---
name: "Richard Thorpe"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/richard-thorpe-70862"
roles: ["Special guest director","Director"]
born: "24 February 1896"
died: "1 May 1991"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-20T04:08:13.881625+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Richard Thorpe

Special guest director and director. Born 24 February 1896 in Hutchinson, Kansas, USA. Died 1 May 1991.

## Details

- **Work:** Special guest director, Director
- **Born:** 24 February 1896, Hutchinson, Kansas, USA
- **Died:** 1 May 1991
- **Active:** 1952–1962
- **Also known as:** Frank L. Inghram, Frank Inghram, Rollo Smolt Thorpe
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 crew
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1950s 70 (1), 1960s 62 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Thorpe, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q216748, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0861703/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/70862

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*Ivanhoe*](https://film.one/film/ivanhoe.md) (70)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Richard Thorpe

> Richard Thorpe made more than a hundred films for MGM and left no fingerprints on any of them. He was quick, obedient to the script and good with a castle wall, and *Ivanhoe* shows both what that bought the studio and what it cost the film.

Watch a scene in a Richard Thorpe film and the camera will be where you left it. In *Ivanhoe* (1952) the actors stand in the middle of the frame, the plot moves, and nothing is done to a scene beyond photographing it. That is not a lapse. It was the method, and it served for more than a hundred pictures.

He came out of vaudeville and the stage, acted in silents from 1921, directed his first feature in 1923 and spent the rest of the twenties and the early thirties on cheap westerns, comedies and serials. MGM took him on in 1935 and handed him whatever needed making: *Tarzan Escapes* (1936), *The Thin Man Goes Home* (1944), and the historical cycle with producer Pandro S. Berman and Robert Taylor that began with *Ivanhoe* and continued with *Knights of the Round Table* (1953). Away from the armour he made *Jailhouse Rock* (1957) with Elvis Presley and the linking segments of *How the West Was Won* (1962). He retired after *The Last Challenge* (1967). Nobody has traced a personal style through that list, because there is none to trace.

What there is instead is a way of working. Thorpe began a scene in long shot and moved the camera closer only when somebody fluffed a line, so the mistake could be cut around rather than shot again. He stuck to the script and came in on schedule and on budget, which is why the studio trusted him with a Tarzan and an armoured epic in the same decade. It is also why *Ivanhoe* has a hero who is mostly a suit of armour. A director who does not go back for a second take gets what Robert Taylor brought to the set that morning, and no more.

We watched the siege of Torquilstone in *Ivanhoe* sitting forward, because Thorpe knows where to put a ladder and how long to hold on a wall before it goes, and it is the one stretch of the film that earns the evening by itself. Around it, George Sanders enjoys being unpleasant and Elizabeth Taylor gives the thing what heart it has, and Thorpe photographs them. He was good at action and good at leaving good actors alone. What he could not do, or did not think was his job, was find the joke Walter Scott had planted in his Normans and Saxons, or stop twelfth-century England sounding like a hotel lobby.

He said he was happy to do any kind of picture, and that with a good script any director could make a good one. It is a modest thing for a director to say and he seems to have meant it. Start with *Ivanhoe*, and watch the siege. It is Thorpe at his best, which is to say the studio at its best, with him standing a little way back.

## Biography

Richard Thorpe (born Rollo Smolt Thorpe) was an American film director. He began his career in vaudeville and on stage, entered motion pictures as an actor in 1921, and directed his first silent film in 1923. He directed more than 180 films over four decades, working frequently at MGM from the mid-1930s.

Thorpe directed *Ivanhoe* (1952), produced by Pandro S. Berman and starring Robert Taylor. He was the original director of *The Wizard of Oz* (1939) before being replaced after two weeks of shooting. Other credits include several Tarzan films, *Jailhouse Rock* (1957) and *How the West Was Won* (1962, as special guest director). He retired after *The Last Challenge* (1967) and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

### Directed (1)

- *Ivanhoe* (1952), Fi1m 70, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/ivanhoe.md)

### Crew (1) — the average rests on these

- *How the West Was Won* (1962), Fi1m 62, Special Guest Director — [page](https://film.one/film/how-the-west-was-won.md)

## Complete filmography (155)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *That's Entertainment, Part II* (1976), Thanks
- *The Scorpio Letters* (1967), Director, Producer
- *The Last Challenge* (1967), Director, Producer
- *That Funny Feeling* (1965), Director
- *The Truth About Spring* (1965), Director
- *The Golden Head* (1964), Director
- *Fun in Acapulco* (1963), Director
- *Follow the Boys* (1963), Director
- *How the West Was Won* (1962), Special Guest Director — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/how-the-west-was-won.md)
- *The Horizontal Lieutenant* (1962), Director
- *The Honeymoon Machine* (1961), Director
- *The Tartars* (1961), Director
- *The House of the Seven Hawks* (1959), Director
- *Killers of Kilimanjaro* (1959), Director
- *Tip on a Dead Jockey* (1957), Director
- *Ten Thousand Bedrooms* (1957), Director
- *Jailhouse Rock* (1957), Director
- *Quentin Durward* (1955), Director
- *The Prodigal* (1955), Director
- *Bedevilled* (1955), Director
- *Athena* (1954), Director
- *The Student Prince* (1954), Director
- *Knights of the Round Table* (1953), Director
- *All the Brothers Were Valiant* (1953), Director
- *The Girl Who Had Everything* (1953), Director
- *The Prisoner of Zenda* (1952), Director
- *Ivanhoe* (1952), Director — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/ivanhoe.md)
- *Carbine Williams* (1952), Director
- *It's a Big Country* (1951), Director
- *The Unknown Man* (1951), Director
- *The Great Caruso* (1951), Director
- *Vengeance Valley* (1951), Director
- *Three Little Words* (1950), Director
- *Black Hand* (1950), Director
- *Malaya* (1949), Director
- *Challenge to Lassie* (1949), Director
- *The Sun Comes Up* (1949), Director
- *Big Jack* (1949), Director
- *A Date with Judy* (1948), Director
- *On an Island with You* (1948), Director
- *This Time for Keeps* (1947), Director
- *Fiesta* (1947), Director
- *What Next, Corporal Hargrove?* (1945), Director
- *Her Highness and the Bellboy* (1945), Director
- *Thrill of a Romance* (1945), Director
- *The Thin Man Goes Home* (1944), Director
- *Two Girls and a Sailor* (1944), Director
- *Cry 'Havoc'* (1943), Director
- *Above Suspicion* (1943), Director
- *Three Hearts for Julia* (1943), Director
- *White Cargo* (1942), Director
- *Apache Trail* (1942), Director
- *Tarzan's New York Adventure* (1942), Director
- *Joe Smith, American* (1942), Director
- *Tarzan's Secret Treasure* (1941), Director
- *Barnacle Bill* (1941), Director
- *The Bad Man* (1941), Director
- *Wyoming* (1940), Director
- *20 Mule Team* (1940), Director
- *The Earl of Chicago* (1940), Director
- *Tarzan Finds a Son!* (1939), Director
- *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* (1939), Director
- *Three Loves Has Nancy* (1938), Director
- *The Crowd Roars* (1938), Director
- *The Toy Wife* (1938), Director
- *The First Hundred Years* (1938), Director
- *Love Is a Headache* (1938), Director
- *Man-Proof* (1938), Director
- *Double Wedding* (1937), Director
- *Lest We Forget* (1937), Director
- *Night Must Fall* (1937), Director
- *Dangerous Number* (1937), Director
- *Tarzan Escapes* (1936), Director
- *The Voice of Bugle Ann* (1936), Director
- *Last of the Pagans* (1935), Director
- *Secret of the Chateau* (1934), Director
- *Strange Wives* (1934), Director
- *Cheating Cheaters* (1934), Director
- *Green Eyes* (1934), Director
- *City Park* (1934), Director
- *Stolen Sweets* (1934), Director
- *The Quitter* (1934), Director
- *Murder on the Campus* (1933), Director
- *Rainbow Over Broadway* (1933), Director
- *A Man of Sentiment* (1933), Director
- *Notorious But Nice* (1933), Director
- *Strange People* (1933), Director
- *I Have Lived* (1933), Director
- *Forgotten* (1933), Director
- *The Secrets of Wu Sin* (1932), Director
- *Women Won't Tell* (1932), Director
- *Slightly Married* (1932), Director
- *The King Murder* (1932), Director
- *Thrill of Youth* (1932), Director
- *Beauty Parlor* (1932), Director
- *The Midnight Lady* (1932), Director
- *Escapade* (1932), Director
- *Probation* (1932), Director
- *Murder at Dawn* (1932), Director
- *Cross-Examination* (1932), Director
- *The Devil Plays* (1931), Director, Editor
- *Forgotten Women* (1931), Director
- *Neck and Neck* (1931), Director
- *Grief Street* (1931), Director, Editor
- *The Sky Spider* (1931), Director
- *Wild Horse* (1931), Director
- *The Lady from Nowhere* (1931), Director, Editor
- *The Lawless Woman* (1931), Director
- *King of the Wild* (1931), Director
- *The Utah Kid* (1930), Director
- *Under Montana Skies* (1930), Director
- *The Thoroughbred* (1930), Director
- *Wings of Adventure* (1930), Director
- *The Dude Wrangler* (1930), Director
- *The Lone Defender* (1930), Director
- *The King of the Kongo* (1929), Director
- *Border Romance* (1929), Director
- *The Bachelor Girl* (1929), Director
- *The Fatal Warning* (1929), Director
- *The Shady Lady* (1928), Story
- *The Flyin' Buckaroo* (1928), Director, Writer
- *The Vanishing West* (1928), Director
- *Vultures of the Sea* (1928), Director
- *The Valley Of Hunted Men* (1928), Director, Writer
- *The Ballyhoo Buster* (1928), Director, Writer
- *The Desert of the Lost* (1927), Director, Writer
- *Roarin' Broncs* (1927), Director, Writer
- *The Obligin' Buckaroo* (1927), Director, Writer
- *The Soda Water Cowboy* (1927), Director
- *Skedaddle Gold* (1927), Director, Writer
- *The Meddlin' Stranger* (1927), Director
- *The Ridin' Rowdy* (1927), Director, Writer
- *Tearin' Into Trouble* (1927), Director
- *Between Dangers* (1927), Director, Writer
- *Josselyn's Wife* (1926), Director
- *College Days* (1926), Director
- *The Interferin' Gent* (1926), Director
- *Twisted Triggers* (1926), Director
- *Double Daring* (1926), Director, Writer
- *Easy Going* (1926), Director
- *Ridin' Rivals* (1926), Director
- *The Fighting Cheat* (1926), Director
- *The Roaring Rider* (1926), Director
- *The Desert Demon* (1925), Director
- *Tearin' Loose* (1925), Writer, Director
- *Red Clay* (1925), Scenario Writer
- *On the Go* (1925), Director, Writer
- *Thundering Romance* (1924), Director
- *Flames of Desire* (1924), as Dick Langton
- *Bringin' Home the Bacon* (1924), Director
- *Hard-Hittin' Hamilton* (1924), Director
- *Fast and Fearless* (1924), Director
- *Three O'Clock in the Morning* (1923), as Clayton Webster
- *Burn 'Em Up Barnes* (1921), as Stephen Thompson
- *The Bonanza Buckaroo*, Director

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/richard-thorpe-70862