"Today was one of the toughest days I've ever had professionally. Willy really opened up to me, and it was not an ego-boosting experience. He does not like, not so much what I have done so far on the part... there he seems satisfied.. but in his view, what my potential for the part is with my present attitude on acting and life."
This is where Charlton Heston, writing in his daily journal, stood on June 5, 1958, early into the filming of BEN-HUR. Despite preparing for the role with characteristic thoroughness, something in Heston's performance wasn't working for director William Wyler - and Wyler, never much of a hand-holder, wasn't about to make it easy for his star. Though Heston expressed confidence that he would eventually deliver what Wyler demanded of him, he knew he was in for a rough ride. As he concluded in that day's entry, "It ain't gonna be fun for awhile..."
Heston's journey is at the fore of Warner Bros. Fiftieth Anniversary "Ultimate Collector's Edition" presentation of BEN-HUR, which is available this week on Blu-ray and DVD. Aside from the movie itself (restored to its vibrant former glory by Ned Price), the most impressive supplements in the collection are a new feature-length documentary featuring newly-discovered behind-the-scenes footage shot by Heston's wife Lydia Clarke, and a nifty replica of Heston's diaries from the epic undertaking (concluding on the day he won the Academy Award for Best Actor). Combined, they give us unique insight into the star's creative process, which was thoughtful and exacting - if less anguished than the method approach favored by some of his American contemporaries. Prior to this re-release, I always considered BEN-HUR massive and emotionally distant; now, the film feels a little more personal, a little warmer, and a lot less daunting.
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a press day on the Warner Bros. lot, where select scenes from Price's 8K restoration were digitally projected on the big screen in the Steven J. Ross Theatre. Visually and aurally, this was bliss (the entire film will be screened on Saturday, October 1st at the New York Film Festival). Afterwards, I had the opportunity to briefly chat with Charlton's son Fraser, who, after making an auspicious acting debut as the baby Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, went on to collaborate with his father on projects such as THE MOUNTAIN MEN, MOTHER LODE and ALASKA. Obviously, theirs was not a contentious relationship, which is as rare in Hollywood as an original idea.
Mr. Beaks: When I was very young, a movie that used to play on cable a lot was THE MOUNTAIN MEN.
Fraser Heston: Oh, THE MOUNTAIN MEN! The first movie I made with my dad.
Beaks: I watched it a lot when I was a kid. I really enjoyed that movie.
Heston: Oh, thank you. You know, it turned out better than we thought. We were very excited about it when we got into it. But production was very difficult, and there were a lot of issues that came up in the making of the film that colored our judgment. In the end, though, people really seemed to like it, so that's gratifying.
Beaks: It definitely has its fans. I interviewed Stephen Macht a few years ago, and--
Heston: Did you really? I love Stephen. Isn't he great?
Beaks: He was terrific. He told me that every now and then, he'll get some guy coming up to him going, "Hey, Heavy Eagle!"
Heston: (Laughs) Is that right? That's awesome! Again, it was the first project my dad and I did together, and it was a great opportunity for me to relate to my dad on an adult basis. After that, we went on to do a number of films together. Sometimes we lived in adjoining flats in London. We made three pictures there: TREASURE ISLAND, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS and so on. To be able to work with my dad as a business partner, as an artistic collaborator and as a father and a friend... I look back on those years as golden times.
Beaks: You mentioned earlier that your father discouraged you from going into acting. How then did you find your way to filmmaking?
Heston: When Cecil B. DeMille cast me as baby Moses, I think I had a great acting career in front of me that was totally ignored. I have my father to thank for that.
Beaks: (Laughing) It's a fantastic performance.
Heston: Thank you. I think so. I should've had first billing. I appeared first! I mean, come on! (Laughs) He didn't discourage me as much as he said, "Look, it's not as easy as it looks. I was lucky. I got to the right place at the right time, and I just happened to be cast in some great roles with great directors." He knew that. But he didn't discourage me from being a filmmaker. On the contrary, when I told him I wanted to be a writer, he encouraged me. I grew up in a very creative family, and I think in a way that was a good choice for me, to go in a slightly different direction and to have the backing and encouragement of my father and mother in creative endeavors - and later on to get into the producing side of it and into actually directing films. I think that was the right path for me, and he helped me find it.
Beaks: You said that he took very seriously the craft of acting.
Heston: Yes, he did.
Beaks: What did you learn from his disciplined approach?
Heston: It was interesting researching his journals, and the old archives and photographs and letters and so on. He definitely took the craft of acting much more seriously than most people imagine movie stars do. It was no different from doing a dramatic production on Broadway to him; it was something where you had to rehearse and twiddle with the dialogue. You had a writer on the set, you developed the character, you achieved the dramatic moments, and you worked with them and changed stuff. You were always digging deeper and trying to find that performance in there somewhere. I think Willy Wyler was the right guy at the right time to get that out of him. I think dad was a little put off at first when Wyler wasn't all that thrilled with what he'd done so far. I think those were his exact words in his journal: "Willy is the toughest director I've ever worked with, but also the best." That was an interesting dichotomy there.
Beaks: It's such a different film for Wyler, and it's effortless. Watching the chariot race earlier, it's just a masterfully put-together sequence.
Heston: How did he do that? I was watching that footage, too, and I said, "How could he have possibly known how to film that chariot race?" He had no music, big wide shots and really close shots of horses.... if you break that down, as many people have, a shot at a time, it's a perfect action scene. And no CGI. It's all done with stunts and horses. It's the real deal.
Beaks: A perfect action scene that has been referenced visually so many times since.
Heston: You have to credit Yakima Canutt with a lot of that. He was, according to dad, the virtual uncredited second-unit director of that sequence. As stunt coordinator, he certainly brought something to that. They screened the original 1924 version for him and said, "Can you equal this?" And he said, "Are you kidding me? I'll make this looks like child's play." And I think he succeeded.
Beaks: Did your father have a film that stood out for him that perhaps didn't get the recognition he felt it deserved in its time?
Heston: I think his favorite film in terms of the larger picture was BEN-HUR, and certainly that got the recognition it deserved. They were surprised and disappointed that THE TEN COMMANDMENTS - one of the most successful movies of all time and C.B. DeMille's greatest picture many people say - did not get the Academy nominations or the critical reviews. So he was really pleased when BEN-HUR got both financial success and critical success - and, more importantly, audiences liked it.
I would say the film that he liked the best in terms of his performance and the overall quality of the film was a smaller film called WILL PENNY - which was a little western he made for Paramount, directed by Tommy Gries and produced by his longtime friend Walter Seltzer. That was a wonderful film, but it was in a day when they weren't doing that many westerns. It was a smaller film. They shot it up in Bishop, [California]. It was more in the vein of UNFORGIVEN. It was a more personal story, and a little bit darker. He really liked that picture a lot.
Beaks: Regarding the home movies that are on the BEN-HUR documentary, are there any more we can expect to see for other movies?
Heston: We have a little more footage. My mom, who was a professional photographer, shot this on a good Bell & Howell quality 16mm camera, so it's more than just home movies. It's really beautifully done. 16mm, for some reason, stood up really well. I found this footage gathering dust in our archives at Pac Title here in Burbank. It just said, "Heston Films" on it. I said, "What the heck is this?" Three fabulous thousand foot reels of footage! It starts with us leaving L.A. for BEN-HUR, literally on a red carpet getting up on the steps of an airplane, flying to New York, getting on a ship, sailing to Europe, and staying in Rome for ten months. It's an unprecedented look at not only behind-the-scenes, but also what our home life was like, and what it was like to make BEN-HUR in Rome at that time.
The Fiftieth Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition of BEN-HUR is available now on Blu-ray and DVD - and is a reminder that no studio is more committed to film restoration than Warner Bros. Buy it, if only so they're motivated to sink more money into restoring more classics.
Faithfully submitted,
