Posted on 04/02/2026 12:30:27 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
As we enter the Sacred Triduum, Hollywood is celebrating Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), if not always the underlying message contained on those two ancient stone tablets Moses received at Mount Sinai c. 1446 BC.
The American biblical epic, starring Charleton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Ramses II, was a filmmaking masterpiece three years in the making.
Narrated by DeMille himself, it tells the story of Moses as an infant, as related in Exodus 2:5, rescued by Pharoah’s daughter, played by Nina Foch, who, discovering the crying babe lying in a papyrus basket in the bulrushes, adopts him. Moses’ sister Miriam, played by Olive Deering, seeing this, arranges for their mother, played by Martha Scott, to nurse Moses as this tender yet powerful tale unfolds, showing how he is educated and formed for the mission of leading the Hebrew slaves in their Exodus.
Three months after embarking from Egypt, Moses receives the Ten Commandments, as recorded in Exodus 19:1, marking the Israelites’ transition from their status as escaped slaves to a nation living under God’s laws.
The Ten Commandments was the director’s final film — shot in VistaVision and color by Technicolor on location in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula — and the highest-grossing film of 1956. To this day it remains one of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time, its adjusted equivalent an estimated $1.1 to $2.8 billion.
The film was released by Paramount Pictures on October 5, 1956 -- the date chosen not for any religious significance, but to tee it up for the Academy Awards, where it garnered seven nominations and one Oscar for Best Visual Effects...
(Excerpt) Read more at aleteia.org ...
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Amazing that Hollywood made this in 1956.
Compare to the changes in moves by the late 1960’s...
10 Commandments??? Everyone knows there were 15… until Mel Brooks dropped one tablet with the other five on it…
My favorite DVD.
Yes, at one time, Hollywood produced some fine movies. Hollywood is capable of producing such movies, if the powers that be in Hollywood chose to do so.
I met Moses in 1994.
One mistake in the movie. Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, was not a descendent of Ishmael. He was a Mideanite, a descendent of Midean, whose father was Abraham and mother was Keturah, Abraham’s wife after Sarah died.
Good movie, but...
“You are NOT under the law, under grace.” Romans 6:15.
The American biblical epic, starring Charleton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Ramses II, was a filmmaking masterpiece three years in the making.
Narrated by DeMille himself, it tells the story of Moses as an infant,
= = =
So DeMille had Heston as an infant, then as Moses?
That’s longer than 3 years.
Moses as an infant was played by Charlton Heston’s son, Fraser.
Wonderful movie
Actually, Charlton Heston’s newborn infant son (in real life), played the baby Moses in the movie...I think his name is Frazier Heston......
I heard that there were some movie theatres playing this movie for the 70th anniversary. So far, I have not found any in the Phoenix area.
Best movie of all time and first DVD that I ever bought. I purposefully made sure of it.
You should have taken it up with Jerry Springer if the times were different. He could have had the shouting relatives and non-relatives hear the verdict of the excited audience.
In one of the “The Making of...” features Cecil B. DeMille was asked about the parting of the sea. One night, exhausted and depressed about the special effects department being stymied, he had the sudden inspiration of filming the water with the cameras upside down and then splicing the effect into a rightside up view.
Video....
And someday I will be elected head of the NRA and like this staff, no one will get my weapon until they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Heston: Just spell my son’s name on the SAG-AFTRA card.
The Lord God has bestowed onto us these fifteen, oops , Ten commandments.
OY Vey!
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