Many agree that one of the best movies ever made in the silent film era was “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ.” It was a big hit at the box office and help establish Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a major studio, after being formed in 1924 by merging Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.
Producer L. B. Mayer, director Fred Niblo, and screenwriter June Mathis pulled out all the stops to ensure high production values, although filming in Rome was plagued with problems and accidents. Production was eventually moved back to Culver City, where the film was completed. It was adapted from an 1880 novel “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ,” written by General Lew Wallace. (Wallace was a Union general in the Civil War, governor of the New Mexico Territory, and U. S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.) It was the best-selling novel in the United States of the entire nineteenth century. The book was made into a stage play that ran for 25 years, touring in various cities, from 1897-1922. It was first made into a short film in 1907.
L. B. Mayer selected one of the biggest stars of the time, Ramon Navarro, to play Judah Ben-Hur, the Jewish man sold into slavery, who along the way had an encounter with Jesus Christ. (The religious nature of the original novel is more evident in these early versions than in the later Charlton Heston epic of 1959, directed by William Wyler, also out of MGM. By then, Mayer had retired.) Francis X. Bushman portrays the Roman centurion Messala. Co-stars include Mary McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Claire McDowell, Leo White, among others.
Their rivalry culminated in a showdown in a chariot race. This climax towards the end of the picture is one of the classic scenes in movie history. It was reproduced frame for frame in the 1959 remake, and copied in “The Prince of Egypt” (1998) and in “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999).
Some of the uncredited extras in this chariot race sequence include some big Hollywood names of the time and of the future: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Samuel Goldwyn, Sid Grauman, Harold Lloyd, Myrna Loy, Colleen Moore, Mary Pickford.
“Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ” is a very memorable and watchable motion picture even in this modern era of the 21st century, a must-see for film buffs and historians.
Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
cinema
My Review
Many agree that one of the best movies ever made in the silent film era was “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ.” It was a big hit at the box office and help establish Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a major studio, after being formed in 1924 by merging Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.
Producer L. B. Mayer, director Fred Niblo, and screenwriter June Mathis pulled out all the stops to ensure high production values, although filming in Rome was plagued with problems and accidents. Production was eventually moved back to Culver City, where the film was completed. It was adapted from an 1880 novel “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ,” written by General Lew Wallace. (Wallace was a Union general in the Civil War, governor of the New Mexico Territory, and U. S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.) It was the best-selling novel in the United States of the entire nineteenth century. The book was made into a stage play that ran for 25 years, touring in various cities, from 1897-1922. It was first made into a short film in 1907.
L. B. Mayer selected one of the biggest stars of the time, Ramon Navarro, to play Judah Ben-Hur, the Jewish man sold into slavery, who along the way had an encounter with Jesus Christ. (The religious nature of the original novel is more evident in these early versions than in the later Charlton Heston epic of 1959, directed by William Wyler, also out of MGM. By then, Mayer had retired.) Francis X. Bushman portrays the Roman centurion Messala. Co-stars include Mary McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Claire McDowell, Leo White, among others.
Their rivalry culminated in a showdown in a chariot race. This climax towards the end of the picture is one of the classic scenes in movie history. It was reproduced frame for frame in the 1959 remake, and copied in “The Prince of Egypt” (1998) and in “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999).
Some of the uncredited extras in this chariot race sequence include some big Hollywood names of the time and of the future: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Samuel Goldwyn, Sid Grauman, Harold Lloyd, Myrna Loy, Colleen Moore, Mary Pickford.
“Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ” is a very memorable and watchable motion picture even in this modern era of the 21st century, a must-see for film buffs and historians.