Ben-Hur (1925)

With the acquisition or Louis B. Mayer and his production company Metro-Goldwyn productions, a company that merged together a few short years before, would become MGM, Hollywood's newest major player and Ben-Hur would be it first major production that Mayer would work incredibly hard on to give this production studio a new foundation to build on. Company founder Samuel Goldwyn purchased the rights of greatly popular book by Lew Wallace believing that its popularity would transfer to the silver screen and make his company the greatest in Hollywood. Despite production issues, a wild sky-rocketing budget, and some bad business the film would prove to be a giant hit and indeed put MGM at the top of all Hollywood studios.

Based on the book Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ the film wished to match the success of the novel, which had become the second most popular book in the world next to the Bible. It was written by former Union Brigadier General Wallace as fictional side story of Jesus Christ as a way for Wallace to better understand his own beliefs as a Christian. It would surpass Uncle Tom's Cabin in sales, and would stay number two in world sales until Gone with the Wind, another property adapted into a hugely popular film by MGM years later. At first the motion picture was actually being shot in Italy, but in seeing the rise in production costs the film was moved to the MGM lot in Culver City, where massive sets would be created to produce this epic classic.

The film follows the tale of Judah Ben-Hur (Ramon Novarro), a wealthy Jew that had much power in his land until his close friend and Roman Tribune, Messala (Francis X. Bushman), rises to power and overthrows Judah's family throwing Judah, his mother, and his sister in jail, thus separating them. Judah finds himself as part of a chain gang, where he happens to cross paths with a carpenter named Jesus who offers him water during his travels showing Judah the meaning of compassion. Later Judah would be working in the galley of a large ship where during an attack by pirates Judah saves the life ships admiral, Quintus Arrius (Frank Currier). Arrius would take Judah under his wing and treat his as his own son. Ben-Hur's skills leads him to become a very successful and popular chariot racer where he would once again meet his former friend Messala. In a climactic chariot race the two do battle during the race and Judah would come out the victor. Afterwards Judah would be reunited with his mother and sister, who have become lepers in their time separated. In an act of faith Judah would have his family healed by Jesus, and after this great miracle his family is able to be truly reunited .

The film began production in Italy in 1923, and after two years of difficulties Mayer would come in and move it all to California, where continual changes would send the price tag on the picture through the roof. There was a directorial change from Charles Brabin to the credited Fred Niblo, and even a recasting of the star to Novaro. Some scenes would be shot in early two strip Technicolor, making it not fully color as we will see years later with three-strip color, but would definitely make the scene jump out with a new sense of life as color was not seen much at all in those times. Though with all this it raising the costs Mayer would not be stopped from making sure this film was a victory for MGM. He would have massive sets constructed for the epic sea battle and the chariot race filled with, as the marketing posters would state, "A cast of thousands." After all was said and done the production cost over $4 million, but Mayer didn't stop there. Shamelessly Mayer had the marketing department state this as the movie that every Christian must see, due to its connection as a religious toned story.

So with the epic costs, epic sets, epic story, tied in with the epically successful book, and the epic marketing campaign, the film was huge success, bring in more than $9 million in sales, a mighty large sum of money for any film, especially for its time. MGM would not reap the full reward of its box office receipts though, as when Samuel Goldwyn tried everything to get the rights of the story part of the deal stated that half of the profits would be rewarded to those the right were purchased from. Therefore the film was a loss for the studio, but it did bring with it notoriety that would propel the studio to the heights in Hollywood's golden age in the coming 1930s.

The chariot race would be one of films greatest scenes for its action, sets, size, and editing makes it a very exciting scene to watch. It is said that what we see on screen is less than a half of a percent of the amount of actual film shot for this scene. The scene was covered form every angle, but most importantly from the within the middle of the race, not just from the angle of a spectator, making this scene as riveting as it is. After the initial shooting, Mayer found the chariots going to too slow for such an action packed scene, so he would offer a $100 reward to the victory when shooting the wide shots, which would add a layer of mayhem, as it would make the chariot racers truly race for the prize. This caused some massive crashes that are actually seen in the film. Many horses crash and even send racers flying. Legend has it that in the biggest crash seen in this film, one racer is trampled by the horses killing him and you can actually see it happen in this picture, a rather gruesome thing to think about when watching this scene. Thousands of extra were brought in to fill the stands for this climactic piece of film. It is said that many of Hollywood's finest were brought in to see the set and race and were used as extras in the background, including the likes of John and Lionel Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks, Sam Goldwyn himself, Mary Pickford, Sid Grauman, Harold Lloyd, Joan Crawford, and a young Clark Gable. With that in mind, it adds to the prestige of the picture.

Though not a financial success, the film did it job making MGM a huge studio. It shows how Mayer did everything to make this film a victory of celluloid perfection at any cost. The film is a classic and even though it would have a very famous remake in 1959 with Charlton Heston, it is important to note that the 1959 counterpart would not have happened if not for the grand success of this original epic. MGM would go on to produce some of Hollywood's all time great classics producing the "magic" that romanticized with Hollywood's Golden Age. This was a beginning of all that would follow from Gone with the Wind, to The Wizard of Oz, to Rocky, the highly successful studio lives to this day with one of the most impressive motion picture libraries of them all.