Is Ivanhoe the Saxon word for stark raving idiot? ** Spoiler **

If you're wondering why, you're missing the point. Cedric says it himself as he is dying-- that it is fate that chooses love, not beauty.

I, for one, thought the swordfighting was excellent.

-J. Theakston
The Silent Photoplayer
http://www.thephotoplayer.com/

because he is supposed to do it that way, but I understand I also felt puzzled for a moment!

I *am* big. It's the pictures that got small.

Well I agree that Taylor is a putz and the swordplay doesnt measure up.

My favorite duel is Rathbone & Tyrone Power in THE MARK OF ZORRO

Some men actually love women who are less than "stunning". Frankly, since I don't even like ET much, I would have made the same pixk as Ivanhoe. Besides, there is the politics of 12th Century England to be considered, plus that as a Jewess, Rebecca is forbidden to marry outside of Jewry.

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She was Saxon, and so was he.

He swore an oath to her, and as a medieval knight, he is duty bound to fulfill it.

I didn't think JF was at all "bland", and would have picked her over ET myself. It can come down to a matter of taste. Although, I would not have cast her, had I been doing it.

I, too, thought Liz was much the more beautiful of the ladies, and handy to have around with her medicine bag after a hard day's jousting, too. I'd have snapped her up in a Middle Ages minute, run off to Ireland, and passed us both off as Spanish. The other posters are right, however, Ivanhoe was ALREADY in love (had been before the crusades) and was bespoke.

On the matter of swordplay (at least, movie swordplay) I was reading an old interview with Rene Auberjonois who had studied fencing under the last of the great Hollywood fencing instructors for the stars. Movie fencing is done like a dance, with each actor hopefully knowing exactly which moves are next. This instructor told Auberjonois that his greatest pupil was none other than Basil Rathbone. He said most actors could only remember two or three steps (Errol Flynn inculded) but Rathbone could remember 70! He said Rathbone could practically go on forever! I've alwasy thought Rathbone was far ahead of his time in acting skill, and because of the "pretty face" rules of the time, seldom allowed to be a leading man, except for the asexual Sherlock Holmes roles, but this cinched it. I suppose in real life, he had to let Tyrone Power beat him in the Zorro movie just as he had to let Flynn best him in Robin Hood.

If one is interested in reading the interview described above, it's on Auberjonois' website under "Interviews" and listed, as I recall as "Panache" after the movie for which he brushed up his fencing.

And, finally, no praise for the fenching in Scaramouche can be too great. I watched it many times as a child and now own and watch the DVD. It's simply the best swordplay in movies, in my opinion.

im not sure i would ever refer to Joan Fontaine as bland, she was a beautiful woman in her younger years.