The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (1923)

The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.

Date of release
1923-11-23
TMDB
6.4 / 10 (96)
Runtime
2h 16m
Genres
Drama, History
Director
Cecil B. DeMille

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and California

The Ten Commandments is a 1923 American silent religious epic film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Written by Jeanie MacPherson, the film is divided into two parts: a prologue recreating the biblical story of the Exodus and a modern story concerning two brothers and their respective views of the Ten Commandments.

Production

In 1922, while he was still filming Adam's Rib, Cecil B. DeMille decided to let the public choose the subject of his next production. He did this because he made his films "for people rather than for critics". Instructed by DeMille, his publicist Barrett Kiesling arranged a contest with The Los Angeles Times in which the person who submitted the best idea for a film would receive $1,000, with prizes for runners-up totaling another $1,000.

In November 1922, Famous Players–Lasky executive Jesse Lasky wired DeMille that he had "succeeded [in] arousing considerable enthusiasm in [the] minds of Zukor and Kent over [the] Commandments idea". The following month, DeMille was already planning to spend $1 million and begin production around April 1, 1923.

Jeanie MacPherson started working on the screenplay in November 1922. She first thought to "interpret the Commandments in episodic form". DeMille also considered hiring a different writer for each episode but ultimately opted to film only one story written by MacPherson.

There are four people in the modern story of The Ten Commandments, and they view these Commandments in four different ways. There is Mrs. McTavish, the mother, who keeps the Commandments the wrong way. She is narrow. She is bigoted. She is bound with ritual. She is a representative of orthodoxy, yet withal she is a fine, clean, strong woman just like dozens we all know.

There is a girl, Mary Leigh, who doesn't bother about the Ten Commandments at all. She is a good kid, but she has spent so much time working that she hasn't learned the Ten Commandments...

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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