RM's musings on Ben-Hur (1959), Andrew Marton, and blockbusters

[“why Ben-Hur still looks like a trillion bucks”; plus, Miklós Rózsa's brilliant score – Ben-Hur (full album)]

By RM
tuesday, april 8, 2025 at 11:50:00 p.m. edt

I also was disappointed when I first saw Ben-Hur (1959) on TV. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it much better when I saw it again more recently-if I sit through it again, will it “grow on me”?

Wyler’s style is static-there’s one scene between Heston and Stephen Boyd (a fine actor who died tragically young) that seems to go on for 10 minutes without a cut or camera movement-that’s theater, not film! As for the “million dollar production”-I became a fan of the noted film historian William K. Everson at a young age, when, in one of his books, he said that the Lydecker brothers’ miniature work over at Republic put to shame much of the stuff done by major studios-such as the toy-boats-in-a-bathtub sea battles in Ben-Hur! The chariot race, however, is incredible, and, of course, has nothing to do with Wyler-it was directed by Andrew Marton, with the greatest stuntman ever, Yakima Canutt, as stunt director (Marton got mad ‘cause Yak was going around taking credit for the whole thing!).

Marton was an incredible talent who worked totally uncredited as MGM’s second unit director throughout the ‘40s. In Whistling in Brooklyn (1943), there’s a scene with a chain of people hanging down into an elevator shaft, which looks frighteningly real, and Bad Bascomb (1946) has some of the best action scenes ever including the second-best Indian raid ever filmed (the first was in Fuller’s 1957 Run of the Arrow).

Marton graduated to director, with the popular King Solomon’s Mines (1950), and has to his credit Crack in the World (1965), a terrific and under-rated SF movie, one of my favorites.

In Ben-Hur, the performances are fine, and there’s no argument about Rozsa’s wonderful music-but except for the chariot race, I liked the silent version better!

And-Spartacus (1960) should have been the movie to get all the awards!

-RM

N.S.: Kirk Douglas’ Spartacus did, in fact, win four Oscars, more than any other movie that year.


By RM
wednesday, april 9, 2025 at 12:24:00 a.m. edt

Some great Biblical-type movies, if GRA (or anybody) is interested-

The uncut version of DeMille’s Sign of the Cross (1932) has Laughton’s great performance as Nero, a lesbian seduction scene, and an absolutely terrifying climax of the Christians being attacked by lions (no wonder it was censored till recent years!). Oh yeah, Fredric March is pretty damn good also!

[N.S.: Laughton was the man of the 30’s. No actor ever dominated a decade the way he did then.]

Samson and Delilah (1949/1950)-DeMille again, and pretty powerful. Victor Mature’s greatest performance; his pain after being blinded is nearly unbearable. Much better production values than Ben-Hur-special effects by John Fulton, who created The Invisible Man (1933) and parted the Red Sea in DeMille’s Ten Commandments (1956). The destruction of the temple is spectacular!

Quo Vadis (1951)—quasi-remake of Sign of the Cross—tones down the sex and violence, and has Peter Ustinov as Nero doing a fair impression of Laughton. Another impressive production-I believe this was the first Hollywood movie shot at Italy’s enormous Cinecitta studio. Buddy Baer facing the bull in the arena to save the heroine’s life is pure classic! AND- another great score by Miklos Rozsa!

-RM


By Grand Rapids Anonymous
wednesday, april 9, 2025 at 12:28:00 a.m. edt

Andrew Marton, hmmm? Great, obscure info, RM. In Marton’s case, maybe he was satisfied with only having a hand in small areas of films and filmmaking—the “Peter Principle” possibly known in his own mind already.

--GRA


By RM
wednesday, april 9, 2025 at 2:12:00 a.m. edt

There’s a book-length interview with him, conducted by the DGA and published by Scarecrow Press. Probably hard to find now-checked Ebay; it’s not there [N.S.: It’s not available at amazon, either; I just checked]. Don’t remember why he didn’t go on to bigger things-King Solomon’s Mines was a BIG hit! That’s a movie I didn’t like at first, but which grew on me-it has a low-key, almost documentary-like quality that gradually immerses you in the strange culture encountered by the protagonists. The climax is really an anti-climax, which is realistic but possibly why I didn’t like it at first.

-RM


By RM
wednesday, april 9, 2025 at 3:09:00 a.m. edt

Forgive a bit more blathering-despite my reservations about Ben-Hur, I’m glad it still has a devoted following-I’m glad ANY old movie still has a following in this late stage of history! Remember when some jackass directed a remake about ten years ago, of course with digital effects, and it bombed big time? [N.S.: I had no idea!] He actually said that with modern technology, a GIRL could sit down with a computer and create a remake of Ben-Hur! I don’t think the guy has been heard from since....

-RM


N.S.: From I.S. Mowis’ imdb.com biography of Andrew Marton (1904-1992): “The extremely troubled shoot of 55 Days at Peking [1963] led to director Nicholas Ray suffering a serious seizure [N.S.: Nervous breakdown? Ray was a nervous man.] which forced him to withdraw from the film. Marton had already been busy directing the second unit for the film, but was now tasked with completing the film (although three days were filmed by another director, Guy Green). Nicholas Ray retained full directing credit on the film, and it has been estimated that he filmed a little over half of the finished movie. Marton was given the special credit of ‘director of second unit operations’ and a title-card all to himself.”

(N.S.: One of the Academy’s greatest blunders was in eliminating the Oscar category of “Best Assistant Director,” after the 1938 Oscars. Many a great epic owed its success, dramatically and financially, to its second unit director, who would be responsible for the action scenes, at least those filmed outdoors.)