The Ten Commandments
Directed by	Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by	Cecil B. DeMille
Written by	Jeanie MacPherson
Starring	Theodore Roberts Charles De Roche Estelle Taylor Richard Dix Julia Faye Rod La Rocque
Cinematography	Edward S. Curtis Bert Glennon Donald Keyes J. Peverell Marley Ray Rennahan
Editing by	Anne Bauchens
Release date(s)	23 November 1923
Running time	146 min.
Country	United States
Language	Silent film English intertitles
Budget	$1,475,836
Gross revenue	$4,168,790

The Ten Commandments is a 1923 epic silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Theodore Roberts as Moses, Charles de Rochefort as Pharaoh Ramesses, Estelle Taylor as Miriam the sister of Moses, and James Neill as Aaron, the brother of Moses. The cast also included notable silent film actors Nita Naldi, Leatrice Joy, Rod La Rocque, Richard Dix, Edythe Chapman and Agnes Ayres. It was a grand spectacle of early Hollywood filmmaking, running 136 minutes, with the Exodus scenes photographed in early Technicolor. While the first half of the film tells the biblical story, the second half is a morality parable set in modern times. The movie was released by Paramount Pictures and premiered at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on December 4, 1923.^[1]

[edit] Plot

Despite its epic scale, the Moses story only takes up about the first half of the film. After that, the story changes to a modern setting involving the commandments. Two brothers make opposite decisions, one to follow his mother's teaching of the ten commandments and become a poor carpenter, and the other to break every one of them and rise to the top. The film shows his unchecked immorality to be momentarily gainful, but ultimately disastrous.

A thoughtful contrast is made between the carpenter brother and his mother. The mother reads the story of Moses and emphasizes strict obedience and fear of God. The carpenter, however, reads from the New Testament story of Jesus' healing of lepers. His emphasis is on a loving and forgiving God. The film also shows the mother's strict lawful morality to be flawed in comparison to her son's version.

[edit] Cast

• Theodore Roberts - Moses, the Lawgiver (prologue)
• Charles de Rochefort - Rameses, the Magnificent (prologue) (as Charles De Roche)
• Estelle Taylor - Miriam, the Sister of Moses (prologue)
• Julia Faye - The Wife of Pharaoh (prologue)
• James Neill - Aaron, Brother of Moses (prologue)
• Lawson Butt - Dathan, The Discontented (prologue)
• Clarence Burton - The Taskmaster (prologue)
• Noble Johnson - The Bronze Man (prologue)
• Edythe Chapman - Mrs. Martha McTavish
• Richard Dix - John McTavish, her son
• Rod La Rocque - Dan McTavish, her son
• Leatrice Joy - Mary Leigh
• Nita Naldi - Sally Lung, a Eurasian
• Robert Edeson - Redding, an Inspector
• Charles Ogle - The Doctor
• Agnes Ayres - The Outcast
• Roscoe Karns - The Boy In The Rain (uncredited)

[edit] Production

The Exodus scenes were filmed at Nipomo Dunes, San Luis Obispo County, California (near Pismo Beach), which is now an archaeological site. The film location was originally chosen because its immense sand dunes provided a superficial resemblance to the Egyptian desert. After the filming was complete, the massive sets — which included four 35-foot tall Pharaoh statues, 21 sphinxes, and gates reaching a height of 110 feet, which were built by a small army of 1,600 workers — were dynamited and buried in the sand. However the burial location at Nipomo Dunes is exposed to relentless northwesterly gales year-round, and much of what was buried is now exposed to the elements, as the covering sand has been blown away. Portions of the modern story were filmed in San Francisco. The cathedral building sequence was filmed at the then under construction Saints Peter and Paul Church on Filbert Street and the adjoining Washington Square. The parting of the Red Sea scene was shot in Seal Beach, California.^[2] some shots where also done at the now demolished Fresno, California Court House. The visual effect of keeping the walls of water apart while the Israelites walked through was accomplished with a slab of Jell-O that was sliced in two and filmed close up as it jiggled. This shot was then combined with live-action footage of Israelites walking into the distance, creating a near-perfect illusion.^[3]

[edit] Remake

DeMille directed a second, expanded version of the biblical story in 1956. For the later version, DeMille dropped the modern-day storyline in favor of profiling more of Moses' early life. In 2006, the 1923 film was released on DVD as an extra feature on the 50th Anniversary DVD release of the 1956 film. In a commentary included with the 1923 film, it is stated that DeMille refilmed several sequences nearly shot-for-shot for the new version, and also had set pieces constructed for the later film that were near-duplicates of what he had used in 1923.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Ten Commandments at the Internet Movie Database
• The Ten Commandments at Allmovie
• The Ten Commandments Archaeological Site