Can't Be Topped!

Anno Domini: the seventh year of Augustus Caesar's reign. In the Roman province of Judea, Jews return to the city of their birth for the census. A bright star in the night over Bethlehem marks the birth of Jesus Christ. Years later, Roman commander Messala (Stephen Boyd), who was brought up in Judea, takes command of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. His Jewish boyhood friend Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) greets him. Messala is delighted. But when Judah refuses to name Jewish patriots, Messala sentences him to the slave galleys and imprisons his mother, Miriam (Martha Scott), and sister, Tirzah (Cathy O'Donnell). Judah vows revenge.

In BEN-HUR, William Wyler's much-lauded epic, the story of Judah's search for his mother and sister and his quest for revenge intersects with crucial biblical events such as the Sermon on the Mount and the crucifixion. Wyler gets fine performances from Heston, Boyd, Jack Hawkins (as a Roman admiral who befriends Judah), and Hugh Griffith (as an Arab sheik who drea...

Cast: Ferdy [Ferdinand] Mayne, Hugh Griffith, Cathy O'Donnell, John Zaccaro, Cliff Lyons, Michael Dugan, Charlton Heston, Martha Scott, Jack Hawkins, Tutte Lemkow, Ralph Truman, Sam Jaffe, John Le Mesurier, Terence Longdon, John Horsley, Al Silvani, Stephen Boyd, Enzo Fiermonte, Mino Doro, Finlay Currie, Pietro Tordi, Richard Coleman, Howard Lang, Andre Morell, Laurence Payne, Dervis Ward, Emilio Carrer, Duncan Lamont, Joe Yrigoyen, Richard Hale, Haya Harareet, Frank Thring, Marina Berti, George Relph, Adi Berber, Stella Vitelleschi, Jose Greci, David Davies, Robert Brown, Maxwell Shaw, Stevenson Lang, Hector Ross, Tiberio Mitri, Joe Canutt, John Glen, Raimondo Van Riel, Reginald Lal Singh, Karl Tunberg

Director: William Wyler

Genre: Drama

Release Date: November 18, 1959

MPAA Rating: G

Screen Writer: Karl Tunberg

DVD Release Date: June 1, 2004

Runtime: 3hrs 32min