Top cast:Barry O'Moore,Violet Mersereau,Charles Avery
Director:Christy Cabanne
Genre:War
Region:Hungary
Year:2023
Storyline:One of the film's posters carried a tagline related to the character's rebelliousness:"The man...and the motion picture that simply do not conform."With this vivid film, director Stuart Rosenberg made one of the key films of the 1960s, a decade in which protest against established powers was a key theme.Blood squeezes out of the firmly-shut red elevator doors and fills the lobby.Two of the Overlook's ime-warped occupants - a pair of young, mannequin-like twin girls (Lisa and Louise Burns), each wearing a blue party dress [are they he previous caretaker Grady's two murdered daughters?], holding hands in a flower-wallpapered hallway, and staring grimly at the camera, appear in a cut-in for an instant between the engulfing waves of spilling blood.In the uplifting dramatic moment, Ben-Hur is protected from harm from the dumbstruck Roman guard.Ben-Hur gains fortitude and strength from the encounter.Over three years later, Ben-Hur has toughened, surviving he galley slave ordeal so far.He is one of over 200 galley slaves shackled to an oar in a Roman galley flagship.A new Roman officer Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins) arrives on board to take command.Below deck, Arrius surveys the health and condition of the slaves, and he speaks to Ben-Hur, identified as condemned galley slave number Forty-One.[Note: It was the first full-length feature made at Paramount's Long Island studio.]This great Bette Davis/Warner Bros picture about a decade later, positioned between the star'sAll This, and Heaven Too (1940)andThe Great Lie (1941), was nominated for a total of seven nominations (with no wins): Best Picture, Best Actress (Bette Davis - her fourth nomination), Best Supporting Actor (James Stephenson), Best Director, Best B/W Cinematography (Gaetano Gaudio), Best Original Score (Max Steiner), and Best Film Editing.