Production of Ben-Hur (1959 film)

[5] In September 1955, Zimbalist, who continued to claim that Tunberg's script was complete, announced that a $7 million, six-to-seven month production would begin in April 1956 in either Israel or Egypt in MGM's new 65mm widescreen process.

[7] By the late 1950s, court decisions forcing film studios to divest themselves of theater chains[8] and the competitive pressure of television had caused significant financial distress at MGM.

[18] Tunberg cut out everything in the book after the crucifixion of Jesus, omitted the sub-plot in which Ben-Hur fakes his death and raises a Jewish army to overthrow the Romans, and altered the manner in which the leperous women are healed.

[27] In fact, despite conducting screen tests and engaging in other pre-production work for Ben-Hur, Wyler did not agree to direct the film until September 1957,[25] and MGM did not announce his hiring until January 3, 1958.

[9] Professional competitive reasons also played a role in his decision to direct, and Wyler later admitted that he wished to "out DeMille"[12] and make a "thinking man's" Biblical epic.

[21] Both a contemporary account in the British magazine Films and Filmmaking as well as Vidal biographer Fred Kaplan claim that Anderson was ill and unable to work on the script.

"[17] Kaplan describes the script at this point as having only a "modest to minimal" understanding of what the ancient Roman world was like, dialogue which veered "between flat Americanisms and stilted formality", and an ill-defined relationship between Judah Ben-Hur and Messala.

Vidal first made the claim in an interview in the 1995 documentary film The Celluloid Closet, and asserted that he persuaded Wyler to direct Stephen Boyd to play the role as if he were a spurned homosexual lover.

Others inserted an admiration for Jewish people (who had founded the state of Israel by this time) and the more pluralistic society of 1950s America rather than the "Christian superiority" view of Wallace's novel.

[51] Marlon Brando,[51] Rock Hudson,[f] Geoffrey Horne,[g] and Leslie Nielsen[52] were also offered the role, as were a number of muscular, handsome Italian actors (many of whom did not speak English).

[72] Hugh Griffith, who gained acclaim in the post-World War II era in Ealing Studios comedies, was cast as the comical Sheik Ilderim.

[74] Out of respect for the divinity of Christ, and consistent with Lew Wallace's stated preference,[i] Wyler decided before the production began that the face of Jesus would not be shown.

Wyler, who believed the centurion's reaction to his confrontation with Jesus Christ was critical, shut down the production at a cost of $15,000 while the original actor was retrieved from Rome.

[101] The production was then scheduled to move to Rome on April 1, where Andrew Marton had been hired as second unit director and 72 horses were being trained for the chariot race sequence.

The pace of the film was so grueling that a doctor was brought onto the set to give a vitamin B complex injection to anyone who requested it (shots that Wyler and his family later suspected may have contained amphetamines).

Actresses Martha Scott and Cathy O'Donnell spent almost the entire month of November 1958 in full leprosy make-up and costumes so that Wyler could shoot "leper scenes" when other shots didn't go well.

[95] The chariot race in Ben-Hur was directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt,[111] filmmakers who often acted as second unit directors on other people's films.

The crew decided to create their own racecourse surface, one that would be hard enough to support the steel-rimmed chariot wheels but soft enough to not harm the horses after hundreds of laps.

[78] The production schedule originally called for the chariot race to be shot in the spring, when weather was cooler for the horses and when Wyler would not be placing heavy demands on Heston and Boyd's time.

The racecourse surface proved so soft that it slowed the horses down and a day of shooting was lost as the yellow rock and all but 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) of crushed lava were removed.

Since the horses had to be running at top speed for the best visual impact, Marton chose to film the chariot race with a smaller lens with a much shorter minimum focal length.

[134] In all, the chariot scene took five weeks (spread over three months) to film at a total cost of $1 million[75] and required more than 200 miles (320 km) of racing to complete.

[143] Cinecittà Studios, a very large motion picture production facility constructed in 1937 on the outskirts of Rome, was identified early on as the primary shooting location.

[36] Art directors William A. Horning and Edward Carfagno created the overall look of the film, relying on the more than five years of research that had already been completed for the production.

[119] A skeleton crew of studio technicians arrived in the summer of 1956 to begin preparing the Cinecittà soundstages and back lot, and to oversee the construction of additional buildings that would be needed to house the production team.

Special silk was imported from Thailand, the armor manufactured in West Germany, and the woolens made and embroidered in the United Kingdom and various countries of South America.

[145] More than 400 pounds (180 kg) of hair were donated by women in the Piedmont region of Italy to make wigs and beards for the production,[124] and 1,000 feet (300 m) of track laid down for the camera dollies.

For example, Wyler asked a professor at the University of Jerusalem to copy a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls for a scene that called for parchment with Hebrew writing on it.

[9] Tour buses visited the site hourly, and entertainers such as Harry Belafonte, Kirk Douglas, Susan Hayward, Audrey Hepburn, and Jack Palance traveled to Italy to see the production.

[159] Unlike previous efforts for films set in the distant past, Rózsa quoted no ancient Greek or Roman musical themes in his score.