Released 22nd September 1913
Ivanhoe (1913)
In 1913, IMP director Herbert Brenon and actors King Baggot, Evelyn Hope and Leah Beard spent three months filming in England, France and Germany. Baggot, dubbed “King of the Movies,” was then the movie industry’s biggest star. Like so many early stars, however, he would end his days appearing in countless movies as an uncredited extra.
The unit’s first film was Across the Atlantic, an adventure concerning industrial espionage in the aviation industry. Their next was an ambitious historical drama, Ivanhoe, based on Walter R. Scott’s famous novel. According to the British press, the film had been Helen Brenon’s idea after she and her husband attended a stage performance of Ivanhoe at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Ironically, the theatrical company’s own screen version of Scott’s tale beat the American production to the UK cinemas by a good two months.
On 22nd June, the unit descended on the Welsh town of Chepstow in Monmouthshire. Brenon had leased Chepstow Castle on the banks of the River Wye for a month, although filming would take only two weeks. The film unit received unwavering support from the excited locals. Many were extras in the film, rehearsed in the handling of broadswords and shields for the production’s many battle scenes.
It is these scenes, often shot against the background of the half-ruined castle or from its towers, that are the film’s highlight. Elsewhere, it feels a little crude compared to other significant films of the period. Baggot plays Ivanhoe, a crusader returning to England after fighting in the Holy Land. He disguises himself as a monk to see whether his foster sister, Lady Rowena (Evelyn Hope) has remained true to him during his absence. At a dinner hosted by Ivanhoe’s father (Wallace Bosco), Du Bois Guilbert (Wallace Widdicombe) – whose upturned black moustache marks him out as a villain from the off – tries to force his attentions on Rebecca of York (Leah Baird), the daughter of wealthy Jewish moneylender, Isaac of York (Herbert Brenon). Ivanhoe, still disguised as a monk, thwarts his attempts. Later, just before the return of Richard the Lionheart (W. Scott Craven), Du Bois captures Lady Rowena, Ivanhoe’s father, Isaac and Rebecca. Ivanhoe joins forces with Richard and Robin Hood (Walter Thomas) and his merrie men to attack the castle in which Du Bois is holding his captives.
Its 53-minute running time should allow Ivanhoe to establish at least a rudimentary depth of characters and situation. But with an unseemly gallop over its admittedly dull establishing scenes, it feels like it merely grazes the surface of Scott’s novel. In his haste to get to the battle scenes, Brenon depicts only highlights from the book. Despite its literary source, the film’s intertitles merely describe what the audience is about to see. In fact, they could serve as a precise and comprehensive synopsis of the plot.
The film is a lot of fun once we reach those battle scenes, which are filmed on a grand scale, but often from afar so that Ivanhoe sometimes gets lost in the scrum. They are also chaotic - and not in a realistic way. Also, the enthusiastic locals struggle to overcome their excitement long enough to portray those fallen in combat.
The film career of Evelyn Hope, who played Lady Rowena, was short. When the roles dried up, she found work as a script reader for David O. Selznick and an assistant to her old friend, producer Maurice Evans. She and her husband, the actor Tom Helmore, were long-time friends of Boris Karloff. The iconic horror star and Evelyn began an affair when her marriage to Helmore ended, and on 11th April 1946, just one day after Karloff’s divorce from his wife Dorothy, they married in Las Vegas. Their marriage would last until the actor’s death in 1969.
Leah Baird would enjoy some success in the silent years, appearing opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Antonio Moreno and Wallace Reid. In the 1920s, she also wrote and produced independently. By 1925, she was writing and producing full time, only returning to acting in the 1940s as a bit-part player.