The Ten Commandments is a 1956 motion picture that dramatized the
Biblical story
of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrew
slaves. It was released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5,
1956. It was directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starred Charlton Heston in
the lead role. Co-stars included Yul Brynner as his adoptive brother,
Pharaoh Ramesses II, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, John Derek as Joshua,
Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Cedric Hardwicke
as Pharaoh Seti I, Vincent Price as Baka, and John Carradine as Aaron.
This was the last film that Cecil DeMille directed. He was set to direct
his own remake of The Buccaneer, but his final illness forced him to
relinquish the directing chores for that one to his then-son-in-law,
Anthony Quinn. He had also planned to film the life of Lord Baden Powell,
the founder of the Scout movement, with David Niven; this project was
never realized.
The Ten Commandments is partially a remake of DeMille's 1923 silent film.
Some of the cast and crew of the 1956 version worked on the original. It
has since been remade again as a television miniseries broadcast in April
2006.
Adjusted for inflation, it is the fifth-highest grossing movie of all time
domestically, with collections of $838,400,000. In non-adjusted dollars,
it held the record as the highest-grossing film with a religious theme
until the 2004 film
The Passion of the Christ.
In 1999, The Ten Commandments 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, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten
"classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the
creative community. The Ten Commandments was acknowledged as the tenth
best film in the epic genre.
10 Commandments Cast
* Charlton Heston as Moses
* Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Rameses II
* Anne Baxter as Nefretiri
* Edward G. Robinson as Dathan
* Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora
* Debra Paget as Lilia
* John Derek as Joshua
* Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Pharaoh Seti I
* Nina Foch as Bithiah
* Martha Scott as Yochabel
* Judith Anderson as Memnet
* Vincent Price as Baka
* John Carradine as Aaron
* Douglass Dumbrille as Jannes
* Olive Deering as Miriam
* Mike Connors as Amalekite Herder (under the name Touch Connors)
