The Ten Commandments 1956

type: Movie

language: English

duration: 220 min

genre: drama

theme: epic

director: Cecil B. DeMille

Score: 7 / 10

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. The film is based on the 1949 novel Prince of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, the 1859 novel Pillar of Fire by J. H. Ingraham, the 1937 novel On Eagle's Wings by A. E. Southon, and the Book of Exodus, found in the Bible. The Ten Commandments dramatizes the biblical 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 Seti I, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.

Plot

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 Seti 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.

Awards

Academy Award for Best Special Effects

Cast

More details

author	Fredric M. Frank Jack Gariss Jesse Louis Lasky Jr. Æneas MacKenzie
award	Academy Award for Best Special Effects
contentLocation	Africa
director	Cecil B. DeMille
editor	Anne Bauchens
events	slavery
genre	drama
keywords	amalekites ancient egypt arrest baby biological mother bithiah build burn burning bush canaan cobra crossing the red sea crush dathan drown egypt ethiopia exodus final task golden calf hard labor hear hebrew israelite jannes jannes and jambres jethro jochebed joshua khnum kill levite married midian moses mount nebo mount sinai nefertari nefretiri nile orgy parts the red sea pharaoh pillar of fire plague plagues of egypt plan rameses i rameses ii ramesses i red sea river sephora seti i slave sole heir stone summon tablets of stone ten commandments turn two stone tablets voice voice of god widow win yochabel zipporah
musicBy	Elmer Bernstein
nomination	Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Color Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color Academy Award for Best Film Editing Academy Award for Best Picture Academy Award for Best Sound Academy Award for Best Special Effects
producer	Cecil B. DeMille
productionCompany	Motion Picture Associates
publisher	Paramount Pictures
theme	epic silent