Customer Reviews

Ben Hur - Tale of the Christ (1926) (Silent) [VHS]

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Although it has its failings--most notably a very "grand manner" performance by Francis X. Bushman as Messala--this silent epic holds up extremely well, and viewers familiar with only the later Heston version will be amazed at how much the remake borrowed (sometimes shot for shot) from the original. This is particularly true of the famous chariot race scene, of which the sound version offers a rather tame version in comparison.

Bushman aside (it would be his last major film), and with a few exceptions in various scenes scattered through the movie, the cast generally plays with considerable restraint; consequently, BEN-HUR is a silent movie very accessible to those who have had little experience with silent film. Ramon Navorro is particularly effective in the title role, and unlike the remake gives us a youthful, handsome, and curiously innocent portrait of Juda Ben-Hur. The sets and big-scale action sequences are expertly done. An excellent choice for a silent-movie fan or any one looking to begin an exploration of this period in cinema.

With the record number of Oscars won by the William Wyler 1959 version of BEN-HUR, there is a tendency to overlook the monumental 1925 production, which established MGM as a studio to be reckoned with. Well, if you've never seen the earlier version, you may be in for a surprise...it is as enjoyable in nearly every way!

Certainly, some of the performances (particularly Francis X. Bushman's scenery-chewing Messala) are cartoonish, the film lacks the widescreen splendor and scope of it's successor, and the 'Wyler Touch', the infinite care the legendary director poured over every detail, is sorely missed. But the 1925 production, beset by so many problems that it became the most expensive film ever made, brought new production head Irving Thalberg into the limelight, and his first decision was brilliant, firing the current director, and bringing in veteran director Fred Niblo to take charge. Niblo brought an energy and sense of intimacy to the silent "Ben-Hur" that is actually often lacking in the later version. The finished film, as a whole, is far closer in spirit to General Lew Wallace's novel, and young leading man Ramon Novarro (with a sexy intensity reminiscent of Tyrone Power), makes a far more charismatic and sympathetic Ben-Hur than Charlton Heston's more iconic portrayal.

The 1959 version is remembered today primarily for the chariot race, one of the most spectacular action sequences ever filmed. But what of the other 'set piece', the gigantic sea battle between the Roman and pirate fleets? The scene is patently artificial, obviously comprised of model ships in a tank and rear projections (watch the tiny toy seamen jiggle as ships collide!) The 1925 version's chariot race is fast-paced and certainly exciting, and the sea battle is astonishing, using full-sized ships and hundreds of extras (shot in Italy, where an actual fire broke out on the ships during the battle...the extras' panic onscreen was NOT acting...)

With an early two-strip Technicolor to emphasize key scenes (the Nativity, the new Roman Consul's arrival in Jerusalem...yes, those ARE topless women leading the procession!), and a wonderful, stirring new musical score by Carl Davis, Fred Niblo's BEN-HUR is a treasure, a film certainly worthy to stand beside the 1959 version!

I first saw this l926 classic at the old Regency Theater in Manhattan during the late eighties and never forgot how at the end, the entire packed theater stood up and screamed and cheered and stomped the floor for at least fifteen minutes. A live symphony orchestra provided the powerful music and on the big screen, the magnificent, restored version simply blew everyone away. It was easy to imagine its initial impact on Jazz Age audiences. Ramon Navarro gives the role of a lifetime. May McAvoy, whose career was destroyed by the "talkies", is perfect and beautiful. Even now, I get goose-bumps when I remember how everyone in the theater that night all shared a powerful, never-to-be-forgotten experience. And when I looked around, everyone was weeping just as much as myself. Oh, just to see other forgotten classics of the silent screen as they were meant to be seen: crystal clear, beautifully restored and with a live, symphonic orchestra. Instead, we have ear-blasting garbage like "Armageddon" and "Godzilla."

Wow! Even if you have little experience with silent movies, even if you erroneously believe that the 1959 Charlton Heston version of this movie surpasses all, you must see this film. It is a cinematic masterpiece, sumptuously photographed, faithful to Lew Wallace's novel and many scenes will quite simply knock your socks off.

Ramon Novarro is handsome, boyish and enchanting as Judah Ben-Hur. His performance is infinitely beyond anything Heston is capable of delivering. He plays Ben-Hur as the character was presented in the novel, devoid of ths histrionics, anger and over-acting which plagued the remake. Francis Bushman does overact and give an excessively bravuro performance as Mesalla, but he's not on screen as much as Stephen Boyd would be later on.

And what about the color sequences? Yes, there was actually color movies made in 1927, a fact I did not know. There are several color sequences which stun and fascinate. The chariot scene is epic and among the most stellar scenes ever shot in movie history; the same can be said for the galley scene, where the slaves sit three in a row and are rammed to death by Pirates on the high seas. Again, the 1959 version cannot hold a candle to this version in the epic, grand scenes.

Get this movie and cherish it. I've watched it three times in the past month and am amazed at its scope, depth and power. Beautiful masterpiece!

Never mind the later Charlton Heston 1959 sound version. To me the silent version (1925/26) is considerably more powerful, more moving and clearly more original - a fact which did not escape those involved in the Heston version which steals from the original silent at every possible turn. It represents a classic of the great silent era that can hold its own with the also great 1959 remake!

I simply can't believe that this cinematic masterpiece, sumptuously photographed, faithful to Lew Wallace's novel, was made in 1925/26. My god, it's so stunning. The dialogues and action are more powerful than any actor's voice will ever be. The director Fred NIBLO and his junior directors Henry HATHAWAY and William WYLER (director of the 1959 remake) carved a marvellous film that is at times charming, so exciting and so moving.

This diamond-sharp print ("silent movie") - presented here with a live epic memorable and soaring stereo score performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1987 by Carl Davis) - remains a monument to Hollywood's glory days. Now, this mammoth spectacle has been lovingly and beautifully restored, with the original tinted and rich two-stripe Technicolor sequences (mostly depicting Jesus Christ) culled from the Czech Film Archive.

Unforgettable images abound (examples):

1.) the Christ Story
Though she appears only in the Nativity prologue, Betty Bronson (Mary, mother of Jesus) haunts the memory. It is remarkable that this actress so beautifully embodies the serenity and grace of the Blessed Virgin.!
The young and nice-looking Novarro makes Ben Hur's longing for family and his naked intensity of belief totally plausible. When this enslaved Ben Hur gazes in awe upon the Christ who has just dared to give him water (Carpenter) in the midst of scowling Roman captors, you truly believe his spiritual awakening.

2.) the Love Stories
For myself, the real attractions are the two female leads.
May McAvoy (Esther, the daughter of Simonides) is as beautiful as Lillian Gish (Orphans in the Storm, USA 1921). May McAvoy is dainty, tender, sensitive and compassionate, graceful, trustful and worthy! Enjoy the wonderful love scenes between the "Princess of the heart" and Ben Hur !
The "evil" Carmel Myers plays the unbelievable glamorous Iras the Egyptian. She shows us a sexual quality not seen in the Heston version (1959). Look for the scene as she tries to seduce as "femme fatale" the noble Ben Hur :
"Flashing eyes and milk- white bodies! Beauty to be tamed! Does it not thrill you?"

3.) the Roman Slave Galleys
You can really feel the great suffering of the poor slaves, sit three in a row, desperate and hopeless : "Merciful Gods! I can bear no more! Give me the boon of death!". You see the wide opened and furious eyes of Ben Hur, who has now been three years at the oars (to him three centuries): "Pray not for death, you coward, while your enemies live! Pray for life! I live for revenge!"

4.) the Sea Battle
The torrid sea battle between Roman and pirate vessels filmed in Italy with full-sized ships, long ago passed into legend because of its realism: plunging swords, severed heads galore, snakes, chains, flaming timbers and last minute rescues...
The sea battle ("Death to Arrius!") is very alive and terrible. One can definitely "grab" the fear the slaves are feeling during the combat.
There are no special effects. Everything you see is real! The boats actually caught on fire, the slaves who jump into the water!

5.) the Chariot Race
The Circus Maximus saw a marathon of 12 chariots and 48 horses, recorded by 52 cameramen.
The colossal chariot race sequence is intense, marvellous, exciting and epic - the climax of the film and a masterpiece! If you look into the eyes of Ben Hur and Messala, you can really feel the hatred that both men (Ben Hur and Messala) feel for each other:
"Scum of the galleys! I will grind you in the dust! I will ride you down, trample you into the sand!" (Messala)
There are no special effects! When Messala's chariot looses a wheel he is hit by three other drivers (death of Messala) which made quite an impressive stunt...
Ramon Novarro as Ben Hur and Francis X. Bushman as Messala are a pleasure to watch. They are brilliant in their acting. Francis X. Bushman's performance belongs to the "old style" of silent film acting. Ramon Navarro gives the role of a lifetime. Navarro's performance - the honesty he brings to every emotion - is as modern as tomorrow. He gives us a youthful, handsome, innocent, vulnerable and heroic portrait of Judah Ben Hur. He sustains a long and gruelling role with grace, charm and considerable force.

6.) The Melodrama of the Mother (Princess of Hur) and the Sister (Tirzah)

Although the second half (after the chariot race) is slower, there is a very touching part when Ben Hur (Ramon Novarro) falls asleep outside his home, and his mother Princess of Hur (Claire McDowell) and his sister Tirzah (Kathleen Kay), now lepers, approach him. Claire McDowell plays the part of the mother very intimately and expressively. Watch out for the scene when, stricken with leprosy and unable to touch her son ("Unclean! Not a sound! He belongs to the living - we to the dead!"), she kisses the stone upon which her son sleeps. She shows her expansive emoting ("O Judah! My son! I have seen you for the last time on earth!"). Like Greta Garbo's scene in "Queen Christina" (1933) in which the "Divine" embraces the things in her bedroom because she thinks of her lover (John Gilbert). This stone-scene illustrates the silent film's power to leave the viewer moved by the immediacy of an art that, relying on music and mime alone, reaches across the decades to grab one's heart!

To me, Ben Hur, A Tale of the Christ, is a must-see silent masterpiece!

Stefan-Felix Winkler (Torgau/Elbe, Germany), September 2005

I first saw this film back in 1989 on Christmas Eve Night. When I taped it a few years later, I decided to continue watching it every Christmas Eve Night, a tradition going strong for the last six years! The film is that special! The production was a disaster in the making with changing actors and crew, a burning ocean-placed galley with nonswimmmers aboard, a lot of hassles from the Italians on location, and a skyrocketing budget (The story would make an interesting movie), but in the end the hardship was well worth it, cementing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's position as a film studio. It is a moving and spectacular film. The acting is fine, the production is lavish, and the galley battle (filmed on actual ships rather than models) and Chariot Race are just as marvelous as the mentioned scenes in the 1959 remake. Some would say that the ending is anticlimatic, but I feel it gives one the impression that you've finished something special. Restored in the 1980s with several Technicolor scenes, BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST was added with music by Carl Davis. This addition was a stroke of genius, for it is a very memorable music score that should never be separated from the film (Music note: If one listens to the piece where Mary and Joseph enter the cave of Bethlehem, one can hear a strain of music from KING DAVID (1985), which Davis also composed). It's a classic of the silent era that can hold its own with the also great 1959 remake.

Never mind the later Charleton Heston version; the silent version is considerably more powerful, more moving, and clearly more original-- a fact which did not escape those involved in the Heston version, which steals (with scant success) from the original silent at every possible turn. Although Francis X. Bushman's performance belongs to the "old style" of silent film acting, Navarro's is as modern as tomorrow.

This film is just beyond incredible, a riveting emotional epic picture, one of those films whose long length just flies by like that, so good you don't even notice or care how much time has gone by. It's even more stunning, gripping, and incredible thanks to the absence of sound; events and emotions are magnified, and scenes like the huge battle at sea and the famous chariot race put you on the edge of your seat even more. The nine scenes in technicolor are also incredibly beautiful and gorgeous, and give a sort of otherworldly feeling, seeing such a beautiful vibrant color scene in a silent film from 1925, one of the last places you'd ever expect to see color. Not being Christian, I didn't pick up on this at the time, but after hearing it pointed out, I realise those scenes had in common the fact that they were all religious in nature and drawn from the Bible. It doesn't hurt matters any either that this gripping epic poignant tale was directed by the great Fred Niblo and had the script penned by the legendary June Mathis, who sadly is all but forgotten today despite her prolific career as a screenwriter and how she was one of the most powerful women in Hollywood ever. And, of course, Ramon Novarro as Ben Hur was simply incredible, such a beautiful man in addition to terrifically talented and giving off an aura of a really nice guy as well. I wish there were more motion pictures like this being made today, as well as more actors who were talented nice people in addition to just having good looks.

I am stunned. I am not a fan of silent films, but caught this on PBS (the long version with color). It is simply one of the best films ever made.

Ramon Navarro had to have been one of the greatest actors ever. I have never seen him before, but the honesty he brings to every emotion is as modern as today's actors--if not more so. Especially the scene where he is on a death march in need of water, and his subsequent meeting with a water-giving Jesus, stands out for me. The chariot sequence is fine, and even the heavy-handed melodrama of the mother and sister is enjoyable. The silents are an interesting era, as this film is also given a sexual quality not seen in the Heston version. Here, look for a scene with a femme fatale as she tries to seduce the noble Judah Ben-Hur. Also, I was surprised to see just sitting there in the background of the roman galley slave scene, a naked man seemingly hanging dead. That entire scene, complete with pirates, is most impressive.

The sets, the use of color, the eerie Valley of The Lepers, and the great make-up, help to make this literally a film that has it all. Throw in a nasty Roman ex-friend, and our hero certainly has a lot to deal with--including raising a legion or two to invade Rome to save the life of Jesus (he obviously didn't).

The silent 1925 classic "Ben Hur" is one of the greatest films ever made, and when watching the famous chariot race, I am always reminded that no matter how advanced filmmaking has become with its technological wizardry, no action sequence had ever matched what director Fred Niblo managed to achieve in that sequence. The film suffered through many production problems, taking years to film, with a change of directors and star, and was the most expensive film of its time, costing $ 4,000.000, which was a fortune in those days, but fortunately, also became the third largest grossing silent film ever made. One of the many reasons for the excessive cost was the innovative use of 2-strip Technicolor, a fabulous predecessor to the 3-strip Technicolor I like so much in the sword-and-sandal epics of the '50s, and it is sumptuously used to accentuate certain scenes, like the nativity, and the triumphant entrance into Rome.

Ramon Novarro is brilliant as Judah Ben Hur, and it is no doubt the best film of this great actor's career. Rudolph Valentino paved the way for a Latin to become a leading man, and Novarro, of Mexican birth, achieved stardom soon after Valentino, and there are many comparisons between the two actors. His expressive subtlety is rare in the silent film genre, and is superb in scenes of romantic conflict, as in the "seduction scene", when Messala's woman is trying to find out Judah's identity. Small of stature, he nevertheless had a sturdy physique that enabled him to carry off the action scenes well, and his beautiful, classic features were much loved by the camera.

One of the main reasons that this film is such a gratifying experience is the adaptation by June Mathis of Lewis Wallace's book. Reading the cards is a pleasure, as they are well written in a graceful prose. Mathis incidentally, was instrumental in making Valentino a leading man, as she fought for him to be cast in her 1921 "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", a film that Novarro was an "extra" in, as a guest at a ball.
The score by Carl Davis is also marvelous, and adds much to this magnificent epic.
Comparing this film to the 1959 William Wyler version is interesting, but neither "is better" than the other, both being masterpieces of their respective eras, and two of the finest examples of cinematic artistry ever made.
If you appreciate great filmmaking, this silent classic is not to be missed; total running time is 148 minutes.