Evening star., 1954-12-27

Shrlned the book IN one OF the N
movie spectacles ever.
You will find it on the screen
at the Metropolitan and Ambas-
sador Theaters and you had
better be prepared to give 1t ap-
proximately two hours and 20
minutes of your life. Whether it
is worth this expenditure de-
pends on the value you place on
your time
Whether the film is a fair
representation of the book also
is something that will have to
be answered by someone else. It
should be noted. howevers that
there were no voluble expressions
Of despair from any Costain
readers in yesterday afternoons
audience at the Met.
One thing surely must be said
of 1.-THE Silver Chalice." movie
version. The brothers Warner
were not niggardly about the
budget. They peopled the film
with a mammoth cast headed by
Pier Angel, Virginia Mayo, Jack
Palance and Paul Newman. To
give these acting room. the
studio virtually reconstructed
the world of the first days of
Christianity and gave 1t a much
brighter paint job than 1t knew
then, too. One vast and voluptu-
Gus scene after another is un-
yelled in splashing WarnerColor
on the CinemaScope spread.
The production designed by
Rolf Gerard and Art Director
Boris Leven, in fact, is so lavish
that both actors and story often
are dwarfed. With the Biblical
world from Rome to Antioch to
Jerusalem as subject and
CinemaScope as a canvas, these
boys have laid on with broad.
sweeping strokes.
Unbelievable lavishness over
flows Nero's court. Sleek pillars
In Antioch sweep up to some
where in the troposphere. On
occasion the vista turns almost
surrealistic, at least frankly
modern. 1t may not be in keep
ing with the life and times Of
the first century AID, but it
helps keep "The Silver Chalice"
always impressively eye-filling.
The story never gets COM
pletely lost in the face of this
gaudy visual competition. but
there are moments when 1t does
fall by the wayside momentarily.
There are moments when ''The
Silver Chalice" is concentrating
so hard on being a spectacle
that it just sits there in awe of
itself without going any place.
Mr. Saville, with a screenplay
by Lesser Samuels as a blueprint
and a musical score by Franz
Waxman to provide accent. has
managed to keep his film inter-
esting most of the time, though,
even when it's sitting still. He
has injected some real excite
ment into several passages, too
the large drama of the conflict
between the Christian martyrs
and Nero's Romans and some
more personal. violent conflicts
between the hero and sundry
villains.
A sample highly charged pas
sage of Mr.. Saville's is the one
where the citizens of Rome, dis
appointed in one of Nero's cir
cuses. storm through the city in
a rioting mob. There's a corking
shock sequence. too, in which
Simon the Magician. seeking to
strengthen his prestige in Rome,
leaps grandly off a high tower
and discovers that he only
THOUGHT he could fly like
bird.
The burden of carrying for
ward the plot of THE Silver
Chalice" rests largely with Mr..
Newman and Miss Angeli, whose
slim shoulders seem up to almost
any burden imposed by scenarist.
She is most appealing once again
here and more than anyone else
manages to make her presence
felt amidst all the overpowering
surroundings. AS the young
Christian girl who wins the hero
for herself and for Christianity,
she sheds a warm glow over
many scene.
Mr. Newman. trained to the
cameras by teievision. also is
effective in his first film, as the
man who takes longer than
seems likely to succumb to Miss
Angel. In case you didn't read
the novel. it's the story of a
young Greek sculptor commits
stoned to fashion a fitting recep-
tacle for a Christian relic, the
silver cup from which Christ
drank at the Last Supper.
His life has not been easy
before this assignment. He has
departed poverty when adopted
by a rich patron only to be sold
into slavery a few years later