| Ben Hur | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Ben_Hur_(1907)_film..jpg) Scene of Judah Ben-Hur (right) discussing with his sister Rome's misrule of Jerusalem | |
| Directed by | Sidney Olcott Frank Oakes Rose[1] |
| Written by | Scenario by Gene Gauntier[2] |
| Based on | Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ 1880 novel by Lew Wallace |
| Produced by | Frank J. Marion George Kleine Samuel Long |
| Cinematography | Max Schneider[3] |
| Music by | Edgar Stillman Kelley (accompanying sheet music for film) |
Production companies | Kalem Company New York, N.Y. |
| Distributed by | Kalem Company |
Release date |
|
Running time | 15 minutes ("Approximate Length" 1000 feet)[4] |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Silent (English intertitles) |
Ben Hur is a 1907 American silent drama film set in ancient Rome, the first screen adaptation of Lew Wallace's popular 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Co-directed by Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose, this "photoplay" was produced by the Kalem Company of New York City, and its scenes, including the climactic chariot race, were filmed in the city's borough of Brooklyn.[5][a]
While this film is significant for being the first motion-picture adaptation of Wallace's novel, its production also served as a landmark case of copyright infringement by an early American film studio. In 1908 Kalem was successfully sued for representing parts of Wallace's book on screen without obtaining permission from the author's estate. Copies of the film, which survive, are now in the public domain and are readily available for free viewing online in the collections of various digital archives and on streaming services.
- ^ Chow-Kambitsch, Emily (2017). "An Alternative 'Roman Spectacle': Fragmentation, Invocations of Theatre, and Audience Engagement Strategy in Kalem's 1907 Ben-Hur", May 30, 2017, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film, SAGE Publishing; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. According to period sources, Rose was not a film director; he was in 1907 the general stage manager for Pain's Fireworks Company in Brooklyn.
- ^ Tracy, Tony. "Outside the System: Gene Gauntier and the Consolidation of Early American Cinema", Film History, vol. 28, no. 1 (2016), p. 75. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016.
- ^ Gauntier, Gene (1928). "Blazing the Trail", edited by Gertrude B. Lane, Woman's Home Companion (Springfield, Ohio), October 1928, p. 186; pdf copy in the Women Film Pioneers Project, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ Kawin, Bruce F. How Movies Work. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1987, pp. 46-47. According to this reference, a full 1000-foot reel of film in the silent era had a maximum running time of 15-16 minutes. Silent films were generally projected at a "standard" speed of 16 frames per second, far slower than the 24 frames of later sound films. Also, most reels, especially the final reels in multiple-reel releases, were not filled to their maximum capacities.
- ^ "KALEM FILMS...BEN HUR", advertisement, The Moving Picture World (New York, N.Y.), December 7, 1907, p. 649. Internet Archive, San Francisco. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
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