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Now that one I'll believe. Poking around the movie sites I saw one that said the chariot race had a 265 to 1 film ratio (265 feet of film made for every foot that was actually in the movie) believed to be the highest ratio ever. With that kind of coverage you're bound to get some bad tracks in the dirt once in a while. They also said that for some of the close-ups from next to the chariot they actually reduced the rigs to 3 horse to get the camera truck closer. Coolest thing to come from Mr. Heston's commentary: the scene at the end of the chariot race of an audience member stealing a helmet off the sand really was somebody stealing the helmet, the extras were signaled to go crazy, they had a camera placed to see the audience past a helmet for a poignant counter point and some extra ran right up and took it.