DeMille did not believe in the concept of extras. No-one ever had the same feeling for crowd scenes that DeMille had. But Heston admitted that DeMille was right in taking such pains. Much to the horror of star Charlton Heston. And in scenes on that scale DeMille would fuss over the placement of a single extra. Officially some scenes utilised the services of no less than eight thousand extras although people who were there believe the true number may have been closer to twelve thousand. They did this so well that Steven Spielberg has described the parting of the Red Sea as the greatest special effect in movie history.Įven by DeMille standards this is a big movie.
The production team and the crew had to invent their own special effects. There was no way of doing spectacular scenes like the parting of the Red Sea using existing special effects technology. There might not be any actual battle scenes but DeMille has no trouble in turning this story into an exciting adventure yarn filled with spectacle. Needless to say, this being a DeMille movie, it also includes a love story, plenty of sex and plenty of action. The story of course is essentially an expansion upon the Biblical story of Moses, of the infant Moses being found by Pharaoh’s daughter in a basket on the Nile, of his early life as an Egyptian prince and of his deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from bondage. He intended to finish the picture even if it cost him his life. I’m going to the set in the morning.” And he did.
TEN COMMANDMENTS MOVIE INTERMISSION FULL
The doctors told him that if he rested in bed for four weeks with oxygen he would make a full recovery. The location shooting in Egypt undoubtedly shortened DeMille’s life. Everything had to be at least vaguely plausible and the script drew on the work of various Biblical scholars as well as the works of ancient historians like Josephus. DeMille insisted that the screenwriters could not just make it up as they went along when it came to filling in the gaps of Moses’ life. DeMille had to be very careful not to offend either Christians or Jews, and considering the fact that the movie fictionalises a good deal of the life of Moses it was no easy task to come up with a screenplay that would not upset somebody. Had DeMille not been involved they certainly would not have proceeded with it. Paramount were very nervous about the whole project. Adjusting for inflation and taking into account re-releases it remains one of the most successful movies ever made.ĭeMille’s share of the profits was huge but he gave half of it away to be distributed amongst the crew, an unprecedented gesture.ĭeMille took an enormous risk with this movie. At $13.2 million it was one of the most expensive movies made to that point in time, and it was one of the biggest box-office successes in history, pulling in $64 million on its first release. The Ten Commandments, released by Paramount in 1956, was Cecil B.
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