The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic religious drama film produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille,<ref name="The Ten Commandments">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> shot in VistaVision (color by Technicolor), and released by Paramount Pictures. Based on the Bible's Book of Exodus and other sources,Template:Efn 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,Template:Efn Anne Baxter as Nefretiri,Template:Efn 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 I,Template:Efn Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.<ref name="The Ten Commandments"/>

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.<ref name="Life magazine"/> 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.<ref name="Life magazine"/> 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.<ref name="Life magazine">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

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.).<ref name="awards">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> DeMille won the Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director.<ref name="Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Awards 1957">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Charlton Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama).<ref name="awards"/> Yul Brynner won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor.Template:Efn<ref name="awards"/> Heston, Anne Baxter, and Yvonne De Carlo won Laurel Awards for Best Dramatic Actor, 5th Best Dramatic Actress, and 3rd Best Supporting Actress, respectively.<ref name="Laurel Award">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film has aired annually on U.S. network television in prime time during the Passover/Easter season since 1973.

Plot

Template:Long plot After hearing the prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer that would free the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage, Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt ordered the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Yochabel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile. Rameses I's recently widowed daughter Bithiah finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy by naming him Moses, even though her servant Memnet recognizes the child's Hebrew heritage.

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 merely making the slaves more productive, and after demonstrating the results, Sethi declares him the next Pharaoh.

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 reluctantly 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 Madianite sheikh, 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. To convince Rameses of obliging to his wishes, Moses gets God to initiate plagues against Egypt. 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, Rameses gives in to Moses' demands and frees the Hebrews, who begin the Exodus from Egypt. Bithiah reunites with Moses and goes with the Hebrews. 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 across 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 receives 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 decadent orgy is held by most of the Hebrews. After God informs them of the Hebrews' sins, Moses and Joshua descend from the mountain. Enraged at his own people's betrayal of God, Moses deems the Hebrews unworthy and smashes the tablets at the golden calf, destroying it and sending Dathan and his cohorts to the hole that's formed. The remaining Hebrews are forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years as punishment for their sins. Moses leads the Hebrews towards Canaan, though he cannot enter himself because he disobeyed God at the fountain of Marah.

Cast

Spelling differences exist between the original screenplay characters<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the actual biblical/historical persons the role is based upon. The screenplay character Nefretiri is based on the historical/biblical Nefertari. The character Pharaoh Sethi I is based on historical/biblical Pharaoh Seti I. And the character of Prince Rameses / Pharaoh Rameses II is not an inaccurate spelling; however Ramesses—a.k.a. Ramesses the Great—is the preferred translation. Template:Div col

• Charlton Heston as Moses (and the voice of God at the Burning Bush)<ref name="Charlton Heston: The EW Q&A"/>
  • Fraser Heston as the infant Moses
• Yul Brynner as Rameses IITemplate:Efn
• Anne Baxter as NefretiriTemplate:Efn
• Edward G Robinson as Dathan
• Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora
• Debra Paget as Lilia
• John Derek as Joshua
• Sir Cedric Hardwicke as SethiTemplate:Efn
• Nina Foch as Bithiah
• Martha Scott as Yochabel
• Judith Anderson as Memnet
• Vincent Price as Baka
• John Carradine as Aaron
• Olive Deering as Miriam
  • Babette Bain as Young Miriam<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} (front page newspaper story with video, Sarasota, Florida) Photo as Miriam Template:Webarchive.</ref>

• Douglass Dumbrille as Jannes
• Frank de Kova as Abiram
• Henry Wilcoxon as Pentaur
• Eduard Franz as Jethro
• Donald Curtis as Mered
• Lawrence Dobkin as Hur Ben Caleb
• H. B. Warner as Amminadab
• Julia Faye as Elisheba
• Lisa Mitchell, Noelle Williams, Joanna Merlin, Pat Richard, Joyce Vanderveen, and Diane Hall as Jethro's daughters
• Abbas El Boughdadly as Rameses' charioteer
• Cavalry Corps, Egyptian Armed Forces as Pharaoh's chariot host
• John Miljan as the Blind One
• Francis J. McDonald as Simon
• Ian Keith as Rameses I
• Paul De Rolf as Eleazar
  • Robert Carson as Eleazar as an adult
• Woodrow Strode as King of Ethiopia (and, later, as Bithiah's bearer)
• Tommy Duran as Gershom
• Eugene Mazzola as Rameses' son
• Ramsay Hill as Korah
• Joan Woodbury as Korah's wife
• Esther Brown as Princess Tharbis

Production

Development

Cecil B. DeMille and his personal copy of the Bible in the film's trailer.

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Several weeks later, he announced he was going to make a film about the Book of Esther,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but then he changed his mind and said he was planning a new film about Helen of Troy,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn DeMille discarded the present-day storyline because he kept thinking about the first film's biblical section, which was "still not dated".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn DeMille wrote that he thought the final choice—to let the biblical story "speak for itself"—was the "soundest".Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn He had to "sell" the idea to them and, although only Zukor and Y. Frank Freeman championed it, all accepted it.Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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).<ref name="DeMille Plans To Remake 'Ten Commandments' Epic">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.'"<ref name="'Ten Commandments' Planned As DeMille Technicolor Film">Template:Cite news</ref> DeMille explained why he decided to revisit Moses' story:

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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."<ref name="1952 Bob Thomas article">Template:Cite news</ref>

Writing

As the on-screen credits declare, The Holy Scriptures are the predominant source of the film's narrative.Template:Efn DeMille chose to use the 17th-century King James Version, which he grew up reading.Template:Sfn 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."<ref name="1952 Bob Thomas article" />

Henry Noerdlinger, the film's researcher, consulted ancient historical texts,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

In 1952, DeMille bought the screen rights to Dorothy Clarke Wilson's best-selling novel Prince of Egypt (1949),<ref name="Her books are instruments of faith">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="AND JUSTICE FOR ALL: Maine author's study of Moses a landmark on her path for human rights">Template:Cite news</ref> from which he got several subplots and characters, including the "lively" Egyptian princess Nefretiri and her romance with Moses.<ref name="Red Sea Will Be 'Split In Two' 3rd Time Since World Began">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Observer Forum">Template:Cite news</ref> In the book, Nefretiri is the heiress to the throne as the daughter of Pharaoh Sethi I and older sister of Rameses,Template:SfnTemplate:Efn while the adopted prince Moses is rumored to be the illegitimate child of an Egyptian princess and a Mitannian prince.Template:Sfn Memnet, a character from the novel, is Nefretiri's old nurse who detests Moses and reveals the secret of his real Hebrew parentage;Template:Sfn she is later "silenced" when Nefretiri pushes her off a balcony.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.<ref name="Another Moses For The Films">Template:Cite news</ref> The film was also based on Pillar of Fire by Joseph Holt Ingraham.Template:Sfn

To write the film's screenplay, DeMille chose Jewish screenwriters Jesse L. Lasky Jr. and Fredric M. Frank,<ref name="On The Screen, August 1956">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn Lasky Jr. remembered MacKenzie as "a peppery Scotsman" and "a fine film dramatist and a walking encyclopedia of obscure information", and he considered Gariss "a tower of erudition, exuding infinite tranquility and mysticism."Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn In order to brief the screenwriters and ensure historical accuracy, Noerdlinger wrote "pertinent notes" based on his research,Template:Sfn for which he studied 950 books, 984 periodicals, 1,286 clippings, and 2,964 photographs.Template:Sfn Lasky Jr. and Noerdlinger stated that the rivalry between Moses and Rameses and Sethi's erasure of Moses' name were based on altered reliefs of a Karnak temple, which hint that Rameses had a disinherited older brother whose name was obliterated from the records.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn Lasky Jr. was chosen by DeMille to write the scene of the first Passover.Template:Sfn DeMille ultimately entrusted Lasky Jr. with the task of revising the screenplay "for consistency's sake".Template:Sfn The script contained many scenes that were either cut or not filmed, including a longer prologue that depicted stories from the Book of Genesis.Template:Sfn The screenplay was written over a period of three years.Template:Sfn

Casting

Leading roles

DeMille holds a photograph of Charlton Heston looking at Michelangelo's Moses. Heston's resemblance to the sculpture helped him win the role of Moses.Template:Sfn

In December 1952, Jeff Chandler sought the role of Moses in the upcoming DeMille epic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 1953, DeMille said his favorite choice was Charlton Heston, the star of his previous film, The Greatest Show on Earth.<ref name="DEMILLE GOING AHEAD WITH RELIGIOUS FILM">Template:Cite news</ref> He also considered casting a middle-aged man.Template:Sfn 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn In January 1954, Dan Dailey said he wanted to play Moses in DeMille's film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following month, Heston and Kirk Douglas were reported to be two of the many top stars who wanted the role.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In May, DeMille briefly considered Rock Hudson after he saw him in Magnificent Obsession.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.Template:EfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Heston was later chosen to be the voice of God in the Burning Bush,<ref name="Charlton Heston: The EW Q&A">Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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."<ref name="DeMILLE PICKS ACTOR fOR BIBLICAL EPOCH">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.Template:Sfn "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!"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In April 1953, Brynner was already in Hollywood talking with DeMille about the part,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and in October it was confirmed that he was the first actor to be cast in the film.<ref name="DEMILLE GOING AHEAD WITH RELIGIOUS FILM" />

"Nefretiri ruled the glamor arena some 3,200 years ago", wrote Anne Baxter, "and it's surprising how much the ladies of that day knew about the art of stalking a man."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 1953, DeMille said he wanted Audrey Hepburn to play the role of Rameses' wife, Nefretiri.<ref name="DEMILLE GOING AHEAD WITH RELIGIOUS FILM" /> In February 1954, his office was said to be full of photographs of Hepburn,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but he later noticed her figure was not curvaceous enough for Nefretiri's form-fitting gowns.Template:Sfn 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ann Blyth, Joan Evans, Rhonda Fleming, Coleen Gray, Jane Griffiths, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Taylor were also considered.Template:Sfn In June, columnist Louella Parsons regarded the part of Nefretiri as "the most sought-after role of the year".<ref name="Joan Bennett Gets Top Role in Bogart Film">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> That same month, DeMille chose Anne Baxter after he screened her film Carnival Story at home three times.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His other top choice was Jane Russell,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> who wanted the part.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> "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.Template:Sfn

Many actors were considered for the role of the evil overseer Dathan.Template:Efn 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.Template:Sfn Raymond Massey was signed for the role, but later turned it down.Template:Sfn In September 1954, DeMille cast Edward G. Robinson in the role of the "quisling who fights Moses all the way through the picture."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Robinson had been blacklisted in Hollywood because of his "former political leanings" and needed "recognition again by a top figure in the industry."Template:Sfn Someone had suggested him for the role but thought he could not be hired.Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn

For the role of Sephora, the Midianite shepherdess who becomes Moses' wife, more than 20 actresses were under consideration.Template:Efn Grace Kelly, DeMille's first choice, was unavailable.Template:Sfn In May 1954, television actress Maria Riva, Marlene Dietrich's daughter, was said to be the director's number-one choice for the role.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In July, he signed Merle Oberon for the part.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He interviewed Rita Gam and asked her if she believed in God, but she said she did not.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the process of casting the role of Bithiah,Template:Sfn he screened the MGM film Sombrero and was "very much impressed" with Yvonne De Carlo's portrayal of a "saintly type of woman".<ref name="Yvonne DeCarlo Settles Down to Domestic Life">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Actress Yvonne De Carlo, of 'Munsters' fame, dies">Template:Cite news</ref> 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."Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn

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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Supporting roles

Portraits of the film's 12 stars figured prominently in this 1956 poster.

DeMille considered several leading ladies for the part of Lilia,Template:Efn 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.Template:Sfn In September 1954, DeMille borrowed Debra Paget from 20th Century-Fox and cast her in the role of the "lissome and beatific slave girl".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.'"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

For the role of Joshua, the Hebrew stonecutter destined to succeed Moses, DeMille looked at a number of actors.Template:Efn 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.Template:Sfn In his autobiography, DeMille remarked, "Cornel Wilde declined the role […] thus giving John Derek his opportunity for a noteworthy performance."Template:Sfn<ref name="john">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and also considered other famous actresses.Template:Efn His favorite choice, Jayne Meadows, declined the role because she did not want to leave her home in New York.Template:Sfn Associate producer Henry Wilcoxon recommended his Scaramouche co-star Nina Foch,Template:Sfn who signed for the part in September.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October, John Carradine won the role of Moses' brother, Aaron.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:Quote box 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).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> That same month, Judith Anderson was cast as Memnet.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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).Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Fraser Heston was three months old during filming.Template:Sfn

Henry Wilcoxon was chosen to play the Egyptian military commander in both Egypt and Hollywood to provide continuity in the Exodus scenes,Template:Sfn and his wife, Joan Woodbury, was cast as Korah's wife in the golden calf sequence.Template:Sfn Two cast members of the 1923 silent version, Julia Faye (who played Rameses' wife) and Edna Mae Cooper,<ref name="New Film on Religion By DeMille">Template:Cite news</ref> were given the roles of Moses' sister-in-law Elisheba and a lady of the pharaoh's court, respectively.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> DeMille saw Gail Kobe eating in the studio commissary and gave her the role of Nefretiri's personal servant.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

DeMille was reluctant to cast anyone who had appeared in The Egyptian, a rival production at the time.Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="Flashes From Filmland (November 9, 1955)">Template:Cite news</ref>

Art direction

Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, and Albert Nozaki were in charge of the film's art direction.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Citation needed

An artist named Roy Rulin designed the golden calf and numerous props and décor for the film.<ref name="AFI's production history of the film">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DeMille's film crew bought props from the 20th Century-Fox production The Egyptian, including the "hounds and jackals" game.<ref name="Casting Props for 'Egyptian'">Template:Cite news</ref> 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]."<ref name="Casting Props for 'Egyptian'" />Template:Efn

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.Template:Sfn Said to be "the biggest film set ever built", the pylon was Template:Convert high and Template:Convert long and cost more than $250,000.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It included a city wall and an avenue of sphinxes and was constructed in Tanis, Egypt, between Saqqara and the Giza pyramid complex.<ref name="DeMille Builds New Pyramids">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="DeMille Builds New Pyramids" /> Behind the facade of the set, there were a mess tent, a wardrobe department, and a stable for horses.Template:Sfn

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.<ref name="Film Shop June 8, 1955">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="Hollywood Today, April 1955">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Costume design

Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins, and Arnold Friberg received on-screen credit for the film's costumes. Jensen and Friberg made drawings and paintings of their designs, while Head and Jeakins worked on the costumes with the actresses and actors, respectively.Template:Sfn A team of ten designers and sketch artists planned a total of 25,000 costumes, and it took 125 tailors and dressmakers more than a year to complete them.<ref name="Flashes From Filmland (November 9, 1955)" /> The costumes required 300 leopard, lion, and zebra skins; 2,500 pairs of made-to-order sandals; and 40,000 yards of material that were specially woven or dyed.<ref name="Flashes From Filmland (November 9, 1955)" /> Ten jewelers created 1,100 pieces of jewelry and bejeweled props.<ref name="Flashes From Filmland (November 9, 1955)" /> 98 wardrobe people were hired.<ref name="Flashes From Filmland (November 9, 1955)" />

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.<ref name="1966 Friberg article by Noyce">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Hollywood Designs Garment For Moses">Template:Cite news</ref> According to Friberg, the costume was woven on an ancient loom using goat's hair,<ref name="1966 Friberg article by Noyce" /> although the film's publicity stated it was made from jute, wool, and linen fibers.<ref name="Hollywood Designs Garment For Moses" /> As a gift, after the production, DeMille gave Moses' robe to Friberg,<ref name="1966 Friberg article by Noyce" /> 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 headdressTemplate:Sfn or the red-and-white crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.Template:Sfn For his pursuit of the Israelites, Rameses II wears the blue khepresh helmet-crown, which the pharaohs wore for battle.Template:Sfn Paramount's makeup department made a plaster cast of Yul Brynner's head so his helmet could fit perfectly.<ref name="Filmdom's Chatter Box August 1954">Template:Cite news</ref> The shirt Sethi wears in his death scene was inspired by the design of a tunic that belonged to Tutankhamun.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn Baxter wanted to wear a putty nose to look more Egyptian, but DeMille preferred her real nose.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Some of the film's cast members, such as Debra Paget, John Derek, Nina 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.<ref name="Now Stars Change Eyes Just Like Pair Of Shoes">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> Paget once said that, "If it hadn't been for the lenses I wouldn't have got the part."<ref name="Now Stars Change Eyes Just Like Pair Of Shoes"/> However, she also said that the lenses were "awful to work in because the Klieg lights heat them up".<ref name="Now Stars Change Eyes Just Like Pair Of Shoes"/> When DeMille interviewed Yvonne De Carlo for the role of Sephora, he admired her "wonderful gray eyes" but told her that the part would require her to wear brown contact lenses and De Carlo agreed.Template:Sfn Although she had her lenses properly fitted by an ophthalmologist, De Carlo could not manage to keep them from popping out of her eyes.Template:Sfn DeMille ultimately decided to have De Carlo appear on-screen with her natural eye color because he felt her eyes were her "main asset" and he was not going to modify "a God-given treasure."Template:Sfn

Filming

From New York City, DeMille sailed for Egypt on September 23, 1954.<ref name="DeMille Sails to Film Epic">Template:Cite news</ref> On October 6, he arrived in Cairo to make "the greatest production of my life"; the following day, he met the Prime Minister of Egypt, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> DeMille had two meetings with Nasser and Abdel Hakim Amer, Egypt's Minister of War.Template:Sfn Nasser and Amer were fans of DeMille's 1935 film The Crusades and especially of its star, Henry Wilcoxon, the associate producer of The Ten Commandments.Template:Sfn The first day of filming was October 14.Template:Sfn DeMille said that the journey from Cairo to Mount Sinai can be made "by motor car in one long, hard day", but he and his crew traveled with a two-car caravan in case one of the cars broke down.Template:Sfn They made a stop in Abu Rudeis, where they camped overnight, and reached Saint Catherine's Monastery by sunset of the second day.Template:Sfn The Greek Orthodox monks gave DeMille a blessing before he started to scout locations on Mount Sinai.Template:Sfn On a hill near the monastery, DeMille encountered a Bedouin woman who (according to an Egyptian interpreter) said, "Sirs, you are welcome. We are too poor to offer you any gifts, but we offer you our welcome."Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The first scenes shot in Egypt included the ones on the summit of Mount Sinai.<ref name="DeMille's Company Shooting in Egypt">Template:Cite news</ref> DeMille and the film crew spent several days and nights living in tents on "a plateau high above the monastery, near the very top of the holy mountain."Template:Sfn On their way back to Cairo, DeMille and the crew made a couple of stops to film shots of the Red Sea.Template:Sfn

DeMille and 20 assistant directors who spoke English and Arabic directed 8,000 people in the Exodus sequence.Template:Sfn Yul Brynner flew from New York City to film the scene where Rameses and his chariots leave the city.Template:Sfn In November, DeMille suffered a heart attack after he climbed the 107-foot-tall Egyptian pylon set to see one of John P. Fulton's special effects shots.Template:Sfn Egyptian doctors advised DeMille to stay in bed for "an indefinite number of weeks", but DeMille wanted to go back to work as soon as he could and took medication from Dr. Max Jacobson.Template:Sfn After ten weeks in Egypt, DeMille and Heston returned to the United States on November 24.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The second unit's final day of production in Egypt was December 3, 1954.Template:Sfn DeMille refused an offer from the Egyptian government to turn the Gates of Per-Rameses into a museum and instead ordered its demolition because he knew other production companies would use the set.<ref name="Making of 'Ten Commandments' Recalled: Heston Muses on Moses, DeMille">Template:Cite news</ref>

The Hollywood footage was shot between March and August 1955.Template:Sfn

Under DeMille's direction, the film's cast members performed their roles in the theatrical style of acting. Anne Baxter later remembered, "I loved slinking around—really, this was silent film acting but with dialogue. No shading was permitted. 'Louder! Better!' That's what DeMille roared at everybody."Template:Sfn Yvonne De Carlo said that DeMille wanted "florid" acting and would often shout, "More! More!"Template:Sfn Vincent Price similarly recalled, "I'd do a rehearsal and C. B. would thunder, 'More! More passion! More understanding!' What he was asking for was the Victorian way of acting, so I'd throw my hands around."Template:Sfn In his memoirs, Sir Cedric Hardwicke stated, "I enjoyed working with DeMille, who of all the directors I have met was the only one who really knew what he wanted—he and Olivier. In his seventies, DeMille's energy was unbelievable."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On the set of the film, DeMille was initially not satisfied with Edward G. Robinson's portrayal of Dathan, but he admired and respected Robinson and did not say anything to him.Template:Sfn After he saw the dailies of Dathan's first scenes, DeMille was pleased with the "sardonic humor" Robinson gave to the originally serious character.Template:Sfn

On August 15, DeMille was directing approximately 500 extras for the filming of the "matching shots" of the Exodus sequence.<ref name="DeMille Displays Movie Technique On Set Of 'The Ten Commandments'">Template:Cite news</ref> In late August, he was directing the scenes where Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and finds his people worshiping the golden calf.<ref name="DeMille Puts On A Great Show Daily">Template:Cite news</ref>

Special effects

Template:Multiple image 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).<ref>The Ten Commandments (Motion picture) credits: DeMille, Cecil B.</ref> 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.<ref name="Brosnan, John 1974 Pp. 77-80">Brosnan, John (1974). Movie Magic (1st ed.). St. Martin's Press, Inc.: New York. pp. 77–80. Template:ISBN.</ref>

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."Template:SfnTemplate:Efn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

The cloud effects in the Red Sea sequence were formed with white smoke filmed against a translucent sky backing, and colors were added optically.<ref name="Mandell, Paul R. 1983 pp. 125-126">Mandell, Paul R. (April 1983) "Parting the Red Sea (and Other Miracles)". American Cinematographer, pp. 125–126.</ref>Template:Efn 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.<ref name="Mandell, Paul R. 1983 pp. 125-126"/> DeMille used these scenes to break up the montage, framing his subjects like a Renaissance master.<ref name="Mandell, Paul R. 1983 pp. 125-126"/>

DeMille was reluctant to discuss the technical details of 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.<ref name="Brosnan, John 1974 Pp. 77-80"/> 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.Template:Sfn 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 printed in reverse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="pbs">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="The Art & Science of Movie Special Effects">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The sideways filming of the turbulent backwash of a large waterfall (also built on the Paramount backlot) was used to create the effect of the walls of the parted sea.<ref>The Ten Commandments (Documentary: "Making Miracles") (Six-Disc Limited Edition Blu-Ray/DVD Combo) Cecil B. DeMille / Paramount. Hollywood, California: Paramount Pictures. 2011</ref> The shots of the parting and the closing of the Red Sea required a maximum of 12 film negatives that were combined in Paul Lerpae's optical printer using the split screen, rotoscope and blue screen techniques.<ref name="AFI's production history of the film" /> Matte paintings of rocks by Jan Domela concealed the matte lines between the location footage and the studio's water effects.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The parting of the Red Sea is considered by many to be one of the greatest special effects of all time.<ref>Stanbury, Patrick, (April 5, 2004) Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic. Turner Classic Movies (TCM).</ref>

Paramount borrowed several Disney animators, including Joshua Meador, for the Pillar of Fire and the Finger of God sequences.<ref name="AFI's production history of the film" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The swirling sparks that emerge when the fire appears and disappears were created by superimposing slow-motion footage of burning magnesium.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Pillar of Fire contains nine shades of color, and three distinct drawings were animated for each frame of the writing of the Ten Commandments.<ref name="AFI's production history of the film" /> 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. DeMille, who was good friends with LDS church president David O. McKay, asked for and received permission to record the organ from McKay.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Music

Elmer Bernstein in 1981

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.<ref name="DeWald">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name="DeWald"/> Bernstein recorded both the diegetic music and the score at the Paramount Studios Recording Stage in sessions spread from April 1955 to August 1956.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A double-LP monaural soundtrack album was released in 1957 by Dot Records, using 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

For the film's 60th anniversary in 2016, Intrada Records released a six-CD album of the score.<ref name="Intrada">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Intrada"/> 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.<ref name="Intrada"/> The box set won the IFMCA Award for Best New Archival Release – Re-Release or Re-Recording of an Existing Score.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Release

Cecil B. DeMille promoted the film by placing Ten Commandment monuments as a publicity stunt for the film in cities across the United States.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> DeMille and Paramount executives attended the film's sneak preview, which took place at the Centre Theater in Salt Lake City, Utah, in August 1956.<ref name="Preview Makes Birthday Card For DeMille">Template:Cite journal</ref> The print shown at the preview ran 3 hours and 49 minutes (10 minutes longer than the final cut).<ref name="Movies Grow Longer and Longer">Template:Cite news</ref>

The Ten Commandments premiered at New York City's Criterion Theatre on November 8, 1956.Template:Sfn Described as "one of the most tumultuous film openings in years", the event was covered on television and radio by Dave Garroway's Today and Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenberg's show.<ref name="'Ten Commandments ' Bow Attracts Big Crowds Here">Template:Cite journal</ref> Among the cast and crew members (and their relatives) 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; and Olive Deering.<ref name="'Ten Commandments ' Bow Attracts Big Crowds Here" /> The list of other actors and entertainment personalities who went to the New York opening included William Holden, Brenda Marshall, John Wayne, Pilar Pallete, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, William Boyd, Katherine Cornell, Marlene Dietrich, John Forsythe, Arlene Francis, Celeste Holm, Bob Hope, Dorothy Kilgallen, Bert Lahr, Ed Sullivan, and Sophie Tucker.<ref name="'Ten Commandments ' Bow Attracts Big Crowds Here" /> Template:Multiple image

The film had its Hollywood premiere at the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills Theatre on November 14, 1956.<ref name="'Ten Commandments' Bows in Hollywood">Template:Cite journal</ref> DeMille, Heston, Brynner, Baxter, and De Carlo also attended this opening, which included televised interviews with the stars.<ref name="'Ten Commandments' Bows in Hollywood" /> Clark Gable, Kay Williams, Eddie Fisher, and Debbie Reynolds were some of the celebrities who saw the film at its West Coast debut.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

It played on a roadshow basis with reserved seating until mid-1958, when it finally entered general release.<ref name="tcm">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.Template:Sfn 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Ten Commandments received a 4K UHD Blu-ray release on March 30, 2021.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Reception

File:The Ten Commandments (1956) - Trailer.webm

Box office

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.<ref name="tcm"/> It played for 70 weeks at the Criterion Theatre in New York, grossing $2.7 million.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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).Template:Sfn It was hugely profitable for its era, earning a net profit of $18,500,000,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> against a production budget of $13.27 million (the most a film had cost up to that point).<ref name="budgets">Reported budgets:

• Template:Harvnb. "...Template:Nbspa record $13,266,491".
• Template:Harvnb. "$13,272,381".</ref>

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,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="Oviatt (1961)">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A 1966 re-issue earned $6 million,<ref name="Movie Roadshows: A History and Filmography of Reserved-Seat Limited Showings, 1911-1973">Template:Cite book</ref> and further re-releases brought the total American theater rentals to $43 million,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> equivalent to gross ticket sales of $89 million at the box office.Template:Sfn Globally, it ultimately collected $90,066,230 in revenues up to 1979.Template:Sfn

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 262Template:Nbspmillion tickets at the worldwide box office.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Critical response

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."<ref name="TheHollywoodReporter">Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref name="New York Daily News review">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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".<ref name="Variety review">Template:Cite news</ref> 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".<ref name="New York Times Review"/>

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".<ref name="Variety review"/> 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."<ref name="TheHollywoodReporter"/> Variety also considered Yul Brynner to be an "expert" as Rameses, too.<ref name="Variety review"/> Anne Baxter's performance as Nefretiri was criticized by Variety as leaning "close to old-school siren histrionics",<ref name="Variety review"/> but Crowther stated that it, along with Brynner's, is "unquestionably apt and complementary to a lusty and melodramatic romance".<ref name="New York Times Review"/> The performances of Yvonne De Carlo and John Derek were acclaimed by Crowther as "notably good".<ref name="New York Times Review"/> 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".<ref name="New York Times Review"/>

There were some critics who gave the film mixed reviews and disapproved of the extrabiblical love story between Moses and Nefretiri.<ref name="mixed reviews">Template:Cite book</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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."<ref name="mixed reviews" />

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In March 1957, the Academy's failure to nominate Heston was considered a great upset.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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."<ref name="Leonard Maltin's 2010 Movie Guide">Template:Cite book</ref> The critic Camille Paglia has called The Ten Commandments one of the ten greatest films of all time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Accolades

Competitive awards

Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
Academy Awards<ref name="Oscars1957">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Art Direction (Color)	Art directors: Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, and Albert Nozaki Set decorators: Samuel M. Comer and Ray Moyer	Template:Nom
	Best Cinematography (Color)	Loyal Griggs	Template:Nom
	Best Costume Design (Color)	Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins, and Arnold Friberg	Template:Nom
	Best Film Editing	Anne Bauchens	Template:Nom
	Best Motion Picture	Cecil B. DeMille, producer	Template:Nom
	Best Sound Recording	Paramount Studio Sound Department and sound director Loren L. Ryder	Template:Nom
	Best Special Effects	John P. Fulton	Template:Won
Boxoffice Blue Ribbon Award<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Picture of the Month (January 1957)	Cecil B. DeMille	Template:Won
Christian Herald Reader's Award<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Picture of the Year (1957)	Cecil B. DeMille	Template:Won
Film Daily Filmdom's Famous Five Award<ref name="Brynner, Magnani Cop Filmland's Poll Stevens' Direction of 'Giant' Votes Year's Best In National Poll Of Critics; Perkins Is '56 Discovery; 3 Honors To Strasberg">Template:Cite news</ref>	4th Best Performance by a Male Star	Charlton Heston	Template:Won
	5th Best Photographed Picture	Loyal Griggs	Template:Won
	5th Best Screenplay	Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss, and Fredric M. Frank	Template:Won (tied with Robert Anderson for Tea and Sympathy)
Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Award<ref name="Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Awards 1957"/>	Best Director	Cecil B. DeMille	Template:Won
Fotograma de Plata Award<ref name="Palmarés década 50 - Fotogramas de Plata">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Foreign Actor	Charlton Heston	Template:Won
Golden Globe Awards<ref name="The Ten Commandments (1 nomination)">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama	Charlton Heston	Template:Nom
Laurel Awards<ref name="Laurel Award"/>	Best Male Dramatic Performance	Charlton Heston	Template:Won
	5th Best Female Dramatic Performance	Anne Baxter	Template:Won
	3rd Best Female Supporting Performance	Yvonne De Carlo	Template:Won
National Board of Review Awards<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Best Actor	Yul Brynner (also for Anastasia and The King and I)	Template:Won

Special awards

• American Jewish Congress Stephen S. Wise Medallion to DeMille for "the most inspiring film of the year".<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/><ref name="Hollywood Report: Baltimore">Template:Cite news</ref> Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Edward G. Robinson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nina Foch, and Martha Scott also received awards for their performances.<ref name="Hollywood Report: Baltimore"/><ref name="DeMille Honored For Bible Movie">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Jewish Award For DeMille">Template:Cite news</ref>
• Christopher Awards to DeMille, associate producer Henry Wilcoxon, and screenwriters Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss, and Fredric M. Frank. They were honored "because of the picture's unique significance in relating eternal truths to modern problems".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Fame Achievement Award to DeMille, "in recognition of a career of spectacular success in motion picture production, crowned with an historic landmark of the screen, The Ten Commandments".<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/>
• Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Special Award to DeMille for Best Picture, "on the basis of [the film's] expression of human ideals and aspirations". The circle represented 44 newspapers in 19 languages.<ref name="Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Awards 1957"/>
• General Federation of Women's Clubs Citation to DeMille for "the motion picture which had the best educational influence, The Ten Commandments".<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/>
• Los Angeles Examiner Award to DeMille for "his many outstanding motion pictures which have provided some of the world's greatest entertainment during the past 43 years, his undeviating championship of Americanism, his magnificent and ageless production of The Ten Commandments".<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/>
• Paul Revere Trophy to DeMille as the producer of The Ten Commandments. John B. Hynes, Mayor of Boston, presented the award.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Photoplay Achievement Award to DeMille for "the creation of one of the screen's greatest emotional and religious experiences, The Ten Commandments".<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/>
• Stanley Warner Theatre, Beverly Hills Plaque to DeMille for "the record run of his production, The Ten Commandments, united enduring truth with great entertainment, 15 November 1956 to 6 October 1957".<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/>
• The Salvation Army's "Sally" Award to DeMille for "outstanding achievement in the visualization of the Holy Bible".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Torah Award from the National Women's League of the United Synagogues of America, Pacific Southwest Branch, to DeMille for his "heroic conception" of The Ten Commandments and for "focusing attention on 'the moral law'".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Polls

• One of Film DailyTemplate:'s Ten Best Pictures of 1956.<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/>
• One of PhotoplayTemplate:'s Ten Most Popular Motion Pictures of 1956.<ref name="Register of the Cecil B. DeMille Photographs, ca. 1900s-1950s, 1881-1959"/>

The Ten Commandments was included in three lists of the American Film Institute's AFI 100 Years... series:

• Moses as the No. 43 Hero in 100 Heroes and Villains (2003).
• 79th Most Inspiring American Movie in 100 Cheers (2006).
• 10th Epic Movie in 10 Top 10 (2008).

Popularity and legacy

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."Template:Sfn 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."<ref name="Yvonne talks about leading men">Template:Cite news</ref>

Martin Scorsese later said it was one of his favorite films, writing in 1978 that:

I like De Mille: his theatricality, his images. I've seen The Ten Commandments maybe forty or fifty times. Forget the story—you've got to—and concentrate on the special effects, and the texture, and the color. For example: The figure of God, killing the first-born child, is a green smoke; then on the terrace, while they're talking, a green dry ice just touches the heel of George Reeves or somebody, and he dies. Then there's the reel Red Sea, and the lamb's blood of the Passover. De Mille presented a fantasy, dream-like quality on film that was so real, if you saw his movies as a child, they stuck with you for life.<ref>Martin Scorsese's Guilty Pleasures Scorsese, Martin. Film Comment; New York Vol. 14, Iss. 5, (Sep/Oct 1978): 63-66.</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="encycmet.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The song's chorus also makes use of the film's 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.Template:Sfn

Home media

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,<ref name="The Ten Commandments (1956) - DVD Movie Guide">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The second edition (Special Collector's Edition) was released on March 9, 2004, as a two-disc set with audio commentary by Katherine Orrison, a 6-part documentary, the New York premiere newsreel, and several trailers.<ref name="The Ten Commandments (Special Collector's Edition)">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The third edition (50th Anniversary Collection) was released on March 21, 2006, as a three-disc set with the 1923 version and special features.<ref name="The Ten Commandments - 50th Anniversary Collection">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2012, the limited edition gift set won the Home Media Award for Best Packaging (Paramount Pictures and Johns Byrne).<ref name="Home Media Award Winners by Category">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Television broadcast

The Ten Commandments was first broadcast on the ABC network on February 18, 1973,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and has aired annually on the network since then, with the exception of 1999,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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—all of which resulted in the film airing on the Saturday before Palm Sunday—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, due to an NBA game telecast scheduled on the night before Easter the following week; 2023, when the film aired on April 1, due to an NHL game telecast scheduled on the night before Easter the following week; and in 2025, when the film aired on April 12, due to a scheduled NBA broadcast.) The film is one of only three pre-scheduled ABC Saturday Movies of the Week every year, the other being The Sound of Music and Home Alone.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 counter-programming to the other networks' offerings, which included CBS' coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game.<ref>TV Guide listings for March 29 – April 4, 1997.</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.

Ratings by year (since 2007)

Year	Airdate	Rating	Share	Rating/Share (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	Rank (timeslot)	Rank (night)
2007	April 7	TBA	7.87	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
2008	March 22	4.7	9	2.3/7	7.91	1	1
2009	April 11	4.2	8	1.7/6	6.81
2010<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 4	TBA	TBA	1.4/5	5.88	2	3
2011<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 23			1.6/5	7.05	1	1
2012<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>	April 7	6.90				TBA	TBA
2013<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	March 30			1.2/4	5.90	2	2
2014<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 19			1.0/4	5.87	1	1
2015<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 5			1.4/5	6.80	TBA	TBA
2016<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	March 26			0.8/3	5.42	2	2
2017<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 15				5.18	1	1
2018<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	March 31			0.6/3	4.75
2019<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 20				4.90
2020<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 4	0.6	4		5.14
2021<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 3	0.47	–	0.47/4	4.07	2	2
2022<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 9	–	–	0.33/3	3.49	1	1
2023<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	April 1	–	–	0.27/0.32	3.06	2	1
2024<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	March 30	–	–	0.34	2.89	2	2
2025	April 12	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

See also

• List of films based on the Bible
• List of American films of 1956
• List of films featuring slavery

References

Sources

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External links

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• Template:TCMDb title
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• Production design drawings for The Ten Commandments, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Costume design drawings for The Ten Commandments, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences