Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Fred Niblo, MGM, 1925, from Lew Wallace, after a troubled Italian start under other hands. Ramon Novarro is Judah; Francis X. Bushman is Messala. The circus Maximus was built in Culver City; the chariot race used dozens of cameras and injured men. Second-unit sea work used full galleys. June Mathis had been on the project early; the released film is Niblo’s and the studio’s. Cost and recoupment became a Hollywood parable. The 1959 remake copied the race more than the piety. Novarro’s face is the silent version of the title.