Ben Hur

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

October 19, 2018 by Robert J. Avrech 5 Comments

“Having to work hard never had any real appeal for me, and that may have some connection with me being in the movies.“
—Gary Cooper

Hidden Hollywood: Rudolph Valentino and the Rabbi’s Beautiful Daughter

August 8, 2016 by Robert J. Avrech 7 Comments

Rudolph Valentino at the height of his fame.

The great pioneering director D.W. Griffith hired Rabbi Isadore Myers as the Jewish technical consultant on his great epic, Intolerance, 1916. Griffith was so happy with Rabbi Myer’s expert advice and attention to detail that he said to the good Rabbi:

“How can I ever repay you?”

Replied Rabbi Myers: “I have a daughter who would like to get into pictures.”

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s: Spartacus

July 26, 2013 by Robert J. Avrech 30 Comments

Kirk Douglas in Spartacus. — Kirk Douglas in *Spartacu*s.

We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s, click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here.

2. Spartacus, 1960

He wanted Hur.

More than anything, Kirk Douglas yearned to play Ben Hur. But director William Wyler had another actor in mind for Hollywood’s most coveted role. Adding insult to injury, Wyler offered Douglas the mustache-twirling role of Hur’s enemy, the villainous Messala. His pride wounded, Kirk Douglas refused to play a supporting role — not even to Charlton Heston, Hollywood’s supernova star.

Years later, Douglas confessed: “That was what spurred me to do it [Spartacus], in a childish way—the ‘I’ll-show-them’ sort of thing.”

Kirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovich Demsky, an impoverished Jewish kid who remained angry and resentful of authority his entire career.

Ben Hur: LA Times Denial of Jewish History

September 27, 2011 by Robert J. Avrech 14 Comments

Annex - Heston, Charlton (Ben-Hur)_01 — Charlton Heston as Judah Ben Hur the Jewish hero in Ben Hur, 1959. Notice the Star of David around his neck.

The Los Angeles Times is, like the NY Times, a reliably anti-Israel newspaper whose liberal/progressive/leftist slant often veers into support for the Jew-hatred that is the foundation of Palestinian terror.

Even their entertainment articles frequently marinate in a radical ideology that extends to the most regressive, most vile denial of Jewish, not to mention literary history.

In this brief announcement of an anniversary release of a Ben Hur DVD, the Charlton Heston character, Judah Ben Hur, is referred to as a “Palestinian nobleman.”

In the book and in all the movie versions Judah Ben Hur is a Jewish merchant. The land of Israel was called Judea and so it is called in the movie. There was no Palestine, no so-called Palestinians. Palestina was a derogatory name imposed by Rome after they crushed the Jewish revolt more than 100 years after the death of Jesus.

This charade of so-called Palestinian history is replacement ideology, Jewish history erased by faux Palestinians, a post-modern construct with zero historical basis.

I might add that this is also a fabrication of movie history.

This is a classic example of the big lie that was used by the Nazis to persecute and ultimately commit genocide against the Jews. This strategy is being used by the Muslim world to demonize the Jews and create an environment where the murder of Jews is not only acceptable but necessary.

The Los Angeles Times is an enthusiastic partner in jihad.