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What happens when you combine stories of the Christ with stories of chariot racing and stolen royalty? BEN-HUR. AKA the most expensive film of the silent era. That’s what happens. And what a happening it was!
Newly formed MGM and their legendary writer June Mathis had a great idea – film this magnificent Roman epic (which started out as a popular novel in 1880) on location in Italy! This wasn’t commonplace in the silent cinema days, as location “authenticity” wasn’t as big of a deal to the public. Put up a title card reading ‘In Paris’, show a Parisian-decorated set and bam! The audience was happy. June was given the task of casting the lead role (Ben-Hur), which was really difficult – but eventually she settled on an actor named George Walsh. But ol’ George wasn’t even in the finished film…keep reading!
BOTH ABOVE: The fateful ships...before the fire.
The fateful ships...ablaze.
Before you know it, MGM sent an entire crew and cast to Italy in 1923, and shooting began…but all was not well. June went over to be part of the production, but the director refused to let her have any say so. Male chauvenism, maybe?? At first, the footage quality was so poor that it couldn’t even be used. Eventually the director was replaced, and several actors were recast. The role of Ben-Hur then went to actor Ramon Novarro (who was amazing in the final film). Shooting resumed. At the time, there was a lot of political tension in Italy, and local citizens were hired as extras for a battle scene between 2 ships. The casting director decided to bring in some “realism” by making sure that the fascists were on one boat, and the anti-fascists in the other. Then have ‘em go at it! In the scene, one ship was supposed to catch fire. It did, and the winds caused the fire to spread out of control and destroy the ship (!). The endangered extras, many of whom couldn’t swim and/or were wearing heavy armor, leapt overboard and were never seen again (!). Francis X Bushman, one of the lead actors, pleaded with the new director (Fred Niblo) to do something about the drowning extras, but Fred was more concerned about the cost of the ships (!) and nothing was done to help them. In fact, the extras jumping overboard is in the film! Can you imagine?! Allegedly, a couple of the men were rescued by fishing boats – but that’s debatable. We only have "he-said, she-said" on this!
Actor Ramon Novarro talking to director Fred Niblo.
Because of the political unrest in Italy, there were riots that caused significant delays in the set construction, and a warehouse fire destroyed the props. Additionally, some of the crew members got careless and accidentally dug into a 2,000-year-old Roman catacomb that contained ancient relics, completely destroying the site. And then…things got bad. During the filming of the chariot race, the track was not suitable for the horses and chariots, so ruts began to form. One of the wheels broke off a chariot, sending the chariot driver flying about 30 feet in the air. He died of internal injuries. Don’t even get us started on what happened to the horses involved. Animal activists of the 1920s were outraged when they learned of the mistreatment, and began taking steps to make film sets more humane for animals! After all this drama, the race footage was unusable because of heavy shadows. And MGM had had about enough...
The re-shot chariot race scene.
Well, it’s a small wonder why the newly-appointed head of MGM (Louis B. Mayer) called a halt on the whole thing after 2 years of chaos in Italy. Ordering everyone back to Los Angeles, he fired practically everyone and started almost completely from scratch in 1925, using what footage he could – but having many re-shoots, including the now-famous chariot race. Although the conditions still weren't much safer for the chariot drivers or the animals...at least no one was killed this time! This scene has been re-created many times in more modern movies such as Star Wars: Episode 1 and The Prince of Egypt.
Ben-Hur, once finally finished, was a success at the box office. The film, being religious, targeted the religious audiences and HIT THE JACKPOT. The public was encouraged to bring their children to this movie (which contains nudity and violence), which is something we wouldn’t recommend for our readers! But even with the massive ticket sales, MGM still lost money on it! Over 2 years of outrageous expense had put their newbie studio in a financial hole where the film was concerned, and all the tickets sold couldn’t get them out of it. However! It did make everyone sit up and take notice of what MGM could do – and they went on to many more financial successes. View the original theatrical trailer below (no sound):
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