BEN HUR
Starring Ramon Novarro, May McAvoy, Francis X. Bushman
MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC
March, 1926
After three years in the galleys of pagan Hollywood and Christian Rome, "Ben Hur" has at last reached the screen.
"Ben Hur" has been one of the four great successes of the American speaking theater. The fact that the other three were "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Lightnin'" and "Abie's Irish Rose" indicates that a fine literary or dramatic quality is not essential to a popular success behind the footlights. Before it reached the theater, "Ben Hur," which was written by a veteran of the Civil War, General Lew Wallace, had passed into editions of many millions. General Wallace, if I may be permitted to say so, was the Harold Bell Wright of his day.
"Ben Hur" hit the Chautauqua mood of America with singular exactness. It was a romance with pseudo-historical trappings. Ostensibly, its central figure was Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and it traced Him from His birth in the manger of Bethlehem to His death upon the cross. Actually, "Ben Hur" followed the established historical pattern. The usual clean-limbed young hero comes to the usual city of evil, rejects the courtezan of the moment and returns finally in triumph to the girl he had loved from the beginning. Small wonder then that Chicago mail order houses used to command "Ben Hur" in editions of a million for America's hinterland bookworms.
Naturally when "Ben Hur" came to the stage, it was a sensational success. People went to see it who looked upon the theater as the first step in the general direction of a place still considered warmer than Coral Gables in July. They took a chance with the evil one because "Ben Hur" was a Biblical story. I can still remember how "Ben Hur" used to come to my home town. There was nothing like it except Barnum and Bailey's Circus, which carried more camels. In those pre-movie days in the chariot race, with eight horses galloping one way on a treadmill while a painted panorama of the Circus Maximus unrolled in the other direction, was looked upon as the last word in the spectacular.
So much for the appeal of "Ben Hur" between covers and behind the footllghts. I suspect that the screen "Ben Hur" will have just as great an appeal. It will probably go on making millions for years.
All of which does not make "Ben Hur" a really great motion picture. It is fundamentally weak, of course, from a literary standpoint. That probably is beside the point. Our real complaint is that "Ben Hur" offers nothing really new directorially. It is old-fashioned in its workmanship. The characters never seem flesh and blood to me. They are just automatons (frequently graceful and well done automatons) moving before scenes of massive and spectacular expenditure. I was touched just once by "Ben Hur."
There are two big moments to "Ben Hur." One, of course, is the chariot race. The other comes earlier, when Ben Hur serves his years of servitude in the Roman galleys. But neither of these lavish interludes got to me as much as the few thrilling seconds of Betty Bronson as Mary, mother of Jesus. Were Miss Bronson an unknown newcomer to the films, these few seconds would make her famous overnight. They were tremendously thrilling to me.
I am not going to relate the story of "Ben Hur" here. General Wallace set out to paint the bitterness of Jewish oppression under Roman rule and he frequently painted at complete odds with facts as set down by historians. Thus his romance was to reveal how Christianity personified by the son of the Jewish house of Hur lifted the oppressed from their bondage. Brutality always sounds more horrific as it comes crashing down the ages. Probably Roman galley-slaves had just as cheery a time as our sweat-shop workers or our coal miners. Distance lends brutality.
I cannot think of a better Ben Hur than Ramon Novarro. He sustains a long and grueling role with grace, charm and considerable force. I am reliably informed by feminine members of our editorial staff that there has been no thrill such as that supplied by Novarro's legs since John Gilbert spilled soup on Mae Murray's dress in that exciting moment of "The Merry Widow."
I hand my superlatives to Miss Bronson. A minute more of Miss Bronson and I would have been a true believer. Francis X. Bushman seems to me pretty stodgy as Messala, the Roman enemy of Ben Hur. Claire McDowell has an effective moment as the mother of Hur, but the rest of the cast is lost in the maze of huge sets and trick photography.
My biggest disappointment was Carmel Myers' performance as that celebrated siren, Iras. This Egyptian temptress turned out to be just an old-fashioned and entirely too eager movie vamp.
I have commented rather severely upon Fred Niblo's direction. It is thoroly conventional. The early Star of Bethlehem scenes, in which Miss Bronson does such excellent work, and the chariot race were staged by associate directors, I am told. Ferdinand Earle deserves the credit for the former, while any thrill you get out of the chariot race will be due to one "Breezy" Eason, an old-time comedy director. The titles of Katherine Hilliker, be it noted, are excellent.
Don't let me discourage you from seeing "Ben Hur."
It is lavish and spectacular, miles ahead of the "The Wanderer"
and other Biblical screen dramas. You will probably get a kick
out of the chariot race, you will be won by Novarro's playing
and you will see screen acting touch the heights for a flash in
your glimpse of Miss Bronson. Anyway, "Ben Hur" is that
bigger and better Biblical story Merton would have worshiped.
It will drag many a non-film going family away from their radio
and their mail-order catalogues in the next two or three years.
Video source: Movies Unlimited, Critic's Choice, Amazon.com