the rix mix

My favorite Charlton Heston story comes from Ben Hur director William Wyler. Wyler thought the intense hatred between Hur & his Roman boyhood friend, Messala, needed some backstory motivation, so he suggested to British actor Stephen Boyd that they had been involved in a more intimate relationship as teenagers. But he didn't tell it to Heston because he "knew Chuck couldn't handle it."

Essential Heston Filmography according to Rix (& why you should watch them):

Ruby Gentry for Jennifer Jones
The Naked Jungle for the ants
A Touch of Evil for Orson Welles
The Big Country for Burl Ives & the music score
Ben Hur for the chariot race, Hugh Griffith, & the music score
55 Days at Peking for Ava Gardner, David Niven, & Flora Robson
Major Dundee for proof it's not Sam Peckinpah's "lost masterpiece"
The Warlord for the medieval time period & a few yuks
Planet of the Apes for the apes & the Statue of Liberty
Will Penny for Joan Hackett & Bruce Dern
Beneath the Planet of the Apes for the apes
The Omega Man for the mutants
Soylent Green for the last 10 minutes
The Three Musketeers for Michael York & Faye Dunaway
Airport 1975 for Karen Black, Myrna Loy, & Helen Reddy playing a nun
Earthquake for Geneviève Bujold & Richard "Shaft" Roundtree
Wayne's World 2 for Aerosmith & Christopher Walken
Bowling for Columbine for Charlton Heston