BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925) Battle in the Masts of a Roman Warship

Description

Vintage original 11 x 14 in. U.S. lobby card
from the epic silent film drama,
BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST
, released in 1925 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and
directed by Fred Niblo
.
The image depicts an exterior shot in the masts of a Roman warship as they try to burn the rope that the basket is suspended from. This lobby card is in very good+/near-fine condition with one or two pinholes in each corner; a bit of the card's history indicated by a rubber stamp in purple ink with the dates that the film played at this specific theatre which extends slightly into the image; a small area of thin vertical stains to the left of center in the top border; a
slight
bit of
discoloration
along the outer edges in the top right corner; a 1/4 and 1/8 in. diagonal crease on the bottom right corner; an area of over-print in the center of the lower yellow background area down into the center of the bottom border; and signs of wear on the bottom left corner. This lobby card is from the film's original 1925 theatrical release and is not from a later re-release.
The original silent version of
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
is considered one of the true epics of silent cinema and also featured several sequences in two-color Technicolor
.
Costing between ,000,000 and ,000,000, the film was
the most expensive silent film ever made.
Ben-Hur
was a big success as a novel and also as a stage play. In 1922, two years after the play's last tour, the Goldwyn company purchased the film rights to
Ben-Hur
. Shooting began in Italy in 1923, starting two years of difficulties, accidents, and eventually a move back to Hollywood. Additional recastings (including Ramon Novarro as Ben-Hur) and a change of director caused the production's budget to skyrocket. The studio's publicity department was shameless, advertising the film with lines like: "The Picture Every Christian Ought to See!" Although audiences flocked to
Ben-Hur
after its premiere in 1925 and the picture grossed ,000,000, its huge expenses and the deal with Erlanger made it a loser for MGM. MGM was unable to recoup its investment.
When filming the chariot scene, the drivers were careful and slow, which disappointed Meyer. To make it more exciting, he offered a prize of 0 to the winner, and the resulting heated competition led to the horrendous crash that remains in the movie. That and another fatal accident led to changes in rules of filming and film safety. A total of 200,000 ft. of film was shot for the chariot race scene, which was eventually edited down to 750 ft. This scene has been much imitated and was re-created virtually shot-for-shot in the 1959 remake
. Some scenes in the film were in two-strip Technicolor. One of the assistant directors for this sequence was a very young William Wyler, who would later direct the 1959 remake.