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I love silent fims, as do a couple of the frequent contributors here. But as far as family and friends go, I can never find anyone to join me, except for the occasional Keaton or Chaplin short. Most young people don't even like black and white films, let alone a movie with no spoken dialog. So last night I watched this masterpiece alone. The pleasure was enhanced, however, by the restored tinting on the DVD and by the 5400K B&W setting on my monitor and the Dolby Pro Logic II Music processing of Karl Davis'wonderful score (at least the equal of Rozsa's 1959 effort) of my system.Since all of us have seen the Charton Heston 1959 version, comparisons are inevitable, even though this one came 34 years earlier. Raymon Novarro plays a sort of goody goody hero, while veteran Francis X. Bushman is a prick from the git go. Bushman's acting style is of an older variety than the younger Navarro's, occasionally shifting over to the exaggerated wide eyed hamming so often parodied in mock silent film acting.
The sea battle and chariot race are very realistically done, the chariot race terrifyingly so since a number of horses are killed right on screen (there's one pile up toward the end where many must have been put down afterwards). Two strip colr Technicolr is used in some scenes, many of the religious ones, although Judah and Arrius' triumphant return to Rome after the battle is led by topless girls dispensing flower petals before them. There is also a seduction scene prior to the race (bad guy Messala pays a working girl to find out Judah's actual identity) which must be the first on screen feel in a commercial film.
THe fiolm was available on laserdisc and now is a part of the four disc Ben Hur DVD box (in which the 1959 film for the first time on video finally has the correct aspect ratio). Sadly, the silent version here has no commentary or extras (although the bonus fourth disc has a history of the book, play and three films which does give some detail on the `1925 version).
Follow Ups:
I'm not a big fan of films with overt religious themes, but this is one lavishly filmed biblical epic which succeeds in being rousing entertainment irrespective of it's preachier aspects. The two-color technicolor segments look good in spite of the early process's limitations. Historical note: Both the chariot race and sea battle were costly and not without incident (the sea battle apparently cost the lives of some Italian extras who drowned and/or burned, and as you noted the chariot race was just a precurser to the glue factory for some of those horses).Other recently acquired silent films worth noting:
The upcoming Criterion release of Pandora's Box (German restoration approved by the Murnau Foundation)
Sadie Thompson (Gloria Swanson; KINO release; print quality varies, but film is excellent even with the filled-n missing scenes at the end)
The restored complete version of Dr Mabuse, The Gambler (recently released by KINO, although I have the PAL, Region 2 version from Eureka issued a couple of year's ago, this is apparently the same restored transfer. Note: Avoid the earlier truncated versions)
The restored Faust (Eureka Masters of Cinema; PAL; Region 2; if you don't own a region-free player yet, but have been thinking about it, the restored & remastered transfer of this silent masterpiece, which is only available domestically in the earlier soft KINO transfer, could pursuade you to fork over the extra bucks for a region free Oppo upscaling DVD player). Note: Check out the DVD Beaver frame grabs of Faust below for comparison
Think I'll stop there for now, but I've picked up quite a few more silent era DVDs over the last six months or so (Murnau's Phantom, Feuillade's Fantomas series, Von Sternberg's Underworld, etc., etc.) and will gladly list/evaluate them later for those interested.
Louise Brooks in PB set a standard for "cool" which, many years later, is still "cool."
Wow, thanks. I'll add these to what is becoming an impossible to see in a lifetime list. rico
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