walsusa This November, 2016 is Natalie Wood month on Turner Classic Movies, so it's time once again to show one of her earlier screen efforts, 1954's "The Silver Chalice", a film near the top of my "so bad it's fun to watch, classic clunker" list. Natalie plays the younger Helena, a slave in the house of Ignatius (E.G. Marshall). Ignatius has adopted a young poverty-stricken boy who already shows promise as a carver and sculptor. Ignatius names the young boy Basil and makes Basil his heir, much to the dismay of Linus, Ignatius' brother. Linus, much overacted by Herbert Rudley, denounces the adoption, outraged as he is by the thought that this urchin will inherit most of Ignatius's fortune. After Ignatius's death, Linus has the inheritance fraudulently voided and, equally fraudulently, sells Basil into slavery.Well, that young slave sculptor grows into Paul Newman, a little-known stage and TV actor making his screen debut. Natalie Wood's Helena, whom young Basil had helped to escape from slavery, morphs into a curvy Virginia Mayo, now assistant to Simon the Magician, actually played quite well by Jack Palance. Fortunately for Wood, Newman, and Mayo, their other, more memorable screen work has long since eclipsed their efforts here. But one of the worst aspects of the film is that its plot is based on the Costain novel, which alone qualifies the film for "classic clunker" honors.For some unknown reason, Thomas B. Costain's 1952 "The Silver Chalice" novel made the best seller list. Although any copyright protection had long expired, a suit against Costain by Lew Wallace's estate might still have been in order, even if just on general principles. The "Silver Chalice" plot looks for all the world like a "Ben-Hur" makeover. A young man in biblical times, this time a poor boy raised to great wealth, is wrongfully deprived of that wealth and sold into slavery. His struggle to regain his name and fortune helps him to know Jesus --- this time not through slavery and a chariot race, but through slavery and struggling and finally succeeding to carve an image of Jesus's face for a chalice he's making to house the Holy Grail. Hardly original, it would seem.Not only that, though---Thomas B. Costain posited that for 20 years after the last supper and Jesus's death, the Holy Grail had been in the possession of Joseph of Arimathea --- who knew? Anyway, according to all four canonical gospels, Joseph retrieved Jesus's body from Calvary and, according to some tradition, gave up his own tomb so that Jesus's body would have a place of interment. And according to Mr. Costain, Joseph got hold of the grail as well, keeping it hidden for 20 years. Joseph and Luke the Physician, played by Alexander Scourby, determined to house the grail in a suitable chalice, which is where Basil comes in. Basil had acquired quite a reputation as an accomplished silversmith, so Luke sought him out for the chalice job. Basil makes the chalice, but in all the ensuing battles and riots depicted in the film, the chalice and grail are lost again, maybe for all time. Aside from a subplot involving Simon the Magician and Helena---Simon does tricks to amuse the officers at Antioch's Roman garrison, while Helena apparently turns tricks to gratify those selfsame officers. But Simon eventually imagines his magic is greater than Jesus's reported miracles---so much so that he convinces himself that he can fly unassisted. To prove it Simon jumps off a very tall tower and expects to fly away; it doesn't work out too well for him. Other reviewers have chronicled most of film's, ah, interesting aspects: the cardboard sets, the 1950s dance routines performed at Caesar's Palace (no, supposedly the one in ancient Rome!), the hilarious costumes and makeup, and the over-the-top, kitschy-biblical dialogue.The best performance in the dialogue category is awarded to Lorne Greene, who as St. Peter remains on the dock delivering a farewell speech as Basil, his inheritance now recovered, and his new bride Deborra (Pier Angeli) sail away. Lorne is then left standing there, preaching to absolutely no one, but preaching nonetheless about the grail's return. When the grail does return, he says, it will be into " . . a world of evil and long bitter wars (and election campaigns). In such a world as that the little cup will look very lonely. But it may be in that age when man holds lightning in his hands, and rides the sky as Simon the Magician strove to do. It will be needed more then than it is needed now." OK, I added that "election campaigns" part. But yeah, if ever that "little cup" is to reappear, now is as good a time as any. In the meantime, I might watch "The Silver Chalice" again. As with other "classic clunkers," the more times you watch, the more weird stuff you see!

janetvincentlee My advice is, watch about ten minutes of this for the sheer weirdness of it, the way people used to go to carnivals and pay to see the two-headed pig, but don't waste two and a half hours of your life on it.Everything about this film looks and feels outrageously cheap and amateurish, as if the budget was a few thousand dollars -- painted sheetrock sets, costumes worthy of a college toga party, made from flimsy materials without detailing, blatantly obvious wigs (not just the bright blue-gray one), flat lighting, cheesy special effects, and Virginia Mayo's scary-bizarre makeup -- but it is all of a piece with the stilted dialogue and uncomfortable acting.The bizarre "representational" sets might aspire to be avant garde and artsy, were it not for the utter cheapness of every aspect of the film. The story doesn't even matter; you will be too distracted by the high-school-play look of the piece. In summary, think of season #1 of Star Trek, the TV series, but without ski pajamas. Better yet, think of Plan 9 From Outer Space, but remove the campy fun and keep the schlock.As an actor myself, I spent a lot of time watching the actors suffer through this piece of grief and wondering whether they had any idea what they were getting into, and just how desperate for work they were, not to have backed out after the first day on the set. If there was no other way out, it would have been worth shooting off a toe. Jack Palance acquits himself admirably amid this quagmire, but the others just slog through it.You won't find any spoilers here; I got halfway through it and couldn't bear any more.

TheLittleSongbird Okay, The Silver Chalice is not that terrible, but considering the talent it was a huge disappointment and saw the worst work and films of almost everybody involved(apart from Jack Palance, he was in the Gor films and that bizarre Treasure Island adaptation).The Silver Chalice does have some good things. William V Skall's cinematography and Franz Waxman's score were nominated for Oscars and the nominations were deserving, the cinematography is beautiful and makes the most of the spectacle while the music positively sweeps, is lushly orchestrated in distinctive Waxman fashion and gives the film heart and pace. Jack Palance is enormously entertaining and maniacal as magician Simon, it's over the top- but you can say that that was in comparison to the rest of the performances- but in a deliciously gleeful way. Pier Angeli gives a heartfelt performance as well and Simon's flying off the sky scraping Tower of Babel is an unforgettable scene and close to being the highlight of the film.Paul Newman on the other hand is very wooden and ill-at-ease in his role, it is his debut(one that is understandably one he'd rather forget) but he was an amazing talent in acting and that did not come through here. Virginia Mayo is alluring but looks completely and utterly lost and Natalie Wood is quite charming but her acting is bland compared to her usual performances. Joseph Wiseman and Lorne Greene are largely wasted(Greene at least though had his concluding narration that was mildly powerful). They are hindered by very sketchily written characters and as dreary and stilted a script as you can get where the one memorable line is Nero's "he didn't fly"(for me it is one of, perhaps THE worst script for a biblical film). Victor Saville's direction never comes to life and the story feels overlong, stodgy and over-stretched with scenes that are either stagy, superfluous or unintentionally funny(some also like the fighting over the gown and with the dancers that would be better belonging somewhere else). The costumes are the opposite of lavish, rather a hodge-podge with some not fitting at all with the setting, with Palance donning the weirdest costumes of his whole career(especially the last one, admittedly he does wear them well). The make-up goes well over-the-top, Mayo is caked in it and it cheapens her looks, it's that ridiculous, and while a few sets are amazing most are bizarrely stylised that it gives the film a cheap look.In conclusion, The Silver Chalice is not a terrible film with the cinematography, score and Palance making it halfway watchable, but as a whole it, like Simon, didn't fly with everybody involved deserving far better than this. 4/10 Bethany Cox

writers_reign For years all I knew about this turkey was that when it played on TV in the US Paul Newman paid for a full-page ad in the press urging fans not to see it. Boy, did he get it right. They really need a new category for this which can only be described as a Turkey's Turkey. Apparently no American director wanted to film it, even Bruce Humberstone didn't want to be caught dead behind the bullhorn on this one, so they got Victor Saville, a limey who shot several Jessie Mathews vehicles in the early thirties. The ploy, if you can call it that, centers around our old friend the Holy Grail with Paul Newman - in his first At Bat on the big screen, although he had been appearing on television for several years - playing a gifted Greek sculptor who is tapped to fashion a receptacle worthy of containing the Holy Grail. The action moves between Antioch, Jerusalem and Rome or, to put it another way, from Sound Stage #3 to Sound Stage #5 on the Warner lot in Burbank, because all the locations look the same. There's an interesting cast list, mostly wasted talents, including Ian Wolfe, Joseph Wiseman and Lorne Green but Jack Palance walks away with it - and he's welcome to it - as the magician who believes his own hype. I was barely able to sit through it but what do I know.