Paul Newman RIP; Silver Chalice; Pier Angeli

Paul Newman passed away yesterday. Check My Way for a detailed bio and film history.

Rather than focus on his "activism" or his awards, I will mention only one film, "The Silver Chalice." Silver Chalice was unique even in its own day (1954) and especially today. Chalice was a Christian based film, set in ancient Rome (Nero's reign) and telling the story of the chalice that had been used by Christ at the Last Supper.

Paul Newman in Silver Chalice


It has been years since I saw the movie, but I recall the plot as a fictionalized account of how the chalice was lost. Another theme of the movie involved power and how those who obtain power can become consumed by their own importance and lose perspective.

Silver Chalice - 1954










The movie also starred Jack Palance, Lorne Greene, E.G. Marshall, Natalie Wood (in a small role) and other notables (including Pier Angeli whose bio is itself a fascinating story).

Pier Angeli with then husband Vic Damone


My Way described the role briefly in its obituary:

Newman started in movies the year before [1954], in "The Silver Chalice," a costume film he so despised that he took out an ad in Variety to apologize.

Newman may have despised the movie, but we can celebrate it as we mourn the passing not only of Newman, but of an era in which movies with a Christian theme could exist.

Quote of the day - Debbie Schlussel [Sex and the City]

". . [T]hree 40-somethings and one 50-something make up a foursome of bawdy, aging women who wasted their lives sleeping around, cackling about it, and acting like immature, 20-something sex-crazed male dogs in heat. Because they dined in glamorous places, wore trapezoid shaped clothes and $1,000 fancy high heels, this somehow made their low-brow, savage behavior, 'classy.'"

Debbie Schlussel

one of the aging foursome

Quote of the day - Ed Morrissey [Charlton Heston]

Hollywood turned its back on one of its biggest icons for the sin of becoming Republican and of supporting gun rights. Of course, while Hollywood rejected Heston for his stand on the 2nd Amendment, it churned out more and more films dedicated to mass shootings and indiscriminate violence. Heston couldn’t have fired more bullets in his entire lifetime than in a year of Hollywood movies.

Ed Morrissey

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

HAVE YOU NOTICED? Hollywood is not only remaking movies
(PLANET OF THE APES, DAY OF THE JACKAL), but remaking
movies that never should have been made in the first
place (OCEAN'S ELEVEN). Or movies based on TV shows
(CHARLIE'S ANGELS), or even cartoons (ROCKY AND
BULLWINKLE). Couldn't they spend all that money on
something more worthwhile, like drugs?

Joe Sobran - September 2001