The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

The Ten Commandments
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by	Cecil B. DeMille Henry Wilcoxon (associate producer)
Screenplay by	Æneas MacKenzie Jesse L. Lasky, Jr. Jack Gariss Fredric M. Frank
Based on	Prince of Egypt  by Dorothy Clarke Wilson Pillar of Fire  by J.H. Ingraham On Eagle's Wings  by A.E. Southon The Holy Scriptures
Starring	Charlton Heston Yul Brynner Anne Baxter Edward G. Robinson Yvonne De Carlo Debra Paget John Derek
Narrated by	Cecil B. DeMille
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	Loyal Griggs, A.S.C.
Edited by	Anne Bauchens
Production company	Motion Picture Associates
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	October 5, 1956 (1956-10-05) (Salt Lake City preview) November 8, 1956 (1956-11-08) (New York City premiere) November 14, 1956 (1956-11-14) (Los Angeles premiere)
Running time	220 minutes[1] (with intermission)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million[2]
Box office	$122.7 million[3] (initial release)

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American religious epic film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in VistaVision (color by Technicolor), and released by Paramount Pictures. It dramatizes the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and therefore leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. It stars Charlton Heston in the lead role, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.

Filmed on location in Egypt, Mount Sinai and the Sinai Peninsula, the film was DeMille's last and most successful work.^[4] It is a partial remake of his 1923 silent film of the same title, and features one of the largest sets ever created for a film.^[4] At the time of its release on November 8, 1956, it was the most expensive film made.^[4]

In 1957, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (John P. Fulton, A.S.C.).^[5] Charlton Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) for his role as Moses.^[5] Yul Brynner won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his role as Rameses and his other roles in Anastasia and The King and I.^[5] It is also one of the most financially successful films ever made, grossing approximately $122.7 million at the box office during its initial release; it was the most successful film of 1956 and the second-highest grossing film of the decade. According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition it is the seventh most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation.

In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The film was listed as the tenth best film in the epic genre.^[6][7]

Plot

Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt has ordered the death of all firstborn Hebrew males after hearing the prophecy of the Deliverer, but a Hebrew woman named Yoshebel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile. Bithiah, the Pharaoh's daughter, who had recently lost her husband and the hope of ever having children of her own, finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy even though her servant, Memnet, recognizes the child is Hebrew and protests. Because she drew the infant out of the water, Bithiah decides to name the baby, Moses.

Many years later, Prince Moses grows up to become a successful general, winning a war with Ethiopia and then entering Egypt into an alliance with them. Moses loves Nefretiri, who is the throne princess and must be betrothed to the next Pharaoh. She reciprocates his love. An incident occurs when an elderly woman is almost crushed to death when her sash gets caught under the slab of stone, prompting Moses to scold overseer Baka. Moses frees the elderly woman, not realizing that she is his natural mother, Yoshebel. While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Sethi's jubilee, Moses meets the stonecutter Joshua, who tells him of the Hebrew God.

Moses institutes numerous reforms concerning the treatment of the slaves on the project, and eventually Prince Rameses, Moses's "brother", charges him with planning an insurrection, pointing out that the slaves are calling him the "Deliverer". Moses defends himself against the charges, arguing that he is simply making his workers more productive by making them stronger and happier and proves his point with the impressive progress he is making. Rameses had earlier been charged by Sethi with finding out whether there really is a Hebrew fitting the description of the Deliverer.

Nefretiri learns from Memnet that Moses is the son of Hebrew slaves. Nefretiri kills Memnet but reveals the story to Moses only after he finds the piece of Levite cloth he was wrapped in as a baby, which Memnet had kept. Moses goes to Bithiah to learn the truth. Bithiah evades his questions, but Moses follows her to the home of Yoshebel and thus learns the truth, while also meeting his true brother, Aaron, and sister, Miriam.

Although Moses feels no real change from this revelation, he spends time working amongst the slaves to learn more of their lives. Nefretiri urges him to return to the palace so he may help his people when he becomes pharaoh, to which he agrees after he completes a final task. The master builder Baka steals Lilia, who is engaged to the stonecutter Joshua. Joshua rescues Lilia by causing a commotion in Baka's stables. Joshua strikes Baka in the process and gets captured; he is then whipped by Baka for this insult. Moses strangles Baka and frees Joshua, confessing to Joshua that he too is Hebrew. The confession is witnessed by the ambitious Hebrew chief overseer Dathan. In exchange for his freedom, riches and Lilia, Dathan tells about this to Rameses, who then arrests Moses. Brought in chains before Sethi, Moses explains that he is not the Deliverer, but would free the slaves if he could. Bithiah tells her brother Sethi the truth about Moses, and Sethi reluctantly orders his name stricken from all records and monuments, and Rameses is declared the next Pharaoh. Rameses, well aware of his father's (and Nefretiri's ) devotion to Moses, decides not to execute him and make a martyr out of him. Instead he banishes Moses to the desert, where Nefretiri will never know if he survives, or perhaps finds another love. He also tells Moses that Yoshebel had died after delivering a robe of Levite cloth for Moses.

Moses makes his way across the desert, nearly dying of hunger and thirst before he comes to a well in the land of Midian. At the well, he defends seven sisters from Amalekites who try to push them away from the water. Moses finds a home in Midian with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who reveals that he is a follower of "He who has no name", whom Moses recognizes as the God of Abraham. Moses impresses Jethro and the other sheiks with his wise and just trading, and marries Jethro's eldest daughter Sephora.

While herding sheep in the desert Moses finds Joshua, who has escaped from the copper mines of Ezion-Geber that he was sent to after the death of Baka. Moses sees the burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai and hears the voice of God. God charges Moses to return to Egypt and free His chosen people. In the meantime, in Egypt, Sethi dies, his last word being Moses's name. Before he dies, he hands over the reins to his son Ramseses, who becomes Rameses II.

At Pharaoh's court, Moses comes before Rameses to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a cobra. Jannes does the same with his staves, but Moses' snake devours his. Rameses decrees that the Hebrews be given no straw to make their bricks, but to make the same tally as before on pain of death. As the Hebrews prepare to stone Moses in anger, Nefretiri's retinue rescues him. He spurns her when she attempts to renew her relationship with him by saying that he is on a mission and is also married.

As Moses continues to challenge Pharaoh's hold over his people, Egypt is beset by divine plagues. Moses turns the river Nile to blood at a festival of Khnum and brings burning hail down upon Pharaoh's palace. Moses warns him the next plague to fall upon Egypt will be summoned by Pharaoh himself. Enraged at the plagues and Moses' continuous demands, as well as his generals and advisers telling him to give in, Rameses orders all first-born Hebrews to die. Nefretiri warns Sephora to escape with her son Gershom on a passing caravan to Midian, and Moses tells the Queen that it is her own son who will die. In an eerily quiet scene, the Angel of Death creeps into Egyptian streets in a glowing green mist, killing all the firstborn of Egypt, including the adult son of Pharaoh's top general, and Pharaoh's own child. The Hebrews who have marked their doorposts and lintels with lamb's blood are eating a hasty meal and preparing to depart. Bithiah reunites with Moses and decides to go with him and his people when they leave. Broken and despondent, Pharaoh orders Moses to leave with the Hebrews. In the following day, the Hebrews, now homeless and uprooted, begin their exodus from Egypt with Dathan, reluctantly, also among them.

Rameses spends the next three days begging Seker to call life back into the body of his son. Nefretiri goads him into such a rage that he arms himself and gathers the elite Egyptian forces and pursues the former slaves to the shore of the Red Sea. When the people see the Egyptian troops heading for them, they beg Moses to save them. With God's help, he puts out a pillar of fire. Held back by this pillar, the Egyptian forces helplessly watch as Moses parts the waters. As the Hebrews race over the seabed, the pillar of fire then dies down and the army follows them in hot pursuit. The Hebrews make it to the far shore as the waters close on the Egyptian army, drowning every man and horse, except Rameses, who looks on in despair. All he can do is return to Nefretiri, confessing to her, "His god is God".

The former slaves camp at the foot of Sinai and wait as Moses again ascends the mountain with Joshua. During his absence, the Hebrews lose faith. Urged by Dathan, they build a golden calf as an idol to take back to Egypt, hoping to win Rameses' forgiveness. They force Aaron to help fashion the gold plating. The people indulge their most wanton desires in an orgy of sinfulness, except for a few still loyal to Moses, including Lilia, Joshua, Sephora and Bithiah.

High atop the mountain, Moses witnesses God's creation of the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. When Moses finally climbs down and meets Joshua, they both behold their people's iniquity. Moses hurls the tablets at the idol in a rage. The idol explodes, and Dathan and his followers are killed. After God forces them to endure forty years' exile in the desert to kill off the rebellious generation, the Hebrews are about to arrive in the land of Canaan. An elderly Moses, who is not allowed to enter the promised land, because of his disobedience to God at the waters of Strife, appoints Joshua to succeed him as leader, says a final good bye to Sephora, and goes forth to his destiny.

Cast

Production

Writing

The final shooting script was written by Æneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., Jack Gariss, and Fredric M. Frank.^[9] It also contained material from the books Prince of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Pillar of Fire by Joseph Holt Ingraham, and On Eagle's Wings by Arthur Eustace Southon.^[10] Henry Noerdlinger, the film's researcher, consulted ancient historical texts such as the Midrash Rabbah, Philo's Life of Moses, and the writings of Josephus and Eusebius in order to "fill in" the missing years of Moses' life,^[10] and as the film's last opening title card states, "the Holy Scriptures."

The expression "the son of your body" for a biological offspring is based on inscriptions found in Mehu's tomb.^[11]

Casting

Charlton Heston, who previously worked for DeMille in The Greatest Show on Earth, won the part of Moses after he impressed DeMille (at an audition) with his knowledge of ancient Egypt. Interestingly enough, though Moses most likely lived sometime in the early New Kingdom, it was Old Kingdom Egyptian facts Heston used at his audition that won him his legendary role. Heston's newborn son, Fraser (born February 12, 1955), appeared as the infant Moses and was three months old during filming.^[12]

The part of Nefretiri, the Egyptian throne princess, was considered "the most sought after role of the year" in 1954.^[13] Ann Blyth, Vanessa Brown, Joan Evans, Rhonda Fleming, Colleen Gray, Jane Griffiths, Audrey Hepburn, Jean Marie, Vivien Leigh, Jane Russell, and Joan Taylor were considered for the part.^[14] DeMille liked Audrey Hepburn but dismissed her because of her figure, which was considered too slim for the character's Egyptian gowns.^[15] Anne Baxter (who was considered for the part of Moses' wife) was cast in the role.^[16]

Judith Ames, Anne Bancroft, Anne Baxter, Shirley Booth, Diane Brewster, Peggie Castle, June Clayworth, Linda Darnell, Laura Elliot, Rhonda Fleming, Rita Gam, Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Green, Barbara Hale, Allison Hayes, Frances Lansing, Patricia Neal, Marie Palmer, Jean Peters, Ruth Roman, Barbara Rush, and Elizabeth Sellers were considered for the part of Sephora.^[17] Grace Kelly, DeMille's first choice, was unavailable.^[17] DeMille was "very much impressed" with Yvonne De Carlo's performance as a "saintly type of woman" in MGM's Sombrero.^[18][19] He "sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed and which she gave it."^[20] Sephora is the Douay–Rheims version of the name of Zipporah.^[21]

Merle Oberon and Claudette Colbert were considered for the role of Bithiah before DeMille chose Jayne Meadows (who declined) and finally cast Nina Foch, on the suggestion of Henry Wilcoxon, who had worked with her in Scaramouche.^[22]

For the role of Memnet, Flora Robson was considered and Bette Davis was interviewed (DeMille's casting journal also notes Marjorie Rambeau and Marie Windsor)^[23] but DeMille chose Judith Anderson after screening Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca.)^[22]

DeMille was reluctant to cast anyone who had appeared in 20th Century Fox' The Egyptian,^[24] a rival production at the time.^[25] Several exceptions to this are the casting of John Carradine and Mimi Gibson (in credited supporting roles) and Michael Ansara and Peter Coe (in uncredited minor roles), who appeared in both films.

Art direction

Commentary for the film's DVD edition chronicles the historical research done by DeMille and associates. Katherine Orrison says that many details of Moses' life left out of the Bible are present in the Qur'an, which was sometimes used as a source. She also presents some coincidences in production. The man who designed Moses' distinctive rust-white-and-black-striped robe used those colors because they looked impressive, and only later discovered that these are the actual colors of the Tribe of Levi. Arnold Friberg would later state that he was the one who designed Moses' costume. As a gift, after the production, DeMille gave Moses' robe to Friberg, who had it in his possession until his death in 2010. Moses' robe as worn by Charlton Heston was hand-woven by Dorothea Hulse, one of the world's finest weavers. She also created costumes for The Robe, as well as textiles and costume fabrics for Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, and others.

Jesse Lasky Jr., a co-writer on The Ten Commandments, described how DeMille would customarily spread out prints of paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema to inform his set designers on the look he wanted to achieve. Arnold Friberg, in addition to designing sets and costumes, also contributed the manner in which Moses ordained Joshua to his mission at the end of the film: by the laying on of hands, placing his hands on Joshua's head. Friberg, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, demonstrated the LDS manner of performing such ordinations, and DeMille liked it.

Pharaoh is usually shown wearing the red-and-white crown of Upper and Lower Egypt or the nemes royal headdress. For his pursuit of the Israelites, he wears the blue Khepresh helmet-crown, which the pharaohs wore for battle.

Sets, costumes and props from the film The Egyptian were bought and re-used for The Ten Commandments. As the events in The Egyptian take place 70 years before the reign of Rameses II, an unintentional sense of continuity was created.

An Egyptian wall painting was also the source for the lively dance performed by a circle of young women at Seti's birthday gala. Their movements and costumes are based on art from the Tomb of the Sixth Dynasty Grand Vizier Mehu.^[26]

Some of the film's cast members, such as Baxter, Paget, Derek, and Foch, wore brown contact lenses, at the behest of DeMille, in order to conceal their light-colored eyes which were considered inadequate for their roles.^[27] Paget once said that, "If it hadn't been for the lenses I wouldn't have got the part."^[27] However, she also said that the lenses were "awful to work in because the kleig lights [sic] heat them up".^[27] When DeMille cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, she was worried about having to wear these contact lenses; she also believed that her gray eyes were her best feature.^[28] She asked DeMille to make an exception for her. He agreed, expressing the idea that De Carlo's role was special, and that Moses was to fall in love with her.^[28]

Special effects

The special photographic effects in The Ten Commandments were created by John P. Fulton, A.S.C. (who received an Academy Award for his effects in the film), head of the special effects department at Paramount Pictures, assisted by Paul Lerpae, A.S.C. in Optical Photography (blue screen "travelling matte" composites) and Farciot Edouart, A.S.C., in Process Photography (rear projection effects).^[29] Fulton’s effects included the building of Sethi’s Jubilee treasure city, the Burning Bush, the fiery hail from a cloudless sky, the Angel of Death, the composites of the Exodus, the Pillar of Fire, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the tour de force, the parting of the Red Sea.^[30] The parting of the Red Sea was considered the most difficult special effect ever performed up to that time.^[30] This effect took about six months of VistaVision filming, and combined scenes shot on the shores of the Red Sea in Egypt, with scenes filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood of a huge water tank split by a U-shaped trough, into which approximately 360,000 gallons of water were released from the sides, as well as the filming of a giant waterfall also built on the Paramount backlot to create the effect of the walls of the parted sea out of the turbulent backwash.^[31] All of the multiple elements of the shot were then combined in Paul Lerpae's optical printer, and matte paintings of rocks by Jan Domela concealed the matte lines between the real elements and the special effects elements.^[32] Unlike the technique used by ILM for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist of injecting poster paints into a glass tank containing a salt water inversion layer, the cloud effects for the The Ten Commandments were formed with white Britt smoke filmed against a translucent sky backing, and colors were added optically.^[33] Striking portraits of Charlton Heston as Moses and three women in front of menacing clouds were photographed by Wallace Kelly, A.S.C. in Farciot Edouart’s process (rear projection) department, in what are still considered unforgettable scenes.^[33] DeMille used these scenes to break up the montage, framing his subjects like a Renaissance master.^[33] An abundance of blue screen spillage or "bleeding" can be seen, particularly at the top of the superimposed walls of water, but rather than detracting from the shot, this (unintentionally) gives the scene an eerie yet spectacular appearance. The parting of the Red Sea sequence is considered by many to be one of the greatest special effects of all time.^[34]

DeMille was reluctant to discuss technical details of how the film was made, especially the optical tricks used in the parting of the Red Sea. It was eventually revealed that footage of the Red Sea was spliced with film footage (run in reverse) of water pouring from large U-shaped trip-tanks set up in the studio backlot.^[35][36][37]

Release

The Ten Commandments premiered at New York City's Criterion Theatre on November 8, 1956.^[38] Among those who attended the premiere were Cecil B. DeMille and his daughter Cecilia DeMille Harper, Charlton Heston and his wife Lydia Clarke, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo and her husband Bob Morgan, Martha Scott and her husband and son, John Wayne and his wife Pilar Pallete, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Barney Balaban. It played on a roadshow basis with reserved seating until mid-1958, when it finally entered general release.^[39] It was re-released in 1966 and 1972, and one more time in 1989. The 1972 and 1989 re-issues included 70mm and 35mm prints that reframed the picture's aspect ratio to 2.20:1 and 2.35:1, respectively, cropping the top and bottom of the picture's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

^[40]

Prior to the 1956 release, DeMille and the Fraternal Order of Eagles worked together to "plug" the film by donating and erecting granite monuments of the Ten Commandments in public places across the nation.

Reception

Box office

The Ten Commandments was the highest-grossing film of 1956 and the second most successful film of the decade. By April 1957, the film had earned an unprecedented $10 million from engagements at just eighty theaters, averaging about $1 million per week, with more than seven million people paying to watch it.^[39] During its initial release, it earned theater rentals (the distributor's share of the box office gross) of $31.3 million in North America and $23.9 million from the foreign markets, for a total of $55.2 million (equating to approximately $122.7 million in ticket sales).^[3] It was hugely profitable for its era, earning a net profit of $18,500,000,^[41] against a production budget of $13.27 million (the most a film had cost up to that point).^[2]

By the time of its withdrawal from distribution at the end of 1960, The Ten Commandments had overtaken Gone with the Wind at the box office in the North American territory,^[42] and mounted a serious challenge in the global market—the worldwide takings for Gone with the Wind were reported to stand at $59 million at the time.^[43] Gone with the Wind would be re-released the following year as part of the American Civil War Centennial, and reasserted its supremacy at the box office by reclaiming the US record.^[42] Also at this time, Ben-Hur—another biblical epic starring Charlton Heston released at the end of 1959—would go on to eclipse The Ten Commandments at the box office.^[3][44] A 1966 reissue earned $6,000,000,^[45] and further re-releases brought the total American theater rentals to $43 million,^[46] equivalent to gross ticket sales of $89 million at the box office.^[40] Globally, it ultimately collected $90,066,230 in revenues up to 1979.^[47]

It remains one of the most popular films ever made. Adjusted for inflation, it has earned a box office gross equivalent to $2 billion at 2011 prices, according to Guinness World Records; only Gone with the Wind (1939), Avatar (2009), Star Wars (1977), Titanic (1997), The Sound of Music (1965), and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) have generated higher grosses in constant dollars.^[48]

Critical response

The Ten Commandments received generally positive reviews after its release, although some reviewers noted its divergence from the biblical text. Bosley Crowther for The New York Times was among those who lauded DeMille's work, acknowledging that "in its remarkable settings and décor, including an overwhelming facade of the Egyptian city from which the Exodus begins, and in the glowing Technicolor in which the picture is filmed—Mr. DeMille has worked photographic wonders."^[49] Variety described the "scenes of the greatness that was Egypt, and Hebrews by the thousands under the whip of the taskmasters" as "striking," and believed that the film "hits the peak of beauty with a sequence that is unelaborate, this being the Passover supper wherein Moses is shown with his family while the shadow of death falls on Egyptian first-borns."^[50]

The film's cast was also complimented. Variety called Charlton Heston an "adaptable performer" who, as Moses, reveals "inner glow as he is called by God to remove the chains of slavery that hold his people."^[50] It considered Yul Brynner "expert" as Rameses, too.^[50] Anne Baxter's performance as Nefretiri was criticized by Variety as leaning "close to old-school siren histrionics,"^[50] but Crowther believed that it, along with Brynner's, is "unquestionably apt and complementary to a lusty and melodramatic romance."^[49] The performances of Yvonne De Carlo and John Derek were acclaimed by Crowther as "notably good."^[49] He also commended the film's "large cast of characters" as "very good, from Sir Cedric Hardwicke as a droll and urbane Pharaoh to Edward G. Robinson as a treacherous overlord."^[49]

Leonard Maltin, a contemporary film critic, gave the film four out of four stars and described it as "vivid storytelling at its best... parting of the Red Sea, writing of the holy tablets are unforgettable highlights."^[51]

Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected 32 reviews and gave the film a rating of 91%, with the site's consensus stating: "Bombastic and occasionally silly but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille's all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story."^[52]

Accolades

The Ten Commandments won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects (John P. Fulton).^[53] It was also nominated for Best Color Art Direction (art directors Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, and Albert Nozaki and set decorators Sam Comer and Ray Moyer), Best Color Cinematography (Loyal Griggs), Best Color Costume Design (Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins, and Arnold Friberg), Best Film Editing (Anne Bauchens), Best Motion Picture (Cecil B. DeMille), and Best Sound Recording (Paramount Studio Sound Department and sound director Loren L. Ryder).^[53] Paramount submitted the names of Yvonne De Carlo, John Derek, and Debra Paget for the supporting player categories (even though they received star billing in the film) at the 29th Academy Awards,^[54] but the actors did not receive nominations.

Charlton Heston's performance as Moses was ranked as the 4th Best Performance by a Male Star of 1956 by The Film Daily's Filmdom's Famous Five Poll.^[55] Heston was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama^[56] and later won the Fotograma de Plata Award for Best Foreign Performer in 1959.^[57]

Yul Brynner won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his performance as Rameses.^[58]

Cecil B. DeMille won many special awards for the film. He received, among others, the Los Angeles Examiner Award,^[59] the Boxoffice Blue Ribbon Award for the Best Picture of the Month (January 1957),^[60] the Photoplay Achievement Award,^[59] and The Christian Herald's Reader's Award for the Picture of the Year (1957).^[59]

The Maryland State Council of the American Jewish Congress awarded the Stephen S. Wise Medallion to DeMille for "most inspiring film of the year."^[59][61] Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Edward G. Robinson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nina Foch, and Martha Scott also received awards for their acting.^[61][62][63]

The film was also included in several of the annual top ten film lists, such as those featured in The Film Daily and Photoplay.^[59]

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 10 Top 10 – #10 Epic film
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #79
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • "Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!" – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Moses – #43 Hero
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated

Popularity

Critics have argued that considerable liberties were taken with the biblical story of Exodus, compromising the film's claim to authenticity, but neither this nor its nearly four-hour length has had any effect on its popularity. In fact, many of the supposed inaccuracies were actually adopted by DeMille from extra-biblical ancient sources, such as Josephus, the Sepher ha-Yashar, and the Chronicle of Moses. Moses's career in Ethiopia, for instance, is based on ancient midrashim.^[64] For decades, a showing of The Ten Commandments was a popular fundraiser among revivalist Christian Churches, while the film was equally treasured by film buffs for DeMille's "cast of thousands" approach and the heroic but antiquated early-talkie-type acting.

Home media

The Ten Commandments has been released on DVD in the United States on four occasions: the first edition (Widescreen Collection) was released on March 30, 1999 as a two-disc set,^[65] the second edition (Special Collector's Edition) was released on March 9, 2004, as a two-disc set with commentary by Katherine Orrison,^[66] the third edition (50th Anniversary Collection) was released on March 21, 2006 as a three-disc set with the 1923 version and special features,^[67] and the fourth edition (55th Anniversary Edition) was released on DVD again in a two-disc set on March 29, 2011, and for the first time on Blu-ray in a two-disc set and a six-disc limited edition gift set with the 1923 version and DVD copies.^[68] In 2012, the limited edition gift set won the Home Media Award for Best Packaging (Paramount Pictures and JohnsByrne).^[69]

Television broadcast

The film has been broadcast annually on the ABC network since 1973, traditionally during the Passover and Easter holidays, and for much of that period ABC has aired it on Easter Sunday.

Unlike many lengthy films of the day, which were usually broken up into separate airings over at least two nights, ABC elected to show the entire film in one night and has done so every year it has carried The Ten Commandments with one exception; in 1997, ABC elected to split the movie in two and aired half of it in its normal Easter Sunday slot, which that year was March 30, with the second half airing as counterprogramming to the other network offerings on April 1, which included CBS' coverage of the NCAA Men's College Basketball National Championship Game.^[70]

The length of the film combined with the necessary advertisement breaks has varied over the years, and as of 2015 ABC's total run time for The Ten Commandments stands at four hours and forty-four minutes. This requires the network to overrun into the 11:00 pm timeslot that belongs to the local affiliates, thus delaying their late local news and any other programming the station may air in the overnight hours. When the film has aired on Easter Sunday, the local ABC affiliates are given the ability to tape delay the showing an hour ahead to 8 p.m. ET/PT to keep their schedules in line for early evening (though at the cost of delaying their local newscasts to 1:00 a.m.), while stations in the Central and Mountain zones often air the film live with the Eastern time zone feed to keep their late local news as close to its regular time as possible, since both areas' Big Three affiliates air their late news at 10:00 pm local time.

In more recent years, ABC chose to air other programming on Easter night and instead aired The Ten Commandments the night before as part of its Saturday night lineup, with the broadcast starting at 8:00 pm Eastern. In 2015, for the first time in several years, the network returned to airing the film on Easter Sunday night, which fell on April 5.^[71]

In 2010, the film was broadcast in high definition for the first time, which allowed the television audience to see it in its original VistaVision aspect ratio.

Ratings by year (between 2007 and 2014)

Year	Airdate	Rating	Share	Rating/Share (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	Rank (timeslot)	Rank (night)
2007	April 7, 2007	TBA	7.87	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
2008	March 22, 2008	4.7	9	2.3/7	7.91	1	1
2009	April 11, 2009	4.2	8	1.7/6	6.81	1	1
2010[72]	April 3, 2010	TBA	TBA	1.4/5	5.88	2	3
2011[73]	April 23, 2011			1.6/5	7.05	1	1
2012[74]	April 7, 2012				6.90	TBA	TBA
2013[75]	March 30, 2013			1.2/4	5.90	2	2
2014[76]	April 19, 2014			1.0/4	5.87	1	1
2015[77]	April 5, 2015			1.4/5	6.80	TBA	TBA

See also

• List of American films of 1956
• The Ten Commandments (1923 film)
• List of films featuring slavery
• List of films featuring whitewashed roles
• Van Orden v. Perry

References

Bibliography

• Birchard, Robert (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813123240. 
• Block, Alex Ben; Wilson, Lucy Autrey, eds. (2010). George Lucas's Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061963452. 
• DeMille, Cecil B. (1959). The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0824057570. 
• Eyman, Scott (2010). Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1439180415. 
• Hall, Sheldon; Neale, Stephen (2010). Epics, spectacles, and blockbusters: a Hollywood history. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-3008-1. 
• Louvish, Simon (2008). Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art. Macmillan. ISBN 0312377339. 
• Noerdlinger, Henry (1956). Moses and Egypt. University of Southern California Press. ISBN 1258130270. 
• Orrison, Katherine (1999). Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. Vestal Press. ISBN 1461734819. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Ten Commandments (1956 film).

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Ten Commandments

• Official website
• The Ten Commandments at the Internet Movie Database
• The Ten Commandments at the TCM Movie Database
• The Ten Commandments at Box Office Mojo
• The Ten Commandments at Rotten Tomatoes
• Production design drawings for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Costume design drawings for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille Silent The Squaw Man (1914) Brewster's Millions (1914) The Master Mind (1914) The Only Son (1914) The Man on the Box (1914) The Call of the North (1914) The Virginian (1914) What's His Name (1914) The Man from Home (1914) Rose of the Rancho (1914) The Ghost Breaker (1914) The Girl of the Golden West (1915) After Five (1915) The Warrens of Virginia (1915) The Unafraid (1915) The Captive (1915) The Wild Goose Chase (1915) The Arab (1915) Chimmie Fadden (1915) Kindling (1915) Carmen (1915) Chimmie Fadden Out West (1915) The Cheat (1915) Temptation (1915) The Golden Chance (1915) The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916) The Heart of Nora Flynn (1916) Maria Rosa (1916) The Dream Girl (1916) Joan the Woman (1916) Lost and Won (1917) A Romance of the Redwoods (1917) The Little American (1917) The Woman God Forgot (1917) Nan of Music Mountain (1917) The Devil-Stone (1917) The Whispering Chorus (1918) Old Wives for New (1918) We Can't Have Everything (1918) Till I Come Back to You (1918) The Squaw Man (1918) Don't Change Your Husband (1919) For Better, for Worse (1919) Male and Female (1919) Why Change Your Wife? (1920) Something to Think About (1920) Forbidden Fruit (1921) The Affairs of Anatol (1921) Fool's Paradise (1921) Saturday Night (1922) Manslaughter (1922) Adam's Rib (1923) The Ten Commandments (1923) Triumph (1924) Feet of Clay (1924) The Golden Bed (1925) The Road to Yesterday (1925) The Volga Boatman (1926) The King of Kings (1927) Walking Back (1928) The Godless Girl (1929) Sound Dynamite (1929) Madam Satan (1930) The Squaw Man (1931) The Sign of the Cross (1932) This Day and Age (1933) Four Frightened People (1934) Cleopatra (1934) The Crusades (1935) The Plainsman (1936) The Buccaneer (1938) Union Pacific (1939) North West Mounted Police (1940) Reap the Wild Wind (1942) The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) Unconquered (1947) California's Golden Beginning (1948) Samson and Delilah (1949) The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) The Ten Commandments (1956)

Book of Exodus media Art The Crossing of the Red Sea (1482) Crossing of the Red Sea (1542) The Crossing of the Red Sea (1634) The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1634) Victory O Lord! (1871) Film Biblical The Ten Commandments (1923) The Moon of Israel (1924) The Ten Commandments (1956) Moses und Aron (1973) Moses the Lawgiver (1974) Moses (1995) The Prince of Egypt (1998) The Exodus Decoded (2006) The Ten Commandments (2006) The Ten Commandments (2007) Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) The Ten Commandments: The Movie (2016) Modern settings The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) The Reaping (2007) Exodus (2007) Musical Les Dix Commandements (2000) The Ten Commandments: The Musical (2004) Opera Mosè in Egitto (1818) Moses und Aron (1951) Music Plague Songs (2006) Exodus (2002) Television "Duke and the Great Pie War" (2005) "Moe and the Big Exit" (2007) Os Dez Mandamentos (2015 telenovela) Literature Exodus Moon of Israel (1918) The Tables of the Law (1944)