The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

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. Based on the Bible's first five books and other sources, it dramatizes the 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 Sephora, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.
First announced in 1952, The Ten Commandments is a remake of the prologue of DeMille's 1923 silent film of the same title. Four screenwriters, three art directors, and five costume designers worked on the film. In 1954, it was filmed on location in Egypt, Mount Sinai, and the Sinai Peninsula, featuring one of the largest exterior sets ever created for a motion picture. In 1955, the interior sets were constructed on Paramount's Hollywood soundstages. The original roadshow version included an onscreen introduction by DeMille and was released to cinemas in the United States on November 8, 1956, and, at the time of its release, was the most expensive film ever made. It was DeMille's most successful work, his first widescreen film, his fourth biblical production, and his final directorial effort before his death in 1959.
In 1957, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (John P. Fulton, A.S.C.). DeMille won the Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director. Charlton Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama). Yul Brynner won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor. Heston, Anne Baxter, and Yvonne De Carlo won Laurel Awards for Best Dramatic Actor, 5th Best Dramatic Actress, and 3rd Best Supporting Actress, respectively. It is also one of the most financially successful films ever made, grossing approximately $122.7 million at the box office during its initial release; it was the most successful film of 1956 and the second-highest-grossing film of the decade. According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition, it is the eighth most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation.
In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The film was listed as the tenth best film in the epic genre. The film has aired annually on U.S. network television in prime time during the Passover/Easter season since 1973.
After hearing the prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer, Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt orders the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Yochabel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile. Bithiah, the Pharaoh Rameses's recently widowed daughter (and sister of the future Pharaoh Sethi I), finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy, even though her servant, Memnet, recognizes that the child is Hebrew. Bithiah names the baby Moses.
Prince Moses grows up to become a successful general, winning a war with Ethiopia and establishing an alliance. Moses falls in love with the princess Nefretiri. But, she is betrothed to whomever Sethi chooses to become the next Pharaoh. While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Sethi's jubilee, Moses meets the stonecutter Joshua, who tells him of the Hebrew God. Moses saves an elderly woman from being crushed, not knowing that she is his biological mother, Yochabel, and he reprimands the master builder, Baka.
Moses reforms the treatment of slaves on the project, but Prince Rameses, Moses's adoptive brother and Sethi's son, charges him with planning an insurrection. Moses says he is making his workers more productive, making Rameses wonder if Moses is the man the Hebrews are calling the Deliverer.
Nefretiri learns from Memnet that Moses is the son of Hebrew slaves. She kills Memnet, but reveals the story to Moses after he finds the piece of Levite cloth he was wrapped in as a baby, which Memnet had kept. Moses follows Bithiah to Yochabel's house, where he meets his biological mother, brother Aaron, and sister Miriam.
Moses learns more about the slaves by working with them. Nefretiri urges him to return to the palace, so that he may help his people when he becomes pharaoh, to which he agrees after he completes a final task. Moses saves Joshua from death by killing Baka, telling Joshua that he, too, is Hebrew. The confession is witnessed by the Hebrew overseer Dathan, who then reports to Prince Rameses. After being arrested, Moses explains that he is not the Deliverer, but would free the slaves if he could. Sethi declares Prince Rameses his sole heir, and Rameses banishes Moses to the desert. At this time, Moses learns of the death of his mother.
Moses makes his way across the desert to a well in Midian. After defending seven sisters from Amalekites, Moses is housed with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who worships the God of Abraham. Moses marries Jethro's eldest daughter Sephora. Later, he finds Joshua, who has escaped from the hard labor imposed on the Hebrews in Egypt. While herding, Moses sees the burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai and hears the voice of God. At God's command, Moses returns to Egypt to free the Hebrews.
Moses comes before Rameses, now Pharaoh Rameses II, to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a cobra. Jannes performs the same trick with his staves, but Moses's snake swallows his. Rameses prohibits straw from being provided to the Hebrews to make their bricks. Nefretiri rescues Moses from being stoned to death by the Hebrews wherein he reveals that he is married.
Egypt is visited by plagues. Moses turns the river Nile to blood at a festival of Khnum, and brings burning hail down upon Pharaoh's palace. Moses warns him that the next plague to fall upon Egypt will be summoned by Pharaoh himself. Enraged at the plagues, Rameses orders that all first-born sons of Hebrews will die, but a cloud of death instead kills all the first-born sons of Egypt, including the child of Rameses and Nefretiri. Despairing at the loss of his heir, Pharaoh exiles the Hebrews, who begin the Exodus from Egypt.
After being taunted by Nefretiri, Rameses takes his chariots and pursues the Hebrews to the Red Sea. Moses uses God's help to stop the Egyptians with a pillar of fire, and parts the Red Sea. After the Hebrews make it to safety, Moses releases the walls of water, drowning the Egyptian army. A devastated Rameses returns empty-handed to Nefretiri, stating that he now acknowledges Moses's god as God.
Moses again ascends the mountain with Joshua. He sees the Ten Commandments created by God in two stone tablets. Meanwhile, Dathan exploits the people to gain power; claiming that Moses is dead and urging a reluctant Aaron to construct a golden calf idol. A wild saturnalia occurs and a decadent orgy is held by most of the Hebrews.
After God informs him of the Hebrew's sins, Moses descends from the mountain with Joshua. Enraged at his own people's betrayal of God, he deems the Hebrews unworthy and smashes the tablets at the golden calf. The calf explodes, sending Dathan and the other sinners to Hell. The remaining Hebrews are forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years. An elderly Moses later leads the Hebrews towards Canaan. However, he cannot enter the Promised Land because of a previous disobedience to the Lord (angering God at the Water of Strife). He instead names Joshua as leader, and bids farewell to the Hebrews at Mount Nebo.
In July 1951, while he was working on his circus film The Greatest Show on Earth, producer-director Cecil B. DeMille chose Homer's Odyssey as the subject of his next epic. Several weeks later, he announced he was going to make a film about the Book of Esther, but then he changed his mind and said he was planning a new film about Helen of Troy, which he eventually canceled. For more than twenty years and especially after World War II, DeMille had received letters from people worldwide who asked him to make a new version of his 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments because the world "needs a reminder, they said, of the Law of God", which "is the essential bedrock of human freedom." DeMille talked about the idea with his staff and they initially considered producing it as a modern story with a biblical prologue, like the original film. A suggestion was to have the contemporary protagonist be an honest politician struggling with "forces aligned against him" and show through that conflict the effects of keeping or breaking the Ten Commandments. DeMille discarded the present-day storyline because he kept thinking about the first film's biblical section, which was "still not dated". Another early concept was to film the story of the Exodus, led by Moses, with interconnected subplots involving Israelites whose lives reflect each of the Ten Commandments. DeMille wrote that he thought the final choice—to let the biblical story "speak for itself"—was the "soundest". He said the biblical account was "timeless" and "timely", and that when "Moses led his people to Mount Sinai, they learned, as the world today must learn, that true freedom is freedom under God."
After The Greatest Show on Earth was released, DeMille went to Paramount Pictures to discuss his next film with the studio's executives, including Barney Balaban and Adolph Zukor. He had already made up his mind to direct a new version of The Ten Commandments that would incorporate Moses' life as an Egyptian prince. He had to "sell" the idea to them and, although only Zukor and Y. Frank Freeman championed it, all accepted it. Some Paramount businessmen were not too keen about another biblical film, and one of those even questioned the film's title, saying "You won't call it The Ten Commandments, of course." When he heard this, Zukor leapt from his seat and made it clear that there would be no other title for the film but that one.
In June 1952, DeMille formally informed the press that his next production would be a Technicolor remake of his successful silent film The Ten Commandments (1923). From the beginning, his plan was to produce the film on a "lavish scale" with "a cast of outstanding stars" and a budget that would allow it "to possess the quality and spectacular values that have earned for DeMille the title of 'Hollywood's master showman.'" DeMille explained why he decided to revisit Moses' story:
In October 1952, DeMille told reporter Bob Thomas, "The actual shooting is the easiest part of making a picture. It is here in the production office that the picture is really created."
As the on-screen credits declare, The Holy Scriptures are the predominant source of the film's narrative. DeMille chose to use the 17th-century King James Version, which he grew up reading. Moses' biography is found in the Hebrew Bible's Torah, also called the "Five Books of Moses". In order to depict Moses' early years in Egypt, DeMille searched for extrabiblical sources that expanded on Moses' life as a young man. He said, "There is a lapse of 26 years between two verses of the Bible. One verse tells of Moses being found among the bulrushes, or papyrus, by the Pharaoh's daughter and in the next verse he is grown and has killed a man. We have to find out what happened to him between those two events."
Henry Noerdlinger, the film's researcher, consulted ancient historical texts, such as On the Life of Moses by Philo, Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus, Preparation for the Gospel by Eusebius, the Midrash Rabbah on Exodus, and the Mishnah. Philo and Josephus describe the prince Moses as the heir to the throne of Egypt, and the Midrash states that both his adoptive mother (the Pharaoh's daughter) and the Pharaoh had great affection for him. Josephus and Eusebius also say that Moses, as the commander of the Egyptian army, prevented the Ethiopians from invading Egypt and conquered their nation; he was also the subject of court intrigues against him. Moses' concern for the overworked Hebrew slaves, his implementation of their weekly "day of rest", and Dathan as the witness to Moses' slaying of an Egyptian man were details taken from the Midrash.
DeMille also found and modified names for several people related to Moses. In the Book of Exodus, the Egyptian princess who adopted Moses is not named, but the Midrash identifies her as the woman "Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, which Mered took" mentioned in the Book of Chronicles. DeMille preferred the spelling "Sephora", found in the Douay–Rheims Bible, for the name of Moses' wife, originally Zipporah in the Hebrew Bible and King James version. To make it more euphonious, the name of Moses' Hebrew mother Jochebed was changed by DeMille to "Yochabel", which is a transliteration from Josephus' Greek text.
In 1952, DeMille bought the screen rights to Dorothy Clarke Wilson's best-selling novel Prince of Egypt (1949), from which he got several subplots and characters, including the "lively" Egyptian princess Nefretiri and her romance with Moses. In the book, Nefretiri is the heiress to the throne as the daughter of Pharaoh Sethi I and older sister of Rameses, while the adopted prince Moses is rumored to be the illegitimate child of an Egyptian princess and a Mitannian prince. Memnet, a character from the novel, is Nefretiri's old nurse who detests Moses and reveals the secret of his real Hebrew parentage; she is later "silenced" when Nefretiri pushes her off a balcony. Baka, a foreman commissioned by Sethi to build a new city in the Nile Delta, is Wilson's depiction of the Egyptian that Moses killed.
DeMille also found another novel about Moses titled On Eagle's Wings (1939) by English minister and author Arthur Eustace Southon, who sold the screen rights to the director in 1953. The film was also based on Pillar of Fire by Joseph Holt Ingraham.
To write the film's screenplay, DeMille chose Jewish screenwriters Jesse L. Lasky Jr. and Fredric M. Frank, who wrote the script of his previous biblical epic, Samson and Delilah. He also hired two writers he had never collaborated with before, Aeneas MacKenzie and Jack Gariss. DeMille said MacKenzie had "piercing insight into dramatic values" and a "fine sense of story construction", and he described Gariss as "deeply thoughtful and sensitively attuned to the spiritual no less the dramatic values of our theme". DeMille noted that, during their story conferences, he and the writers alternated "in the roles of hammer and anvil" and that when "sparks" flew, they "glow[ed] with the intelligence and wit" of the four who worked with him. According to Lasky Jr., the screenplay was divided into the four main phases of Moses' life as prince, shepherd, deliverer, lawgiver; the screenwriters worked individually and all wrote parts of each of the four sections. DeMille ultimately entrusted Lasky Jr. with the task of revising the screenplay "for consistency's sake". The script contained many scenes that were either cut or not filmed, including a longer prologue that depicted stories from the Book of Genesis. The screenplay was written over a period of three years.
In December 1952, Jeff Chandler sought the role of Moses in the upcoming DeMille epic. In October 1953, DeMille said his favorite choice was Charlton Heston, the star of his previous film, The Greatest Show on Earth. He also considered casting a middle-aged man. In December, DeMille offered the part to quinquagenarian actor William Boyd, who was famous for his portrayal of cowboy Hopalong Cassidy on television and had worked with DeMille in the silent era, but Boyd's representative said the actor was "worried that it will be out of character." In January 1954, Dan Dailey said he wanted to play Moses in DeMille's film. The following month, Heston and Kirk Douglas were reported to be two of the many top stars who wanted the role. In May, DeMille briefly considered Rock Hudson after he saw him in Magnificent Obsession. Interviewed twice by the director, Heston finally won the role when he impressed DeMille with his knowledge of Moses and ancient Egypt and his strong resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses. Heston was later chosen to be the voice of God in the Burning Bush, toned down to a softer and lower register.
DeMille described the role of Rameses II as "a part equal in dramatic strength to that of Moses". Rory Calhoun, Jeff Chandler, Anthony Dexter, Mel Ferrer, Stewart Granger, William Holden, and Michael Rennie were considered to play Moses' opponent and rival for the Egyptian throne. In New York City, DeMille's granddaughter and his secretary convinced him to see the Broadway musical The King and I, starring Yul Brynner. DeMille recalled, "During the first act, they wondered why I said nothing. I couldn't. I was seeing a rare theatrical experience—a performance of dramatic integrity." The director went backstage to meet the star. He told Brynner the story of the film from Rameses' point of view, and offered him the role. "Nobody has ever been allowed backstage during intermission but everybody gets awed by DeMille," remembered Brynner. "I was fascinated by him. He showed me material for a picture and I agreed to do that and another film. We shook hands. It all happened in seven and a half minutes!" In April 1953, Brynner was already in Hollywood talking with DeMille about the part, and in October it was confirmed that he was the first actor to be cast in the film.
In October 1953, DeMille said he wanted Audrey Hepburn to play the role of Rameses' wife, Nefretiri. In February 1954, his office was said to be full of photographs of Heburn, but he later noticed her figure was not curvaceous enough for Nefretiri's form-fitting gowns. In May, DeMille asked Vanessa Brown if she "could fill out the clinging, revealing Egyptian costumes". She assured him she could, but also warned him that she had "unattractive feet". Ann Blyth, Joan Evans, Rhonda Fleming, Coleen Gray, Jane Griffiths, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Taylor were also considered. In June, columnist Louella Parsons regarded the part of Nefretiri as "the most sought-after role of the year". That same month, DeMille chose Anne Baxter after he screened her film Carnival Story at home three times. His other top choice was Jane Russell, who wanted the part. "There was only one DeMille, and there wasn't an actor in the world who didn't want to work for him just once, however short the salary or tall the corn", Baxter wrote in her memoir.
Many actors were considered for the role of the evil overseer Dathan. DeMille was enthusiastic about Jack Palance as Dathan, but Palance's agent angered DeMille when he stole a part of the script and demanded that the part be rewritten. Raymond Massey was signed for the role, but later turned it down. In September 1954, DeMille cast Edward G. Robinson in the role of the "quisling who fights Moses all the way through the picture." Robinson had been blacklisted in Hollywood because of his "former political leanings" and needed "recognition again by a top figure in the industry." Someone had suggested him for the role but thought he could not be hired. In his autobiography, Robinson remembered: "Mr. DeMille wanted to know why, coldly reviewed the matter, felt I had been done an injustice, and told his people to offer me the part. Cecil B. DeMille returned me to films. Cecil B. DeMille restored my self-respect."
For the role of Sephora, the Midianite shepherdess who becomes Moses' wife, more than 20 actresses were under consideration. Grace Kelly, DeMille's first choice, was unavailable. In May 1954, television actress Maria Riva, Marlene Dietrich's daughter, was said to be the director's number-one choice for the role. In the process of casting the role of Bithiah, he screened the MGM film Sombrero and was "very much impressed" with Yvonne De Carlo's portrayal of a "saintly type of woman". DeMille said he "sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed and which she gave it." De Carlo had always wanted to play a starring role for DeMille, so she accepted the part and did not care how much he would pay her. She later thought, "Actually, that's probably why he got away with paying such low salaries. He did know that most dedicated actors would work for him for nothing."
In April 1955, columnist Erskine Johnson noticed: "Anne Baxter and Charlton Heston got top billing over some other very important stars (Yvonne De Carlo and Edward G. Robinson, for instance) in The Ten Commandments. So far, the others aren't squawking."
DeMille considered several leading ladies for the part of Lilia, the young Hebrew woman who gives water to the slaves. He originally chose Pier Angeli, but MGM refused to loan their contract star to Paramount. In September 1954, DeMille borrowed Debra Paget from 20th Century-Fox and cast her in the role of the "lissome and beatific slave girl". Paget later became a born-again Christian. She said, "I think my evangelical work was foreshadowed when Cecil B. DeMille chose me for The Ten Commandments and said, 'I feel the hand of God has been on you.'"
For the role of the Joshua, the Hebrew stonecutter destined to succeed Moses, DeMille looked at a number of actors. He first gave the part to Cornel Wilde, one of the stars of his previous film, The Greatest Show on Earth. Wilde's casting was widely mentioned in the press, but the actor made his "worst mistake" and said the part was too small. In his autobiography, DeMille remarked, "Cornel Wilde declined the role […] thus giving John Derek his opportunity for a noteworthy performance."
In May 1954, Sir Cedric Hardwicke got the supporting role of Pharaoh Sethi "the Just" and became one of the first actors signed for the film. It took DeMille longer to find an actress to play Sethi's sister and Moses' adoptive mother, Bithiah. He had offered the part to Joan Crawford in January, and also considered other famous actresses. His favorite choice, Jayne Meadows, declined the role because she did not want to leave her home in New York. Associate producer Henry Wilcoxon recommended his Scaramouche co-star Nina Foch, who signed for the part in September. In October, John Carradine won the role of Moses' brother, Aaron.
DeMille wanted a "strong dramatic actress" to portray Moses' real mother, Yochabel. In March 1955, he selected Martha Scott for the role after he saw her performance in William Wyler's The Desperate Hours (1955). That same month, Judith Anderson was cast as Memnet. Also in March, Basil Rathbone said he wanted to work for DeMille and wrote him for the part of Baka in the film: "I wanted it for the record as this probably will be DeMille's last picture and I knew there was a real good heavy in the script—a real heel type—but C. B. gave it to Vincent Price instead."
DeMille considered Heston's wife, Lydia Clarke, for the role of Moses' sister, Miriam, but she became pregnant and the director assigned the part to Olive Deering, who had portrayed another Miriam in DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949). Heston's newborn son, Fraser (born February 12, 1955), was cast by DeMille (on the suggestion of Henry Wilcoxon, who said to him: "The timing's just right. If it's a boy, who better to play the Baby Moses?") as soon as Heston announced to DeMille that his wife Lydia was pregnant. Fraser Heston was three months old during filming.
Henry Wilcoxon was chosen to play the Egyptian military commander in both Egypt and Hollywood to provide continuity in the Exodus scenes, and his wife, Joan Woodbury, was cast as Korah's wife in the golden calf sequence. Two cast members of the 1923 silent version, Julia Faye (who played Rameses' wife) and Edna Mae Cooper, were given the roles of Moses' sister-in-law Elisheba and a lady of the pharaoh's court, respectively. DeMille saw Gail Kobe eating in the studio commissary and gave her the role of Nefretiri's personal servant.
DeMille was reluctant to cast anyone who had appeared in The Egyptian, a rival production at the time. Exceptions to this are the casting of John Carradine and Mimi Gibson in credited supporting roles. Seven casting directors hired actors to play 53 star and featured roles, 488 speaking parts, and 100 dancers.
Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, and Albert Nozaki were in charge of the film's art direction. Jesse Lasky Jr., a co-writer on The Ten Commandments, described how DeMille would customarily spread out prints of paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema to inform his set designers on the look he wanted to achieve. Arnold Friberg, in addition to designing sets and costumes, also contributed the manner in which Moses ordained Joshua to his mission at the end of the film: by the laying on of hands, placing his hands on Joshua's head. Friberg, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, demonstrated the LDS manner of performing such ordinations, and DeMille liked it.
DeMille's film crew bought props from the 20th Century-Fox production The Egyptian, including the "hounds and jackals" game. In March 1954, Walter M. Scott, Fox's set decorator, said: "We have made 5,000 different items for the picture. Now the others want to borrow our things. We've already had four men from Cecil B. DeMille over here to see what they can use in [his film]."
The gate of Rameses' city, a replica of the set from DeMille's 1923 silent film, was designed by an architect named Anis Serag El Dine. Said to be "the biggest film set ever built", the pylon was 107 feet high and 325 feet long and cost more than $250,000. It included a city wall and an avenue of sphinxes and was constructed in Tanis, Egypt, between Saqqara and the Giza pyramid complex. DeMille also ordered the construction of wooden pyramids that appear to be covered in alabaster; they stood on stilts so they could be seen rising above the horizon. Behind the facade of the set, there were a mess tent, a wardrobe department, and a stable for horses.
Some studio sets were so large they occupied an entire soundstage each. These included Sethi's throne room, Nefretiri's quarters, and the Hebrew village. DeMille used thousands of real flowers for the Ethiopian tribute scene, the fabrication of garlands, and the decoration of hairstyles, tables, and food platters; he ordered lilies from Hawaii and lotuses from British Guiana.
Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins, and Arnold Friberg received on-screen credit for the film's costumes. Friberg designed Moses' distinctive robe in red with black and white stripes, and the film's researchers later discovered that these colors were traditionally associated with the Israelite tribe Moses belonged to, the Tribe of Levi. According to Friberg, the costume was woven on an ancient loom using goat's hair, although the film's publicity stated it was made from jute, wool, and linen fibers. As a gift, after the production, DeMille gave Moses' robe to Friberg, who had it in his possession until his death in 2010.
The Pharaohs in the film (Rameses I, Sethi, Rameses II) are shown wearing the nemes royal headdress or the red-and-white crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. For his pursuit of the Israelites, Rameses II wears the blue khepresh helmet-crown, which the pharaohs wore for battle. Paramount's makeup department made a plaster cast of Yul Brynner's head so his helmet could fit perfectly. The shirt Sethi wears in his death scene was inspired by the design of a tunic that belonged to Tutankhamun. In the second half of the film, Rameses II wears a royal robe that is an adaptation of the vulture cloak design on Tutankhamun's second coffin and a miniature one in his tomb.
Edith Head designed the costumes of the main female characters, including Nefretiri. Anne Baxter wrote that she and Head had fittings on the "unbelievably extravagant" gowns for eight months. Baxter wanted to wear a putty nose to look more Egyptian, but DeMille preferred her real nose. Head's designs for Nefretiri were inspired by the life-size depictions of the real queen inside her tomb in the Valley of the Queens. Nefretiri's vulture crown and gold-cloth dress with protective wings were copied from a painting in the tomb and the statue of Karomama, the Divine Adoratrice of Amun.
Egyptian wall paintings were the source for the lively dance performed by a circle of young women at Sethi's jubilee. Their movements and costumes are based on art from the tomb of the Sixth Dynasty Vizier Mehu in Saqqara and a tomb in Deir el-Gabrawi.
Some of the film's cast members, such as Paget, Derek, Foch, and Eduard Franz, wore brown contact lenses, at the behest of DeMille, in order to conceal their light-colored eyes which were considered inadequate for their roles. Paget once said that, "If it hadn't been for the lenses I wouldn't have got the part." However, she also said that the lenses were "awful to work in because the Klieg lights heat them up". When DeMille cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, she was worried about having to wear these contact lenses; she also believed that her gray eyes were her best feature. She asked DeMille to make an exception for her. He agreed, expressing the idea that De Carlo's role was special, and that Moses was to fall in love with her.
The film's location footage was shot in Egypt between October 14 and December 3, 1954.
The Hollywood footage was shot between March and August 1955. On August 15, DeMille was directing approximately 500 extras for the filming of the "matching shots" of the Exodus sequence. In late August, he was directing the scenes where Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and finds his people worshiping the golden calf.
The special photographic effects in The Ten Commandments were created by John P. Fulton, A.S.C. (who received an Oscar for his effects in the film), head of the special effects department at Paramount Pictures, assisted by Paul Lerpae, A.S.C. in optical photography (blue screen "travelling matte" composites) and Farciot Edouart, A.S.C., in process photography (rear projection effects). Fulton's effects included the building of Sethi's treasure city, the Burning Bush, the fiery hail from a cloudless sky, the Angel of Death, the composites of the Exodus, the Pillar of Fire, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the tour de force, the parting of the Red Sea.
In his autobiography, DeMille wrote about the making of some of the film's special effects. He said he wanted to depict the Burning Bush the way it is described in the Bible, "burning but not consumed." His secretary Doris Turner bought him a fireplace-shaped clock "with wavy light from a hidden source playing over small artificial logs," and DeMille showed the clock to Fulton, who managed to recreate the effect on the screen. For God's voice in the Burning Bush, DeMille turned to an ancient Jewish legend in the Midrash Rabbah, which said that God spoke to Moses with the voice of Amram, Moses' father, so he would not be frightened. Charlton Heston's voice was slightly slowed and deepened. DeMille's depiction of the Angel of Death was based on a sketch made by another of his secretaries, Lynn Hayne. One night, Hayne was looking out a window and saw a strange cloud that spread across the sky and had "fingers" pointing down toward the horizon; she drew it and sent it to DeMille the following day.
DeMille was reluctant to discuss other technical details of how the film was made, especially the optical tricks used in the parting and crossing of the Red Sea. The parting of the Red Sea was considered the most difficult special effect ever performed up to that time. It took eight months of VistaVision filming, cost $1 million, and combined footage shot in Egypt at the Red Sea and Abu Rawash with footage shot in Hollywood at Paramount. Paramount built a huge water tank split by a U-shaped trough, into which approximately 360,000 gallons of water were released from the sides. To achieve the effect of the parting of the waters, the footage of the water pouring over the trough was run in reverse. The sideways filming of the turbulent backwash of a giant waterfall also built on the Paramount backlot was used to create the effect of the walls of the parted sea. All of the multiple elements of the shot were then combined in Paul Lerpae's optical printer, and matte paintings of rocks by Jan Domela concealed the matte lines between the location footage and the studio footage. The parting of the Red Sea sequence is considered by many to be one of the greatest special effects of all time.
Unlike the technique used by ILM for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist of injecting poster paints into a glass tank containing a salt water inversion layer, the cloud effects for The Ten Commandments were formed with white smoke filmed against a translucent sky backing, and colors were added optically. Striking portraits of Charlton Heston as Moses and three women in front of menacing clouds were photographed by Wallace Kelly, A.S.C. in Farciot Edouart's process (rear projection) department, in what are still considered unforgettable scenes. DeMille used these scenes to break up the montage, framing his subjects like a Renaissance master.
Paramount borrowed Disney animator Joshua Meador for the Pillar of Fire and the Finger of God sequences. The swirling sparks that emerge when the fire appears and disappears were created by superimposing slow-motion footage of burning magnesium. The voice of God in the tablet-giving scene was provided by a voice actor with a deep bass voice, Jesse Delos Jewkes, who was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Additionally, Jewkes' voice was enhanced by the use of the vox humana stop of the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ. De Mille, who was good friends with LDS church president David O. McKay, asked for and received permission to record the organ from McKay.
The score for The Ten Commandments was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein. Initially, DeMille hired Bernstein, then a relatively unknown film composer, to write and record only the diegetic music required for the film's dance sequences and other onscreen musical passages, with the intention of employing frequent collaborator Victor Young to write the score proper. However, Young turned down the assignment due to his own failing health, causing DeMille to hire Bernstein to write the underscore as well.
In total, Bernstein composed 2½ hours of music for the film, writing for a full symphony orchestra augmented with various ethnic and unusual instruments such as the shofar, the tiple, and the theremin. The score is written in a highly Romantic style, featuring unique musical leitmotifs for the film's characters (God, Moses, Rameses, Nefretiri, Dathan, Sephora, Lilia, Joshua, et. al) used in a manner inspired, at DeMille's direction, by the opera scores of Richard Wagner. Bernstein recorded both the diegetic music and the score at the Paramount Studios Recording Stage in sessions spread from April 1955 to August 1956.
A double-LP monaural soundtrack album was released in 1957 by Dot Records, utilizing excerpts from the original film recordings. A stereo version of the 1957 album was released in 1960 containing new recordings conducted by Bernstein, as the original film recordings, while recorded in three-channel stereo, were not properly balanced for an LP stereo release, as the intent at the time of recording had been to mix the film masters to mono for the film soundtrack itself; this recording was later issued on CD by MCA Classics in 1989. For the film's tenth anniversary, United Artists Records released a second stereo re-recording in 1966, also conducted by Bernstein and employing different orchestral arrangements unique to this release.
For the film's 60th anniversary in 2016, Intrada Records released a six-CD album of the score. The Intrada release contains the complete 2½ hour score as originally recorded by Bernstein, with much of it remixed in true stereo for the first time. In addition, the 2016 release contains all the diegetic music recorded for the film, the original 1957 Dot album (in mono), the 1960 Dot album (in stereo), and the 1966 United Artists album, as well as a 12-minute recording of Bernstein auditioning his thematic ideas for DeMille on the piano. The box set won the IFMCA Award for Best New Archival Release – Re-Release or Re-Recording of an Existing Score.
Cecil B. DeMille promoted the film by placing Ten Commandment monuments as a publicity stunt for the film in cities across the United States. The Ten Commandments premiered at New York City's Criterion Theatre on November 8, 1956. Among those who attended the premiere were Cecil B. DeMille and his eldest child, Cecilia DeMille Harper; Charlton Heston and his wife, Lydia Clarke; Yul Brynner; Anne Baxter; Edward G. Robinson; Yvonne De Carlo and her husband, Bob Morgan; Martha Scott and her husband, Mel Powell, and son, Carleton Alsop; William Holden and his wife, Brenda Marshall; John Wayne and his wife, Pilar Pallete; Tony Curtis and his wife, Janet Leigh; and Paramount Pictures president Barney Balaban. It played on a roadshow basis with reserved seating until mid-1958, when it finally entered general release.
The Ten Commandments was re-released in 1966 and 1972, and one more time in 1989. The 1972 and 1989 re-issues included 70mm and 35mm prints that reframed the picture's aspect ratio to 2.20:1 and 2.39:1, respectively, cropping the top and bottom of the picture's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The Ten Commandments was released on DVD on March 30, 1999; March 9, 2004, as a Special Collector's Edition; and March 29, 2011, as a Special edition and Standard edition. The Ten Commandments received a 4K UHD Blu-ray release on March 30, 2021.
The Ten Commandments was the highest-grossing film of 1956, and the second most successful film of the decade. By April 1957, the film had earned an unprecedented $10 million from engagements at just eighty theaters, averaging about $1 million per week, with more than seven million people paying to watch it. It played for 70 weeks at the Criterion Theatre in New York, grossing $2.7 million. During its initial release, it earned theater rentals (the distributor's share of the box office gross) of $31.3 million in North America, and $23.9 million from the foreign markets, for a total of $55.2 million (equating to approximately $122.7 million in ticket sales). It was hugely profitable for its era, earning a net profit of $18,500,000, against a production budget of $13.27 million (the most a film had cost up to that point).
By the time of its withdrawal from distribution at the end of 1960, The Ten Commandments had overtaken Gone with the Wind at the box office in the North American territory, and mounted a serious challenge in the global market—the worldwide takings for Gone with the Wind were reported to stand at $59 million at the time. Gone with the Wind would be re-released the following year as part of the American Civil War Centennial, and re-asserted its supremacy at the box office by reclaiming the US record. Also at this time, Ben-Hur—another biblical epic starring Charlton Heston, released at the end of 1959—would go on to eclipse The Ten Commandments at the box office. A 1966 re-issue earned $6 million, and further re-releases brought the total American theater rentals to $43 million, equivalent to gross ticket sales of $89 million at the box office. Globally, it ultimately collected $90,066,230 in revenues up to 1979.
It remains one of the most popular films ever made. Adjusted for inflation, it has earned a box office gross equivalent to $2 billion at 2011 prices, according to Guinness World Records; only Gone with the Wind (1939), Avatar (2009), Star Wars (1977), Titanic (1997), The Sound of Music (1965), and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) have generated higher grosses in constant dollars. The Ten Commandments is estimated to have sold 262 million tickets at the worldwide box office.
The Ten Commandments received rave reviews after its test screening in October 1956. James Powers of The Hollywood Reporter declared the film to be "the summit of screen achievement. It is not just a great and powerful motion picture, although it is that; it is also a new human experience. If there were but one print of this Paramount picture, the place of its showing would be the focus of a world-wide pilgrimage." Philip K. Scheuer, reviewing for the Los Angeles Times, said the film served "almost as a religious experience as it is a theatrical one. C. B. remains, at 75, the ablest living director of spectacle in the grand manner. His production measures up to the best for which his admirers have hoped—and far from the worst that his detractors expected. That old-time religion has a new look." New York Daily News called it "an absorbing and exciting historical record, documented with excerpts from the Books of Exodus and Numbers of the Old Testament, the Psalms and from the works of such ancient historians as Josephus, Philo and Eusebius."
Variety described the "scenes of the greatness that was Egypt, and Hebrews by the thousands under the whip of the taskmasters" as "striking", and believed that the film "hits the peak of beauty with a sequence that is unelaborate, this being the Passover supper wherein Moses is shown with his family while the shadow of death falls on Egyptian first-borns". Bosley Crowther for The New York Times was also among those who lauded DeMille's work, acknowledging that "in its remarkable settings and décor, including an overwhelming facade of the Egyptian city from which the Exodus begins, and in the glowing Technicolor in which the picture is filmed—Mr. DeMille has worked photographic wonders".
The film's cast was also complimented. Variety called Charlton Heston an "adaptable performer" who, as Moses, reveals "inner glow as he is called by God to remove the chains of slavery that hold his people". Powers felt that Heston was "splendid, handsome, and princely (and human) in the scenes dealing with him as a young man, and majestic and terrible as his role demands it. He is the great Michelangelo conception of Moses, but rather as the inspiration for the sculptor might have been than as a derivation." Variety also considered Yul Brynner to be an "expert" as Rameses, too. Anne Baxter's performance as Nefretiri was criticized by Variety as leaning "close to old-school siren histrionics", but Crowther stated that it, along with Brynner's, is "unquestionably apt and complementary to a lusty and melodramatic romance". The performances of Yvonne De Carlo and John Derek were acclaimed by Crowther as "notably good". He also commended the film's "large cast of characters" as "very good, from Sir Cedric Hardwicke as a droll and urbane Pharaoh to Edward G. Robinson as a treacherous overlord".
There were some critics who gave the film mixed reviews and disapproved of the extrabiblical love story between Moses and Nefretiri. Time thought the film was "[s]omething roughly comparable to an eight-foot chorus girl—pretty well put together, but much too big and much too flashy." Newsweek commented, "Viewing his current three and a half hour work, [the public] may find a DeMille production a trying experience now and then, but a very educational one. They are bound to be, as their parents and grandparents were [by the 1923 version], impressed."
In November 1956, The Ten Commandments was named the "most popular entrant" for the Best Picture Oscar and Heston was considered a top contender for the Best Actor Oscar. In March 1957, the Academy's failure to nominate Heston was considered a great upset.
In his Movie Guide, film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "Vivid storytelling at its best. […] Parting of the Red Sea, writing of the holy tablets are unforgettable highlights." The critic Camille Paglia has called The Ten Commandments one of the ten greatest films of all time.
Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected 45 reviews, and reported that 84% of critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Bombastic and occasionally silly, but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille's all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story."
The Ten Commandments was included in three lists of the American Film Institute's AFI 100 Years... series:
Critics have argued that considerable liberties were taken with the biblical story of Exodus, compromising the film's claim to authenticity, but neither this nor its nearly four-hour length has had any effect on its popularity. In fact, many of the supposed inaccuracies were actually adopted by DeMille from extra-biblical ancient sources, such as Josephus, the Sepher ha-Yashar, and the Chronicle of Moses. Moses' career in Ethiopia, for instance, is based on the Midrash, the original layer of the Talmud. For decades, a showing of The Ten Commandments was a popular fundraiser among revivalist Christian Churches, while the film was equally treasured by film buffs for DeMille's "cast of thousands" approach and the heroic acting.
In a 1970s interview, Anne Baxter stated, "It's on TV every Easter. I advise sitting down with a big box of chocolates, a jug of white wine, and a loaf of freshly baked bread. I do it that way and I still love this last gasp of Hollywood excessiveness." In 1976, Yvonne De Carlo remembered she agreed with DeMille when, while they were making the film, he told her that "a religious picture will last forever."
Martin Scorsese later said it was one of his favorite films, writing in 1978 that:
Metallica were inspired to write their tenth plague of Egypt inspired smash hit "Creeping Death" (1984) after watching the second half of the movie. While watching the scene of the final plague killing every Egyptian first-born child, bassist-at-the-time Cliff Burton remarked, "Whoa – it's like creeping death," as the plague was represented by a fog rolling into the Pharaoh's palace in the movie. The band liked the sound of "creeping death" and decided to write a song about the plagues, using the phrase as its title. The song's chorus also makes use of the famous "So let it be written, so let it be done" line.
In 1999, film historian Katherine Orrison published her book Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille's Epic The Ten Commandments, which features recollections of several of the film's cast and crew members.
The Ten Commandments has been released on DVD in the United States on four occasions. The first edition (Widescreen Collection) was released on March 30, 1999, as a two-disc set, The second edition (Special Collector's Edition) was released on March 9, 2004, as a two-disc set with commentary by Katherine Orrison. The third edition (50th Anniversary Collection) was released on March 21, 2006, as a three-disc set with the 1923 version and special features. The fourth edition (55th Anniversary Edition) was released on DVD again in a two-disc set on March 29, 2011, and for the first time on Blu-ray in a two-disc set and a six-disc limited edition gift set with the 1923 version and DVD copies. In 2012, the limited edition gift set won the Home Media Award for Best Packaging (Paramount Pictures and Johns Byrne). In March 2021, a UHD Blu-ray was released. Using the 2010 6K scans, Paramount spent over 150 hours on new color work and clean-up.
The Ten Commandments was first broadcast on the ABC network on February 18, 1973, and has aired annually on the network since then, with the exception of 1999, traditionally during the Passover and Easter holidays. Since 2006, the network has typically aired The Ten Commandments on the Saturday night prior to Easter, with the broadcast starting at 7:00 p.m. in the Eastern, Pacific and Hawaii Time Zones and 6:00 p.m. in the Central, Mountain and Alaska Time Zones. (Exceptions occurred in 2020 when the film aired prior to Palm Sunday, which that year was April 4, due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in 2022, when the film aired on April 9, the Saturday before Palm Sunday, due to an NBA game telecast scheduled on the night before Easter the following week; and in 2023, when the film aired on April 1, the Saturday before Palm Sunday, due to an NHL game telecast scheduled on the night before Easter the following week.) The film is one of only two pre-scheduled ABC Saturday Movies of the Week every year, the other being The Sound of Music.
Unlike many lengthy films of the day, which were usually broken up into separate airings over at least two nights, ABC elected to show The Ten Commandments in one night and has done so every year it has carried the film, with one exception; in 1997, ABC elected to split the movie in two and aired half of it in its normal Easter Sunday slot, which that year was March 30, with the second half airing on Monday, March 31 as counterprogramming to the other networks' offerings, which included CBS' coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game.
The length of the film combined with the necessary advertisement breaks has caused its broadcast window to vary over the years; by 2023, ABC's total run time for The Ten Commandments stood at four hours and 44 minutes, just above one hour longer than its three-hour and 39-minute length. This requires the network to overrun into the 11:00 p.m./10:00 p.m. timeslot that belongs to the local affiliates, thus delaying their late local news and any other programming they may air in the overnight hours. Affiliates may also delay the film to the usual start of prime time at 8:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. to keep their schedules in line for early evening, at the cost of further delaying their local newscasts or forgoing them entirely.
In 2010, the film was broadcast in high definition for the first time, which allowed the television audience to see it in its original 1.66:1 VistaVision aspect ratio. It is also broadcast with its original Spanish language dub over the second audio program channel. In 2015, for the first time in several years, the network undertook a one-off airing of the film on Easter Sunday night, which fell on April 5.
All of ABC's telecasts omit Cecil B. DeMille's opening prologue and some musical elements (Overture, Entr'acte, and Exit Music) seen in the theatrical release.
In the Philippines, the film is traditionally aired every Holy Week (yearly except 2019) since it premiered on April 1, 2015, on GMA Network, either cut for time or in full, and dubbed in Filipino.