“BEN HUR”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 176, 15 October 1927, Page 16

“BEN HUR”

COMING TO AUCKLAND General Lew Wallace’s “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ,” that was a stage spectacle for 22 years, and as a book enjoyed a circulation as large as the Bible, will be released in New Zealand shortly by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It comes here after long runs in all the capital cities of the world, and boasts a cast of 150,000. Fred Niblo directed the production which begins with the Wise Men and the Star of Bethlehem, pictures Jerusalem under the Roman tyranny, and the condemnation of the Prince of Hur to the galleys. The battle ’twixt the Roman fleet and the Greek pirates was filmed with a great Bon Hur navy of antique modelled craft off the coasts of Italy. The celebrated chariot race in which Ben Hur and Messala contest for the palm, occupied three months in the making. Twelve quadrigas are driven seven laps over a course facing a Circus Maximus that holds nearly 100,000 spectators. The exquisite love story of Ben Hur and Esther is intertwined with the thrilling action. The final scenes deal with Ben Hur’s assembling of legions in the plan to establish a Kingdom of Judea, the discovery of his long-lost sister and mother in the Va le of Hinnom, the procession of Palm Sunday, and the healing the sick ones by the Saviour, whereby Ben Hur and his beloved Esther and kinsfolk are reunited. It is a grandiose epic that has taken three years for its completion and included as many real-life adventurings as an historic odyssey of the old and new worlds. Ramon Novarro, in the title role, May MeAvoy, Betty Bronson, Francis X. Bushman, Carmel Myers, Claire McDowell, Kathleen Key, Nigel De Brulier, Mitchell Lewis and Frank Currier have prominent parts.

Lew Coody and Aileen Pringle, with Hobart Henley, the director, and the cast of “Mixed Marriages,” their costarring comedy, have returned to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios from the which were used as a background for the new picture, __