Trivia / Ben-Hur (1925)

• Acclaimed Flop: The film was very expensive due to the overbudget from its Troubled Production. The potential financial success the film could attain would have to be diluted due to the original contract clause that the screen-rights-owning entity of Classical Cinematograph Corporation (Florenz Ziegfeld, Abraham Erlanger, and Charles Dillingham) receive 50% of the profits. These factors, despite the film’s strong reception at the Box Office, meant it couldn't recoup its costs. Nevertheless, the film's prestige was a great boost for the newly-merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and it paved the way for a groundbreaking remake.
• Cast the Runner-Up: A then-unknown Myrna Loy auditioned for the role of Mary. The studio wanted a familiar name and cast Betty Bronson instead. Loy was given a bit part as a consolation prize.
• Creator Killer: June Mathis, who for two years was the most powerful woman in Hollywood, lost her position and influence when MGM took her out of the making of the film.
• Fatal Method Acting: An early filming attempt of the chariot race was done on location at the Circus Maximus in Rome. It brought about the death of one stuntman when a wheel of his chariot broke.
• Troubled Production: With one of the most notable early examples of Epic Movies also came one of the most notorious early examples of troubles associated with making them.
  • Lew Wallace's novel Ben-Hur:A Tale of the Christ (1880) was a major best-seller, and a successful stage show in the turn of the century. In 1920, Wallace's son Henry sold the rights to the business formation known as the Classical Cinematograph Corporation (made up of the play's producer Abraham Erlanger, Florenz Ziegfeld, and Charles Dillingham) which existed just for the purpose of holding the rights of the story and selling them. In 1922, the Goldwyn Pictures, via June Mathis, bought the rights with the clause that the corporation get 50% of the profits.
  • In October 1923, Mathis assigned Charles Brabin as Director with George Walsh as Judah Ben-Hur, Francis X. Bushman as Messala, and Carmel Myers as Iras. The production moved to Italy in hopes for lesser cost in shooting the film. Unfortunately, the country in the early-1920s was a chaotic hot spot of social and political unrest between Fascist and Communist groups after Benito Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922, as well as economic troubles. For months, very little progress was done. Production was delayed by labor strikes (not to mention deliberate harrying to maintain employment) and conflict between Mathis and Brabin over control. In April 1924, Goldwyn merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Inc., forming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg saw they had inherited this expensive problem and decided to salvage it for the sake of the new studio. Finding the shot footage by Brabin mediocre, MGM ordered replacements. By May 1924, Brabin, Mathis, and actor Walsh were out. Fred Niblo was made director and Ramón Novarro was cast as Judah. The footage was scrapped, sets razed, and the production was started from scratch. Despite the changes, the problems in Italy still continued. Production suffered more delays in construction as well as hostilities between director Niblo and his cast. Francis X. Bushman at one point walked off the set after an argument with Niblo. By January 1925, with the majority of the filming not yet finished, MGM decided to take the production out of the dangerous Italian location and into the more-controlled environment of Culver City, California. The Circus Maximus made in Italy was abandoned and a new one was built in the US. Filming resumed in February 1925, with more reshooting. The final version of the Chariot Race was shot in October, with 62 assistant cameramen (among them William Wyler) using 42 cameras scattered and hidden around the set, to an audience of 3,000 that also included stars well-known (Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks) and soon-to-be well-known (Clark Gable and Myrna Loy). Once the filming was completed, a staggering-for-its-time $4 million had been spent. This, plus the profit royalties for the Classical Cinematograph Corporation, made it difficult to recoup its costs once the film was released in December 1925. Nevertheless, strong reception by critics and audience alike ensured popularity and prestige to MGM.
  • Accidents happened. The filming of the Sea Galley Battle proved disastrous when a staged fire went out of control, consuming the Galley and forcing the extras- unemployed Italians who lied about their nonexistent swimming abilities- jumped into the deep water. Fortunately, no lives were lost.
    • Ramon Novarro suffered the worst. A scene requiring a Roman soldier to pull his hair took numerous takes and loss of several strands. His skin was marked by a make-up job using collodian, a potentially toxic substance, to make it look parched in the Desert-death-march sequence. For the water sequences, clothed only in a loincloth, he suffered burns for jumping through the burning hole of a mast, and nearly froze alongside elderly actor Frank Currier in the castaway scene. While filming the Chariot Race in Italy, he made a wrong turn and got trampled by Francis X. Bushman's chariot, fortunately escaping unscathed.
  • The reshot Chariot Race in the US suffered a major accident when one chariot uncontrollably careened to the middle of the road, with three chariots crashing into it (no drivers were badly injured, but several horses had to put down). This sequence was kept for the film, edited as Messala's crash scene. Assistant Cameraman Henry Hathaway can be spotted in the far background trying to warn away any oncoming charioteers of the collision.

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