You were right -- the worth of the thing is Gore Vidal. Why are there not more Gore Vidals in the United States? Not that this GV spent much time here in his last decades, and who could blame him?
I didn't know that bit about the Wyler-Vidal discussion as to the backstory of Young Hur (Heston) and Massala (Boyd). That is sooooooooooooooooooooo funny.
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Isn't that a riot? Heston denied it until his dying day.
I have a deluxe edition of Ben-Hur with screen tests of that scene from before the decision to create the gay subtext. Leslie Nielsen (testing for Ben-Hur) and Cesare Danova (Messala) act like a couple of old frat buddies. Instead of entwining their arms for a toast, they crash the goblets against each other.
I also enjoyed the deleted scene from Spartacus and Tony Curtis joking about it.
Vidal is fabulous. Somebody should make a documentary that's mostly him sitting in a chair talking about whatever comes to mind.
As mentioned previously, re-watching again El Cid with Mr. Heston, we learned the Moors were godless commies. It's funnier then, to have Mr. Vidal's commentary on Heston as Ben-Hur in mind. Not to mention Mr. Heston beating the ground by the head of the fallen Statue of Libery in Planet of the Apes ....
Love, C.
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