Released on October 8th, 1927 was the epic film Ben Hur, directed by Fred Niblo (along with several other un-credited directors) and starring Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy and Carmel Myers. The story is based on a Lew Wallace book about a Jewish prince searching for his family and seeking revenge upon the childhood friend who had him wrongly imprisoned. Ben Hur was the most expensive silent film made, at a cost of just under four million dollars. MGM inherited the problem plagued production when the company was founded in 1924, and were later forced to move the film from its original location in Italy, to Los Angeles, due to budget overruns. There had also been alarming reports concerning the famous chariot race which resulted in one stuntman being killed. A second fatality occurred when the iconic scene was re-filmed in Hollywood. This would lead to a tightening of safety regulations on film sets. The cast was said to number over 125,000 and many big name stars and soon to be stars worked as extras on the film including: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable, Harold Lloyd, Carole Lombard, Janet Gaynor, Fay Wray, Mary Pickford, Colleen Moore, Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish. In fact, Gable met his future wife Carole Lombard for the first time on the set of this film. Despite the talent and hard work by all concerned, Ben Hur did not re-coup its nearly four million dollar investment (due to budget overruns) until it was re-released in 1931.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 04:07:53 +0000
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