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Following a daunting eight months of principal photography plus another seven in post production, William Wyler’s Ben Hur, a hugely expensive remake of the 1925 silent version, premieres at the State Theater in New York. Adapted from General Lew Wallace's 1880 novel by Karl Tunberg (with input from luminary playwrights Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Christopher Fry and Gore Vidal) the quasi-religious epic, set in Judea at the time of Christ, stars Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur, a wealthy prince and merchant of Jerusalem who is betrayed by his best friend and committed to years of slavery aboard a Roman galley. Freed after saving the life of an influential centurian, his road to retribution and subsequent spiritual enlightenment culminates with a spectacular chariot race. Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith and Haya Harareet head the proverbial cast of thousands
