GRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 323, 7 April 1928, Page 14

GRAND

“BEN-HUR” Besides its tremendous magnitude and the universal fame of the novel and play, “Ben-Hur,” Fred Niblo’s

mighty epic, has an entirely new claim to being the • most remarkable picture ever produced. “Ben-Hur” depicts the customs and .manners of 20 different races of the period of Caesar Augustus during the first

century. The life of the Roman conquerors, of Jewish princes, of Egyptian slaves, the sheiks of the Arabian desert, of galley slaves of all nationalities, and of the hundreds of types prevalent along the east coast of the Mediterranean during the world of the ancients, are all in the picture. The title role is played by Ramon Novarro, and May McAvoy interprets the part of “Esther.” Other stars are Francis X. Bushman as “Messala,” Carmel Myers as “Iras,” Nigel de Brulier as “Simonides,” Kathleen Key as “Tirzah,” Claire McDowell as the mother of “Ben-Hur,” and Betty Bronson as the “Madonna.” The great chariot race in the Circus Maximus is the most spectacular and realistic sequence ever seen on the screen, and marks one of the principal high-lights of this wonderful production now being shown at the Grand Theatre.