Ten Commandments, The (1956)

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.

14,000 people and 15,000 animals were employed in the movie, and at $13.5 million, it was the most expensive movie ever made to that time. When DeMille was accused of overspending during the film’s production, he responded, “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

Director
Cecil B DeMille

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