The Ten Commandments (1923)
A biblical prologue depicts Moses leading the Exodus and receiving the Ten Commandments at Sinai; a modern-day story then follows two brothers, one devout and one ruthless, whose fates illustrate what happens when the commandments are broken.
The Ten Commandments was Cecil B. DeMille’s first biblical epic and, at the time, the most expensive film Hollywood had produced; its Exodus sequence was built around massive sets buried afterward in California’s Guadalupe Dunes and rediscovered by archaeologists decades later, and DeMille would remake the story in color in 1956.
Background
Cecil B. DeMille’s first version of The Ten Commandments splits into two parts: a lavish biblical prologue depicting Moses and the Exodus, and a modern-day melodrama illustrating the consequences of breaking the commandments. It was, at the time it was made, one of the most expensive films Hollywood had produced, and DeMille built enormous sets for the Exodus sequence on location in California’s Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes.
What to watch for
Those sets were buried in the sand after filming rather than dismantled, and archaeologists later excavated fragments of them decades afterward, a story that has become part of the film’s own legend. Watch for the scale of the Exodus scenes, which used a huge number of extras and animals, and compare it, if you like, to DeMille’s better-known 1956 color remake of the same story; he considered the earlier film a rough draft for the version he would eventually make on a still grander scale.
