Comments | setsuled: Ben-Hur, Ben-There, Ben-Around the World

setsuled

Ben-Hur, Ben-There, Ben-Around the World

Aug 19, 2012 15:20

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ben-hur, pre-code movies, movies, technicolor, nudity, silent films

Comments 8

Young women throwing flower petals. Amazing!! anonymous August 9 2013, 01:19:48 UTC

I just saw the scene in the 1925 BEN-HUR with the young women throwing flower petals. Amazing!! It's a little fuzzy, so I wasn't sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. topless women in a 90 year old movie.

Fascinating history that cinema has. thanks for this web page, that confirmed my vision is still OK.

Gordy

Re: Young women throwing flower petals. Amazing!! setsuled August 9 2013, 01:57:53 UTC

Naked women did turn up now and then in Pre-Hays Code movies. There seemed to be a basic presumption that it was as valid as nudes in photography or painting.

Real Ships anonymous April 7 2016, 19:24:58 UTC

By all reports, those are indeed real ships, jammed with extras & then set on fire. Some reports rather darkly suggest that not all the extras could swim, and some may not have survived the shoot. Hey, it's worth all the sacrifice for a movie!

Re: Real Ships setsuled April 8 2016, 01:43:27 UTC

Yeah, that's the mark of the serious filmmaker too rarely seen nowadays.

Ben-Hur anonymous May 3 2016, 00:05:34 UTC

Not sure why you rate Novarro's performance as "grandly phony." Myself and many others I have read of (notably contemporary film historians such as Anthony Slide and Kevin Brownlow, not to mention practically all of the film reviewers of the time, had nothing but praise for how he made the role his own and radiated his own spirituality into the character. Acting in the grand style was typical of silent films; they had no dialogue to temper their movements, and pronounced gestures were typical of the period. In spite of that, Novarro gives a mostly restrained performance filled with emotion and the role made him a star. The film is in many ways superior to the 1959 version, with Charlton Heston's zero sex appeal not helping it any. The 1991 Carl Davis score is superb, as well.

Re: Ben-Hur setsuled May 3 2016, 01:43:17 UTC

Well, to each their own, but I thought Douglas Fairbanks and Buster Keaton were both subtler and more effective for it.

Re: Ben-Hur anonymous June 1 2016, 19:41:42 UTC

And for thinking that one of the three standout scenes were of the topless women, I have to say I question your credentials as a film critic. But as you say, to each his own.......

Re: Ben-Hur setsuled June 2 2016, 03:01:39 UTC

Yeah, they're lovely.