Episode #001
Ben-Hur
(1959)
Chariots, Revenge and Jesus, oh my! Josh and Ira kick off Film School with the first movie on AFI’s Top 100 Films of all time with the sword and sandal epic Ben-Hur. Let’s get this journey through cinema history started!
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A couple of things:
Heston kept coming to Wyler with concerns about the chariot scene. Finally, Wyler told him, “Quit worrying, Chuck. I guarantee you’ll win the race.”
Paul Newman’s “tunic” comment may have been prompted by his first movie, The Silver Chalice.
Awesome stuff! Thank you for sharing!
Here’s a better picture of Newman:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047494/mediaviewer/rm207919104
The guy holding the chalice is Lorne Greene of Bonanza.
Apparently, Newman was so ashamed of the movie that he would take out ads in the local L.A. papers asking people not to watch it whenever it was on TV there.
Another fun fact:
Ben Hur wasn’t the only Heston Biblical Epic where the studio logo was altered. Three years earlier, De Mille persuaded Paramount to switch out their trademark snow-capped mountain for the movie’s volcanic Mount Sinai.