The Ten Commandments

Remaking his own 1923 silent, Cecil B. DeMille ran into a gap he explained himself: 26 years separate the verse where Moses is found among the bulrushes from the verse where he kills a man. The Egyptian court section fills that gap. Researcher Henry Noerdlinger went to extra-scriptural sources such as Philo, Josephus, Eusebius and the Midrash, working through 950 books, 984 periodicals, 1,286 clippings and 2,964 photographs. The screenplay was split into four phases of Moses’ life: prince, shepherd, deliverer, lawgiver. The playing style is a choice too: DeMille asked for the broad manner of nineteenth-century theatre. Anne Baxter called it silent film acting with dialogue and remembered him roaring at everyone on set; Vincent Price recalled the same. In Egypt, DeMille and 20 assistant directors speaking English and Arabic handled the 8,000 people in the Exodus sequence; the Egyptian army’s cavalry corps played the pharaoh’s chariots. At the 29th Academy Awards it took 7 nominations, best picture among them, and its single win went to John P. Fulton for special effects. DeMille was not nominated for directing. A good fit if you accept an epic where the crowds really are crowds and the acting is loud by design. Not for anyone expecting the story to keep to scripture; the court section is largely built from outside it.