Egyptian prince Moses (Charlton Heston) discovers his real roots are Hebrew after being banished from the land by his jealous half-brother.
He returns from exile on a quest to free his people from the tyranny of the Egyptian Pharaoh (Yul Brynner) and into the desert where he receives the word of God.
Director Cecil B DeMille had already made an earlier (silent) version of the story in 1923, before this epic 1956 reprise of the biblical tale.
Shot in widescreen Technicolor and lasting nearly four hours, The Ten Commandments set the standard by which many epics, biblical or otherwise, would be measured.
DeMille pulled out all the stops in terms of special effects: the images of Moses turning his staff into a snake and the Nile into blood were unprecedented visual innovations at the time, and the parting of the Red Sea remains one of Hollywood’s most treasured ‘miracles’ of special effects.
When DeMille was accused of overspending during the production of the film, he responded thusly: “What do they want me to do? Stop now and release it as The Five Commandments?”
Moses
Charlton Heston Rameses
Yul Brynner Nefretiri
Anne Baxter Dathan
Edward G Robinson Sephora
Yvonne De Carlo Lilia
Debra Paget Joshua
John Derek Bithiah
Nina Foch Aaron
John Carradine Baka
Vincent Price Sethi
Cedric Hardwicke Yochabel
Martha Scott Memnet
Judith Anderson Miriam
Olive Deering Jannes
Douglass Dumbrille Infant Moses
Fraser C Heston King of Ethiopia
Woody Strode Narrator
Cecil B DeMille
Moses
