Another great night at the CBSO at the Symphony Hall Birmingham looking at an epic silent movie from 1925- Ben Hur. No sign of Charlton Heston but plenty of Ramon Navarro as Judah Ben Hur and with Francis X Bushman as Messala.
A huge screen was suspended over the orchestra and Carl Davis (80 years old) conducted his own music. He must have been exhausted because the film was 141 minutes long.
From the concert programme (£1.50) there were two pages of really riveting information . Ben Hur was originally produced in Rome where arrangements had been made with Mussolini to film historic sites. Unfortunately the Goldwyn company hadn’t reckoned on the political machinations so instead of the Romans fighting the Jews the anti fascists fought the fascists and cost spiralled .
Metro Goldwyn pictures was born and tried to revitalise productions. 400 shipwrights worked round the clock to construct six galleys and a full sized flagship . Hundreds of Italians were used to play Roman soldiers but the fighting for real between the two political factions made the sea battles very authentic . The flagship was fired by chemicals but became a floating inferno . Cameramen safely on board motorboats continued filming as the ship sank together with the extras who were in full Roman armour many of whom couldn’t swim and had to be rescued. By the end of the day all had been accounted for except for three unexplained sets of clothes that were taken out to sea and thrown overboard. Then the three men then turned up having been rescued by a fishing boat further down the coast.
The crew returned to Rome amid heavy weather . The head scenarists daughter caught pneumonia and nearly died, Novarro walked out and went to France and Francis X Bushmans wife wanted a divorce . The Italian labarotories weren’t much cop, supples were difficult so MGM brought the company back home. Irving Thalberg took over .
He built a half sized circus maximum in Culver City with the upper levels using scale models. The Virgin Mary role was taken by a perky Betty Bronson despite the director wanting Lilian Gish, and the role of Jesus was taken over by a New Zealand actress called Nola Luxford – but only her hand was used .
Then the chariot race – directed by Breezy Eason who was familiar with the twelve sets of chariots and the 48 horses . 52 cameramen where positioned around the set and in camera cars and even hidden in the central plinth. Navarro and Bushman had been trained to ride there own chariots while stuntsmen and a bare backed ride took the role of the rest of the charioteers. Let the battle commence
During the sixth lap one of the chariots careered into three others. Four chariots, four charioteers and sixteen horses all careered into each other The cameras never stopped turning and miraculously no one was seriously injured.
The film was finished and edited by a 25 year old Lloyd Nosler and over $7000 worth of tickets were sold before the film was released. Although Ben Hur only accumulated $4 million in North Smerican rentals it created a company capable of making other huge epics that were more financially rewarding and prestigious.
What did we make of it last night? A brilliant piece of film making for the 1920s. Huge crowd scenes that you knew were not digitally enhanced. The chariot scenes was obviously speeded up but the unintentional crash was superb and exciting. Reading through the programme I looked out for the perky Betty Bronson as the Virgin Mary but she was beautiful and serene. I was a little put out by Francis X Bushmans eyeliner and his and Novarros very short tunic tops ( in one scene I though I saw underpants ) Then there was the very white hand of Nola Luxford playing Jesus.
And credit to 80 year old Carl Davis who must have been exhausted after conducting this lengthy epic. We enjoyed it
Thanks for this info from Photoplay Productions
