Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is crowned the winner and showered with prizes, claiming his first strike against Rome. Messala is left with a broken body and the loss of his wealth. After the race, Judah Ben-Hur receives a letter from Iras asking him to go to the Roman palace of Idernee. When he arrives, he sees that he has been tricked. Thord, a Saxon hired by Messala, comes to kill Judah. They duel, and Ben-Hur offers Thord 4000 sestertii to let him live. Thord returns to Messala claiming to have killed Judah, so collects money from them both. Supposedly dead, Judah Ben-Hur goes to
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ U.S. 55 (1911)] went to the U.S. Supreme Court and set a legal precedent for motion picture rights in adaptations of literary and theatrical works. The court's ruling required the film company to pay $25,000 in damages plus expenses. Wallace's son continued to receive offers to sell the film rights to the book after his father's death. Henry refused all offers until 1915, when he changed his mind and entered into an agreement with Erlanger for $600,000. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer later obtained the film rights. The 1925 film adaptation of "Ben-Hur" under director Fred Niblo starred Ramon Novarro as Ben-Hur and Francis