Ben-Hur (1925 Film) - Background

Background

Costing $3.9 million to make, Ben-Hur was the most expensive film of the silent era. (It's the second most expensive silent film ever made, after 2011's The Artist, but only because of modern inflation.).

Ben-Hur had been a great success as a novel, and also as a stage play. Stage productions had been running for twenty-five years. In 1922, two years after the play's last tour, the Goldwyn company purchased the film rights to Ben-Hur. The play's producer, Abraham Erlanger, put a heavy price on the screen rights. Erlanger was persuaded to accept a generous profit participation deal and total approval over every detail of the production.

Shooting began in Italy in 1923, starting two years of difficulties, accidents, and eventually a move back to Hollywood. Additional recastings (including Ramón Novarro as Ben-Hur) and a change of director caused the production's budget to skyrocket. The studio's publicity department was relentless in promoting the film, advertising it 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 $9 million worldwide, its huge expenses and the deal with Erlanger made it a net financial loss for MGM. In terms of publicity and prestige however, it was a great success. It helped establish the new MGM as a major studio.

A total of 60,960 m (200,000 ft) of film was shot for the chariot race scene, which was eventually edited down to 229 m (750 ft). This scene has been much imitated. It was re-created virtually shot for shot in the 1959 remake, copied in Prince of Egypt, and more recently imitated in the pod race scene in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace which was made almost 75 years later. Some scenes in the film were in two-color Technicolor. One of the assistant directors for this sequence was a very young William Wyler, who would direct the 1959 remake.