The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments

1956 film directed by Cecil B. DeMille
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The Ten Commandments
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The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic religious drama film produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in VistaVision (color by Technicolor), and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on the 1949 novel Prince of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, the 1859 novel Pillar of Fire by J. H. Ingraham, the 1937 novel On Eagle's Wings by A. E. Southon, and the Book of Exodus, found in the Bible. The Ten Commandments 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 thereafter leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. The film stars Charlton Heston in the lead role, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Zipporah, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Seti I, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.

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Produced by
Cecil B. DeMille
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Based on
Prince of Egypt
by Dorothy Clarke Wilson
Pillar of Fire
by J. H. Ingraham
On Eagle's Wings
by A. E. Southon
Book of Exodus
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Starring
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Narrated by
Cecil B. DeMille
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Cinematography
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Production company
Motion Picture Associates
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Release date
  • November 8, 1956 (1956-11-08)
(United States)
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Running time
220 minutes
(with intermission)
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Country
United States
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Language
English
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Budget
$14,000,000 USD
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Box office
$80,000,000 USD
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ADDITIONAL DETAILS

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Sephora: I do not know about such things, but I know that the mountain rumbles when God is there, and the earth trembles, and the clouds are red with fire.
Moses: At such a time, has any man gone to see Him, face-to-face?
Sephora: No man has ever set foot on the forbidden slopes of Sinai. Why do you want to see Him, Moses?
Moses: To know that He is. And if He is, to know why He has not heard the cry of slaves in bondage.
  • At the end of the movie, after Charlton Heston as Moses has turned over leadership of the Israelites to Joshua, he watches as the Israelites march into Caanan. At this point, Moses was supposed to have been enveloped in the fog coming down from the mountain, but the effect was never completed. As a result, Moses is shown to be standing there watching the Israelites go, and this is closer to what is related in the actual Bible then what Cecil B. DeMille originally intended.
  • When Yul Brynner found out he would be playing Pharaoh Rameses II opposite Charlton Heston`s Moses and that he would be shirtless for most of the film, he began a rigorous weight lifting program because he did not want to be physically overshadowed by Charlton Heston (which explains his buffer than normal physique during The King and I (1956), another film he was set to work on at the time.
  • Martha Scott, who plays Moses` biological mother Yochabel, also played Charlton Heston`s mother in Ben-Hur (1959) the same year. She was only ten years older than her on-screen son.
  • The cloud special effects used during the parting of the Red Sea scenes, would later be repeatedly used in various movies by director Steven Spielberg.
  • The red smoke on top of Mt. Sinai, which symbolized God`s presence on the mountain, was a matted special effect superimposed over a shot of the actual Mt. Sinai filmed on location.

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