ShareThisPaul Newman hated his debut motion picture, "The Silver Chalice," a 1954 biblical epic that is one of five new-to-DVD titles, available separately, in Warner Home Video's recently issued "Paul Newman Film Series."
Watching "Chalice" (derisively dubbed "Paul Newman and the Holy Grail"), it's easy to understand the actor's embarrassment. Nothing in his stony performance as a sculptor trying to imagine "the face of Jesus" suggests the fourth-billed, blue-eyed, dewy would-be Brando would become one of Hollywood's most popular stars and respected actors.
But in Newman's defense, how could any newcomer make an impression in a film that casts scene-stealing Jack Palance as a satanic "trickster" magician who is so jealous of Jesus' miracles that he dons a superhero-style unitard decorated with what appear to be the silhouettes of spermatozoa and jumps from a tower to prove he can fly?
Even a veteran movie actor might not have known how to respond when mauled by Virginia Mayo, the Spock-eyebrowed seductress who purrs in Newman's ear: "Only when you come to me with love and leave me with your kisses stinging on my mouth do I find life sweet." (As romantic assertions go, that line is more cumbersome but less laughable than the one uttered by a lusty Roman who spies Mayo toting a jug of vino, holds out his goblet and orders: "Come, give my wine the magic that is you!")
An obvious attempt to cash in on the success of "The Robe," "The Silver Chalice" -- a what-if tale about Jesus' cup rather than his cloak-- is truly bizarre. The director is journeyman Victor Saville, but the stagey film -- adapted from a novel by Thomas B. Costain -- seems more photographed than directed: Visual interest is supplied primarily by art director Boris Leven and production designer Rolf Gerard of the Metropolitan Opera, who were hired by Warner Bros. to create a distinctive, highly stylized, almost sci-fi vision of the first century A.D.
The strangest scene takes place in Nero's palace, where athletes in tights leap about like Jules Feiffer cartoon figures to brassy jazz of the type that backed the Sharks and Jets in "West Side Story," while the emperor's chefs pass in review with plates of gold-painted food: "If you please, Caesar, roast peacock from the land of Egypt... succulent dormice saturated with poppy juice..." All this, plus a teen-age Natalie Wood in a blond wig, too.
The other films released under the "Paul Newman Film Series" label include "The Helen Morgan Story" (1957), "The Outrage" (1964), "When Time Ran Out ..." (1980, a last-gasp disaster film from "Poseidon Adventure" producer Irwin Allen) and "Rachel, Rachel" (1968), which showcases the work of Newman the director, not Newman the actor.
The most entertaining of the bunch may be "The Helen Morgan Story," a show-biz biopic with Ann Blyth as the 1920s torch singer and Broadway star and Newman as her Chicago-bootlegger lover. (Nowadays, it's a toss-up as to who's more forgotten, Blyth or Morgan.)
Directed by the legendary Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca") near the end of his long career at Warner Bros. and photographed by Ted McCord ("The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"), this stunning-looking film offers a master class in black-and-white cinematography; it's as "noir" in atmosphere as "Mildred Pierce," to name one of Curtiz's actual murder mysteries.
(John Beifuss is a reporter with The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. Contact him at beifuss(at)commercialappeal.com. His movie blog is www.thebloodshoteye.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
