights Cunningham, along with his subordinate henchman Keats (Spartaco Conversi) aided by loyal bandits and actors.

Sir Walter Scott's story of romance and chivalry in Medieval England isn't faithfully brought to life in this run-of-the-mill adventure movie in which american Mark Damon stars as Ivanhoe who fights the evil Stephen Cunningham and his hoodlums in an attempt to restore the legitimate king to the British throne. This enjoyable film displays chivalry, a love story, knighthood, daring fights and lots of action with spectacular castle attack. Assaults, battles and other action sequences with a plethora of sword-fights involving maces, axes and chains are acceptably handled . This ¨Ivanhoe, the Norman Swordsman¨ has little to do with the classic Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, in this Italian-Spanish version it is more of a remake of the classic ¨The flame and the arrow¨ (1950) by Jacques Tourneur with Burt Lancaster. Similar to this film there is also a group of traveling actors who attack the usurper's hitmen and finally appear as actors with Greek masks entering the castle to play a theatrical performance and there unmasking the cruel usurper and settling scores in the well-known final duel, likewise the film starring Burt Lancaster. Furthermore adding, some elements of the Arthurian legends, such as: King Arthur's sword in the stone that gives power and legitimacy to reign. Being an Italian-Spanish co-production (although mostly Italian), there is a mix of Italian: Krista Nell, Aldo Berti, Spartaco Conversi, Alan Collins or Luciano Pigozzi, Nello Pazzafini, Linda Sini and Spanish actors: Luís Dávila, Luis de Tejada, Manuel Zarzo.

Other best versions of the classic Ivanhoe are the following: ¨Ivanhoe¨(1952) produced by Pandro S Berman and directed by Richard Thorpe stars Robert Taylor, Joan Fontaine, Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Finlay Currie and ¨Ivanhoe¨ (1982) Douglas Camfield Anthony Edwards, James Mason, Anthony Andrews, Sam Neill, Michael Hordern, Olivia Hussey.

The motion picture was averagely directed by Roberto Mauri. He was a craftsman who during the Sixties and Seventies made all kinds of genres: Spaghetti Western, such as : ¨Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi, La vendetta è il mio perdon, Colorado Charlie, Seminò morte... lo chiamavano il Castigo di Dio! , Wanted Sabata,Spirito Santo e le 5 magnifiche canaglie¨; Thriller : ¨Le notti della violenza, I Mafiosi , Three Golden Serpents , The pornokillers¨ ; Peplum: ¨The Invincible Brothers Maciste, Three Swords for Rome¨ and Adventures: ¨Il pirata del diavo, Il segno del vendicatore, Jungla 2000 and La spada normanna¨. Rating: 5/10. Only for fans of the medieval adventures made in Italy and Spain.

Keeping from Walter Scott's epic novel almost nothing but the proper noun of the hero ,it's a far cry from Richard thorpe 's version starring both Taylor (Robert and Liz ) and Joan Fontaine (1952).

Allright ,Ivanhoe comes back from the crusades (Mark Damon seems tanned in the first sequences )but all that follows seems taken by force from Robin Hood 's stories ,with a dash of King Arthur's sword in the stone -check the title-thrown in for good measure. There's an ill-placed special effect ( a swirling picture ) ,hypnotism (?), a score and a song which would be all right for a TV series (there was one feat .Roger Moore)

The color is good ,the cinematography is impeccable,but the screenplay is so jejune there's no surprise for the viewer (unless the girl's temporary treason counts). Too many close ups on the faces . The characters often guffaw,but their jokes are not particularly witty ; this could have been ,at a pinch ,entertaining ,had the movie been more action-packed .As it is, it drags on.

It's a medieval set adventure movie made in the style of old italian movies about the roman empire. And it doesn't really work. Many characters, almost all are irrelevant and similar looking. There is not much acting, just people saying lines without much emotion or expression. The way the plot developes is nonsense. The DVD quality is hardly bearable, it's a big pixel soup, probably directly ripped from VHS and released without any corrections. One of the worst parts was how actions scenes were filmed, usually it were close ups and due to the blurry picture quality I had to guess what was happening.