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Home > Still Photographs > BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925) - Vintage Original U.S. 8x10 Still Photograph #09
BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925) - Vintage Original U.S. 8x10 Still Photograph #09
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Item Number: S-BENHUR-09
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Vintage original 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm.) U.S. single-weight gelatin silver glossy still photograph (NN: 200-66), very fine condition.
The image depicts an interior long shot of Judah Ben-Hur (Ramon Novarro) inside a tent as he raises his fist at another man while another man watches from behind him. This vintage original still photograph is in very fine condition with a very small 3/8 in. crease which is hardly detectable on the right corner area of the top white border and very small creasing on the top left and bottom corner tips, none of the creasing extends onto or retracts from the image area. This vintage original still photograph has no pinholes.
The original silent version of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is considered one of the true epics of silent cinema and also featured several sequences in two-color Technicolor. Costing between $4,000,000 and $6,000,000, the film was the most expensive silent film ever made. Ben-Hur was a big success as a novel and also as a stage play. In 1922, two years after the play's last tour, the Goldwyn company purchased the film rights to Ben-Hur. Shooting began in Italy in 1923, starting two years of difficulties, accidents, and eventually a move back to Hollywood. Additional recastings (including Ramon Novarro as Ben-Hur) and a change of director caused the production's budget to skyrocket. The studio's publicity department was shameless, advertising the film with lines like: "The Picture Every Christian Ought to See!" Although audiences flocked to Ben-Hur after its premiere in 1925 and the picture grossed $9,000,000, its huge expenses and the deal with Erlanger made it a loser for MGM. MGM was unable to recoup its investment.
When filming the chariot scene, the drivers were careful and slow, which disappointed Meyer. To make it more exciting, he offered a prize of $100 to the winner, and the resulting heated competition led to the horrendous crash that remains in the movie. That and another fatal accident led to changes in rules of filming and film safety. A total of 200,000 ft. of film was shot for the chariot race scene, which was eventually edited down to 750 ft. This scene has been much imitated and was re-created virtually shot-for-shot in the 1959 remake. Some scenes in the film were in two-strip Technicolor. One of the assistant directors for this sequence was a very young William Wyler, who would later direct the 1959 remake.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; 1925; dir: Fred Niblo; cast: Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Claire McDowell, Kathleen Kay, Carmel Myers, Nigel De Brulier, Mitchell Lewis, Leo White, Frank Currier, Charles Belcher, Dale Fuller, Winter Hall.
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Vintage original postcard featuring a beautiful portrait shot of Ramon Novarro as Judah Ben-Hur.
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Vintage original German postcard featuring a beautiful portrait shot of Ramon Novarro as Judah Ben-Hur.
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Features Ramon Novarro and Carmel Myers in the famous silent film epic directed by Fred Niblo.
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Features Ramon Novarro, May McAvoy and Nigel De Brulier in the famous silent film epic directed by Fred Niblo.
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Features Ramon Novarro, May McAvoy and Nigel De Brulier in the famous silent film epic directed by Fred Niblo.
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