The Silver Chalice (1954)

Similar to many other Biblically-themed movies of the 1950's and 1960's, this film is more fiction than actual Biblical fact. It takes a few Biblical characters, including Jesus, the Apostles, Joseph of Arimathaea and Simon the Sorcerer -- who is mentioned in Acts 8:9-24 -- and then creates a ridiculous story around them, including collusion with the Sicarii -- who were Jewish zealots -- and Simon's endeavors to prove that he is the new messiah, who can even outdo Jesus, insofar as miracles are concerned.Regarding the actors, I was most impressed by the heartfelt performance that was given by Italian Actress Pier Angeli as Deborra. She conveyed well the innocence and dreams of a young woman in love. It is truly sad that Ms. Angeli became so disillusioned by her failure to reach Hollywood stardom, and died of a barbiturate overdose at the young age of only thirty-nine.In contrast, I found the transition of the young Helena -- played by Natalie Wood -- to her older self -- played by Virginia Mayo -- quite unsatisfactory. Mayo appeared and acted more like a worldly madam at a bordello than anything else. As such, I honestly couldn't see Basil's -- Paul Newman in his first film role -- initial attraction to her.Jack Palance's role as Simon the Magician was too over the top for my taste, and in a way unconvincing. Maybe it was because he was so full of himself. I think he did much better later in his career playing dark characters.I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Alexander Scourby as the Apostle Luke. As many Christians will know, Mr. Scourby is well-known for his wonderful recording of the entire King James Version of the Bible, first on cassette tapes, and later on CD's as well.Lorne Greene -- Bonanza, original Battlestar Galactica -- also makes his first film appearance as the Apostle Peter. While Greene was obviously trying to sound authoritative, personally, I felt that the tone of his voice was a little too harsh when he told the young girl to stand up and walk. But maybe that is just me.As I said in the title, the production sets for this movie were unbelievably poor; particularly when one compares this film to "The Ten Commandments", "Ben-Hur" and related Bible-based films which were made during that same time period. It does not appear that much effort was put into the sets for "The Silver Chalice". They don't look much better than cardboard cutouts. Seriously, they were that bad.If you are willing to overlook these various weak points, you may possibly enjoy this old film, even if it does have very little resemblance to the actual story that is contained in the Scriptures.

I started watching "The Silver Chalice" without having read any reviews. It did not take long for this highly stylized presentation to annoy me. I think I lasted about 30 minutes.First, it employs minimalist sets which, in themselves, are sometimes beautiful but, when combined with the stylized delivery of dialogue are distracting.The dialogue is stilted and silly. And the actors were obviously directed to deliver it in a somewhat emotionless way. Don't feel too bad for Natalie Wood, who would soon have "Rebel Without a Cause" to counteract the effect of "The Silver Chalice".And Paul Newman, in his film debut, would soon have "Somebody Up There Likes Me". How sad that he passed up "East of Eden" for this drivel.This film is hokey and almost without any merit. I did find Jack Palance's performance (what little I saw) to be realistic enough to enjoy. But he could not provide enough magic to bring this boring film to life.

This movie is famous (or in-famous) for Paul Newman taking out an advertisement to ask people NOT to watch this on TV when it had its first network showing. I say watch it, because this is one of the best biblical comedies of all time, that is, until Mel Brooks gave us "History of the World Part I". And any film where Natalie Wood grows up to be Virginia Mayo can't be serious, as in "Shirley you can't be serious" and "Give me Virginia ham on one, hold the mayo."Newman comes off rather unscathed in this post-Jesus era epic (20 years after the Crucifixion) about a Greek Slave, Basil (Newman), who is sought by one of the surviving apostles (Luke) to create a silver chalice to hold the cup that Jesus drank from on the last night. Basil has rather a soap operatic history; He was adopted by a wealthy Greek with no heirs whose evil brother has no desire to give up any of the family estate to the son of a peasant. Basil is made a slave, but his reputation as a sculptor becomes well known, and before his evil uncle can have him killed to avoid future troubles, he is off to fulfill his own destiny.It all sounds fine, but the execution of how it is pulled off is one of Hollywood's greatest mysteries. Some extremely hammy performances by Virginia Mayo (forgive the pun) and Jack Palance (giving one of the best drag performances in film history!) add to the unintentional laughter. I can't believe this could ever be completed because how these actors can get past saying these lines without constantly cracking up is beyond me. Add on some rather strange looking set design that would probably work better in 3-D, and you have the most bizarre biblical epic ever made. Mayo, complete with really bizarre eye makeup that would have sent Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra barging the wrong way down the Nile, is one of the oddest femme fatales in a Biblical epic. And Jack Palance is so bizarre as the insane Caligula like magician Simon that you expect him to start doing one-handed push-ups while wearing his Riddler outfit for the final scene.

I actually enjoyed a few parts of this bizarre movie, the first for Paul Newman. I think Jack Palance had the juicier role and he made the most of it as the magician, Simon, who challenges the Lord himself. This was the only "real" part of this movie, with a storyline taken from the Bible.Then we get the problem areas. A real bible story with modernistic, surreal sets. Beautiful Virginia Mayo looks like a Vulcan from Star Trek with her uplifted eyebrows. Her gowns are very 1950's.During Caesar's feast the dancers pop out of the floor and gyrate like they just came from a modern dance recital. The music is deafening.The dialog is simplistic and often unintentionally funny. So are some of the scenes, like the looting scene where two women fight over a gown like they're in Macy's.But what takes so much from the actors is the sets. I just couldn't get past gawking at the most bizarre sets I've ever seen in a movie, much less a Biblical one. These two things simply do not mesh.