BEN-HUR (1926)

M-G-M ’s late silent era blockbuster remains a great show, especially in this superb ‘Thames’ video presentation with its Carl Davis score & those cool 2-strip Technicolor segments. (Topless babes! In color!) There are tons of nifty technical production tricks to spot (watch lenser Karl Struss ‘cure’ leprosy without a cut, see religious tableaux vivant) and Ramon Novarro scores as a sleek faun-like hero. Still, it’s a pity that megger Fred Niblo 's old-fashioned meller, one of the few widely viewed non-horror/non-comic silents, stands almost by default as THE representative example of silent cinema’s miraculous final gasp of creativity. (Imagine if De Mille’s TEN COMMANDMENTS was your only reference to 1956; as if UMBERTO D, BABY DOLL, THE SEARCHERS, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, APARAJITO, WRITTEN ON THE WIND, THE COURT JESTER & THE LADYKILLERS weren’t also released in the same year.) There’s also a lot of critical hogwash on how this film bests William Wyler ’s deluxe 1959 remake, with only the latter’s mighty chariot race getting a curt nod of respect. In truth, the ‘26 chariot race (along w/ the sea battle) are the only things that fully equal Wyler‘s stunningly realized epic which has an intimacy and psychological nuance unprecedented for a Hollywood religious epic. Plus that Miklos Rozsa score!