Trivia

According to Hollywood lore, while filming the orgy sequence that precedes Moses' descent from Mount Horeb with the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments are engraved, producer and director Cecil B. DeMille was perched on top of a ladder delivering his customarily long-winded directions through a megaphone to the hundreds of extras involved in the scene. After droning on to the extras for several minutes, DeMille was distracted by one young woman who was talking to another woman standing next to her. DeMille stopped his speech and directed everyone's attention to the young woman. "Here", DeMille said, "we have a young woman whose conversation with her friend is apparently more important than listening to her instructions from her director while we are all engaged in making motion picture history. Perhaps the young woman would care to enlighten us all, and tell us what the devil is so important that it cannot wait until after we make this shot." After an embarrassed pause, the young woman spoke up and boldly confessed, "I was just saying to my friend here, 'I wonder when that bald-headed old fart is gonna call 'Lunch!'" Nonplussed, DeMille stared at the woman for a moment, paused, then lifted his megaphone and shouted, "Lunch!"

When asking the Egyptian authorities for permission to film there, Cecil B. DeMille was pleasantly surprised to find out they were fans of his movie, The Crusades (1935). "You treated us (Arabs in the movie) so well, you may do anything here you want", they told him.

Producer/director Cecil B. DeMille suffered a heart attack during production, after climbing 130 feet to check a faulty camera perched on one of the giant gates used during the exodus sequence. He took two days off, then returned to work, against his doctor's orders, to complete this movie.

Until The Passion of the Christ (2004), this movie was the highest-grossing religious epic in history, earning over $65 million, over $580 million in 2016 dollars.

Cecil B. DeMille's 75th birthday fell during the production, making him the oldest working Hollywood director at the time. He planned to make another movie after this one, but he died in 1959 while it was in pre-production, and a week after he made an on-camera announcement about his upcoming movie. The movie would have been about the Boy Scouts and was to have starred David Niven as Scouting founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell.

Although she felt she was miscast in the role of Nefretiri (because of her Irish features), Anne Baxter enjoyed watching this movie on television every Easter. She loved it.

The cloud visual effects used during the parting of the Red Sea scenes were used in various movies by director Steven Spielberg.

Although the film crew travelled to Egypt to shoot significant portions of the Sinai, Exodus, and Red Sea sequences, most of this movie was actually shot at Paramount Pictures' soundstages in Hollywood, California. Footage from Egypt was also used for backgrounds.

Nina Foch was actually one year younger than Charlton Heston, her on-screen son.

At the end of the movie, after Charlton Heston as Moses has turned over leadership of the Israelites to Joshua, he watches as the Israelites march into Caanan. Moses was supposed to have been enveloped in fog coming down from the mountain, but the effect was never completed. As a result, Moses is shown standing there, watching the Israelites go, close to the story as related in the Bible.

Martha Scott, who played Charlton Heston's mother in this movie and "Ben-Hur (1959)," was only ten years older than her on-screen son.

When Woody Strode reported to work, he gave Cecil B. DeMille an antique Bible that Strode's wife had found. DeMille was so impressed that he gave Strode two parts in this movie and told Strode that if he ever wanted a part in a future DeMille movie, all he had to do was ask. Unfortunately, this project was DeMille's final movie.

This was highest-earning live-action movie after Gone with the Wind (1939), until The Sound of Music (1965) broke that record.

The Bible never identifies any Pharaoh by name. However, this movie, and all versions of the story that have followed it, make Rameses II the Pharaoh from whom Moses has to escape. The only evidence supporting this is the claim in Exodus that the Hebrews built the city of Rameses, and that it was named for the Pharaoh. It could have easily been named for the Sun-God, Ra. Some experts believe that the Pharaoh of Exodus was Thutmose III (also spelled Thothmes III), about one or two centuries before Rameses II.

The Hebrews' trumpeting sound as they depart Egypt was also heard in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

In the narrated desert sequence, to create the effect of the sandstorms as Moses left Egypt and headed to Midian, Cecil B. DeMille used jet engine blast from tied-down Egyptian Air Force planes.

Cecil B. DeMille's original choice for Moses was William Boyd, best known as "Hopalong Cassidy". Boyd turned down the role, fearing that his identification as "Hoppy" would hurt this movie.

Edward G. Robinson said Cecil B. DeMille saved his career by hiring him for this movie. Robinson had been almost blacklisted for his left-wing political activism, and offers of work had dried up as a result. DeMille hiring Robinson for this movie undermined the Hollywood blacklist.

Anne Baxter and Yvonne De Carlo were thrilled to be cast against type. Baxter saw the role of Nefretiri as a great chance to display her sex appeal. De Carlo was excited by the fact that her favorite director had chosen her for a serious role.

In the original script, Moses placed his hands on Joshua's head to ordain him as Israel's leader. Several crew members objected because no such action was recorded in Deuteronomy, where Moses hands over leadership to Joshua. Arnold Friberg, an ordained minister, pointed out that the ordinance was recorded in Numbers 27, and the scene was revised back to the original script.

The visual effects work was so extensive that it wasn't complete by the final edit. The released version contained fringing during some bluescreen shots, which the crew didn't have time to correct.

Yvonne De Carlo talked about this movie in Chapter 28 of her 1987 autobiography, "Yvonne". She went to Egypt in 1954 to visit the set of this movie. Cecil B. DeMille told her, "Yvonne, your great-great grandchildren will watch this film one day." She says that the first scene she filmed was the one where Sephora weaves. She worried about wearing brown contact lenses, but DeMille later told her that he believed her eyes were her "main asset" and that he was "not going to change a God-given treasure." She also suggested to DeMille that the Bedouins should clap during the dance of Jethro's daughters; DeMille liked the idea and included it in this movie. DeMille always treated her with respect and, on her last day of work, presented her with a leather-bound copy of the script in which he wrote: "Yvonne, when you retrod the path of Sephora's life 'He Who Has No Name' surely guided your steps. Thank you for your help. Cecil B. DeMille."

During the early part of principal photography, Yul Brynner was still on Broadway starring in "The King and I". He spent a day doing Egyptian shots, then he had to fly back to New York City.

Apart from Charlton Heston and John Derek, almost no leading and major supporting parts were actually Paramount Pictures contract players. By 1954, when this movie began shooting, most of the studios had dropped their contract players due to sweeping changes in the industry and competition with television. The other stars of this movie had been (or were) contract players of other studios: Twentieth Century Fox (Anne Baxter, Debra Paget, and Vincent Price), Warner Brothers (Edward G. Robinson), Universal Pictures (Yvonne De Carlo), and Columbia Pictures (Nina Foch).

Produced at a then-staggering cost of $13 million, it became Paramount Pictures' highest-grossing movie at that time. For many years, it ranked second only to Gone with the Wind (1939) as the most successful movie in Hollywood history.

Originally, this movie was not filmed with stereophonic sound, making it the only mid-to-late 1950s Biblical epic not made that way. The sound was remixed to stereo for later releases.

This was composer Elmer Bernstein's first major project. Bernstein had just had some success with his Oscar-nominated jazz score for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). However, he was not Cecil B. DeMille's first choice to score this movie. DeMille had a long professional association with Paramount Pictures contract composer Victor Young, who had been working with DeMille since North West Mounted Police (1940). Young had become very ill and could not accept the assignment.

Since this movie is a nearly identical, extended remake of the Biblical prologue of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923), the script had Moses' sister Miriam worshiping the golden calf and contracting leprosy as punishment, as she does in the silent movie. However, DeMille ultimately discarded the idea and depicted Miriam as one of the faithful followers of Moses who do not partake in the revelry.

One day in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, a casting director for this movie approached Jack Peters and his son Jon to ask if Jon wanted to appear in this movie, as multitudes of people with dark hair and complexions were needed to cross the Red Sea. Jon was chosen to ride a donkey and lead a goat by rope. He was so excited that he refused to wash off the make-up when he went home that night, so he wouldn't have to put it back on the next day.

Cecil B. DeMille and Yvonne De Carlo became very good friends; he admired her acting talent and beauty, and she had always wanted to act in one of his movies. DeMille cast her as the female lead in his next production, The Buccaneer (1958), but De Carlo declined because she was already pregnant with her second child. He understood and they remained friends.

Cecil B. DeMille ended his career with his most expensive production and biggest commercial hit.

The film runs just over 3-1/2 hours, but the Ten Commandments aren't mentioned or shown until the last 20 minutes.

According to Charlton Heston, Cecil B. DeMille changed the name of Moses' wife from Zipporah (the original Hebrew spelling) to Sephora (the Greek spelling) to make it easier to pronounce. On the set of the film Heston told a reporter, "It is difficult today to make love to a woman called Zipporah. You must be careful not to make modern audiences laugh at a name."

Mike Connors was one of the Amalekites who attacked Jethro's daughters at the well. He was billed as "Touch Connors".

There is a longstanding rumor that future Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was an extra in this movie, possibly playing an Egyptian soldier. In her book "My Lucky Stars", Shirley MacLaine recalls asking Castro if he indeed was in this movie, and she received an ambiguous answer.

Charlton Heston and Anne Baxter were born in 1923, the year in which Cecil B. DeMille released The Ten Commandments (1923).

The scene in which the slaves are working in the brick pits under a sweltering sun was filmed on an ice-cold soundstage, so the mud did not dry under the studio lights. The scantily clad actors were actually freezing during filming, and had to be covered with oil to simulate sweat.

Cecil B. DeMille was disappointed when he found out that neither he nor Elmer Bernstein received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Score, respectively. But this movie won DeMille many special awards, not only from the movie industry, but also from Christian and Jewish organizations. Bernstein later said, "I would say that the work on The Ten Commandments was singularly the most exciting project of my entire life."

Anne Baxter and Yvonne De Carlo, this movie's two leading ladies, had always wanted to act in a Cecil B. DeMille movie. Baxter became a DeMille fan after watching Samson and Delilah (1949), while De Carlo admired DeMille since the time he considered her for a supporting role in The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944). In their autobiographies, both said that they didn't mind the small salary they were paid for their work on this movie. All they wanted was the privilege to play a role in a DeMille movie.

In her 1976 autobiography "Intermission: A True Story", Anne Baxter wrote that she wore a "skin-dyed bra" and a "skin-dyed G-string" underneath the most revealing of her costumes. She also said that her first scene with Charlton Heston was the one where Nefretiri kneels beside Moses and embraces him. Her enamelled Egyptian collars were warmed before they were placed on her so she wouldn't get goosebumps. She brought her five-year-old daughter Katrina Hodiak to see the filming of the scene in which Nefretiri convinces Sephora to leave to Midian. One of the few times she heard DeMille laugh was when a female extra (in the Ethiopian tribute scene) was caught mumbling in the far end of the set and, after DeMille suggested she share her "Earth-shaking remarks", the extra explained: "I was saying, I wonder when the old SOB is going to call lunch?"

Gloria Swanson was originally cast as Memnet, but she left because she was having trouble getting a backer for a musical stage version of "Sunset Blvd" - based on the film Sunset Blvd. (1950) in which Cecil B. DeMille played himself. The musical was abandoned in the early 1960s, even after a cast album was recorded during out-of-town tryouts.

As a promotion for this movie, Paramount Pictures' publicity department gave grants to state and local governments to post stone tablets of the Ten Commandments on public land. Many years later, the American Civil Liberties Union sued to have them removed, arguing that placing the Ten Commandments on public property was an establishment of religion that violated the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Despite being credited as costume designers, John L. Jensen and Arnold Friberg did not work primarily in costume design. Jensen was the lead sketch artist, and sketched out designs for certain costumes. Friberg was primarily hired to design this movie's titles, which were hand lettered and photographed over a colored leather background. Friberg also contributed costume sketches. The costume for Moses as a shepherd was patterned after one Friberg had already painted, a portrayal of an ancient prophet for "The Childrens' Friend", a magazine published by the Primary Association, the children's organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Friberg is a member.

Some scenes were filmed in Egypt in 1955. Relations between the United States and Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser did not become fraught until the following year, when Egypt formally recognized China's claim to Taiwan and began importing Soviet weapons via Czechoslovakia.

In the scene in which God writes the Ten Commandments, the voice says "Lord thy God". The Hebrew written on the stones is actually the Tetragrammaton in ancient Paleo Hebrew letters. According to modern-day archaeologists, the English translation would be "Yahweh".

Cecil B. DeMille's first and favorite choice for the part of Lilia was MGM contract player Pier Angeli, but her studio refused to loan her to Paramount Pictures. Henry Wilcoxon suggested Debra Paget, who was under contract to Twentieth Century Fox. DeMille signed Paget for the role, but Fox demanded that John Derek (another Fox star) be cast as Joshua or else there would be no deal. DeMille had already signed Cornel Wilde for the role of Joshua, and reluctantly had to go back on his word and give the part to Derek.

According to the script, the names of Jethro's seven daughters are Sephora, Saada, Iyda, Nura, Nassura, Dhira, and Lulua. Lulua has a line that was deleted from this movie: "They will have crow's-feet by the time it's my turn to marry. I'm the youngest."

The film inspired the Metallica song "Creeping Death", from their 1984 album "Ride the Lightning". They were watching the movie and, during the scene with the 10th Plague, killing of the first born, bassist Cliff Burton said, "Whoa, it's like creeping death!" The song tells the Passover story, and Metallica's music publishing company is called Creeping Death Music.

The script's original prologue was longer and more elaborate than the one that was edited for this movie. The original sequence included depictions of stories from the Book of Genesis (The Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel), and these preceded the shot where the Hebrew slaves pull the large statue of Rameses I. Probably because of the post-production time constraint, these scenes never made it to the final cut, if they were ever filmed at all.

One scene includes a weathered, brown, stepped pyramid. Several similar pyramids were built hundreds of years before the time of Moses. The one in this movie was presumably the largest, which would make it the pyramid of Djoser.

Despite his fame and success with numerous Biblical spectacular movies, Cecil B. DeMillewon his only competitive Oscar for producing The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). He also won an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1950.

The spoken prologue by Cecil B. DeMille is meant to draw parallels between the story of Moses and the Cold War. DeMille was an ardent anti-Communist.

Burt Lancaster was considered for Moses.

In ancient Egypt, both interior and exterior walls were painted with highly colorful imagery. But in modern cinematography, the colors and images must be toned down or eliminated entirely because they compete with, and sometimes even obscure, the actors and actresses and their colorful costumes.

Martha Scott played the mother of John Carradine, Olive Deering, and Charlton Heston's characters. She was six years younger than Carradine, six years older than Deering, and eleven years older than Heston.

The only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year to be also nominated for Best Visual Effects.

Because the only widescreen process that Paramount Pictures used at the time was VistaVision, the screen process used for the original release of this movie was not as wide as those used for processes such as CinemaScope and Todd-AO. However, VistaVision had higher resolution and a flat, undistorted image.

During production on The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), Cecil B. DeMille was planning to produce and direct a movie about Helen of Troy. When he discovered that another production company was also making a movie about Helen and had priority on registration, he chose another story. Inspired by letters from people all over the world asking him to remake his own The Ten Commandments (1923), DeMille decided to make a movie about the life of Moses.

By the time they appeared in this film, four cast members had been nominated for the Academy Award and one of them won it: Anne Baxter (1947 Best Supporting Actress winner and 1951 Best Actress nominee) Nina Foch (1955 Best Supporting Actress nominee) Martha Scott (1941 Best Actress nominee) Dame Judith Anderson (1941 Best Supporting Actress nominee). After this film's release, three cast members won Academy Awards: Yul Brynner (1957 Best Actor) Charlton Heston (1960 Best Actor) Edward G. Robinson (1973 Academy Honorary Award). Overall, The Ten Commandments featured four Oscar winners (Baxter, Brynner, Heston, and Robinson) and three Oscar nominees (Foch, Scott, and Anderson).

Lyle Bettger, Noel Cravat, and Edmond O'Brien were considered for the role of Baka, the Pharaoh's master builder. According to his casting journals, Cecil B. DeMille would have signed O'Brien if Vincent Price had not been available.

Cecil B. DeMille originally considered James Mason for Rameses II.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke was awarded a knighthood in 1934. He was the only knighted cast member of this movie at the time of filming. In 1960, Judith Anderson was awarded a damehood.

Raymond Burr, Lee J. Cobb, King Donovan, Leo Genn, James Griffith, Peter Hansen, Victor Jory, Fredric March, Raymond Massey, Stephen McNally, Shepard Menken, Gary Merrill, Arnold Moss, Robert Newton, Hugh O'Brian, Eric Pohlmann, Basil Rathbone, Dale Robertson, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance, George Sanders, Everett Sloane, and Sir Peter Ustinov were considered for the role of Dathan. Cecil B. DeMille was furious when he found out that Palance, his favorite choice for the role, managed to get a copy of the script. (During interviews, DeMille never allowed the actors and actresses to read the script, he always read the part to them.) Palance did not want to play a villain, so DeMille settled on Massey. When Massey decided to work on another movie, DeMille signed Edward G. Robinson in September 1954, a few days before he left to Egypt.

In 1999, Katherine Orrison published the 256-page book "Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille's Epic The Ten Commandments", with exclusive Egyptian location photographs by Ken Whitmore. It contained interviews with members of the cast (Yvonne De Carlo, Martha Scott, Woody Strode, Donald Curtis, Joan Woodbury, Eugene Mazzola, Clint Walker, and Vicki Bakken) and crew (Henry Wilcoxon, Elmer Bernstein, Henry Noerdlinger, Jesse Lasky Jr., John Jensen, Arnold Friberg, William Sapp, and Michael D. Moore).

Cecil B. DeMille originally wanted Grace Kelly to play Sephora, but she was unavailable.

This movie is about the deliverance of the ancient Israelites, the ancestors of the Jewish people. Crew members of Jewish descent include Cecil B. DeMille (producer, director, and narrator), Jesse Lasky Jr. (screenwriter), Elmer Bernstein (composer), and Edith Head (costume designer). Cast members of Jewish descent include Edward G. Robinson (Dathan), Olive Deering (Moses' sister Miriam), Joanna Merlin (Moses' sister-in-law), Joan Woodbury (Korah's wife), Babette Bain (young Miriam), and Henry Corden (Sheikh of Sinai).

Cecil B. DeMille was disappointed in the performance of Joshua and lack of research into the role by John Derek, stating, "He knows nothing about the Bible."

According to the "Guinness Book of World Records", this movie was the top moneymaker of 1957 in the US and Canada.

Vincent Price and Charlton Heston both played Cardinal Richelieu in film versions of Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" and Robert Neville in film versions of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend."

Final film of Luis Alberni (Old Hebrew at Moses' House).

Charlton Heston played the lead in The Private War of Major Benson (1955) during the summer of 1955 while production was shut down (between the scenes filmed on location in Egypt and the scenes filmed on sound stages in Hollywood).

During the exodus scene, a shofar is seen being played onscreen. A shofar is a Jewish ritual musical instrument made from an animal's horn (usually, though not always, a ram). Shofars are still played on important Jewish holidays, festivals, and other occasions, especially during the High Holidays--Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). During a 1991 interview with Terry Gross on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air," composer Elmer Bernstein described how he recorded the shofar: "When we realized that a shofar was going to be seen on the screen, we had to find somebody to play the shofar. And for those who don't know, the shofar is a very ancient instrument made out of a ram's horn. Well, who plays shofars, of course? Rabbis. Because it's still used in Jewish ceremonies. We must have had, oh, I guess 20 or 30 rabbis on the scoring stage." The shofar recordings that Bernstein made for The Ten Commandments were reused as the sounds of the Ewoks' victory horns in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

Vincent Price and Judith Anderson also appeared together in Laura (1944).

Final film of Dorothy Andre.

Cecil B. DeMille's first choice for the role of Lilia was Pier Angeli, but her partnership with the MGM prevented her from being cast.

Paramount Pictures reteamed Charlton Heston and Anne Baxter for Three Violent People (1956), in which they played husband and wife.

In December 1956, The Film Daily announced the results of its national poll of movie critics, known as Filmdom's Famous Five. This movie placed in three categories: 4th Best Actor (Charlton Heston) 5th Best Screenplay (Æneas MacKenzie, Jack Gariss, Jesse Lasky Jr., and Fredric M. Frank) 5th Best Cinematography (Loyal Griggs).

This movie was the inspiration behind the song "Charlton Heston Put His Vest On" by 1980s band Stump.

Charlton Heston and Dame Judith Anderson appeared together again in Elizabeth the Queen (1968).

In his 1995 autobiography, Charlton Heston expressed he considered his role of Moses as, "Generally impressive, often very good, and sometimes not what it needs to be." He also expressed he wished he could play the role again at the time of writing when he'd "...need less makeup and could provide a more deeply honed native gift."

Final film of Inez Palange.

Final film of H.B. Warner (Amminadab).

According to associate producer/Pentaur actor, Henry Wilcoxon, the voice of God on Mount Sinai was not one recorded voice, but a recording of two people yelling down a desert well to capture the deep scale and resonance heard in the film.

Final film of Paula Morgan.

Florine Carlan's debut.

According to Charlton Heston (in his autobiography), after four days of filming the Golden Calf scene, the men and women extras who had been dancing and rolling around on lion skins "had honey in their navels and grape juice in their hair. *All* their hair. Finally, one of the girls went over to the first assistant director and said, 'Tell me, Eddie, who do I have to fuck to get off this picture?'"

Film debut of Joanna Merlin.

It was referenced in the book two of John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell's March graphic novel trilogy.

Julia Faye: Elisheba, Aaron's wife. She had played Pharaoh's wife in The Ten Commandments (1923).

Babette Bain: Little Miriam.

The last line of the film "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof" is from Leviticus 25:10. It's also engraved on the Liberty Bell.

At the concluding scene, when Moses is saying goodbye, he gives Eliazar the five books (Torah) he had written under the direction of God. Charlton Heston is actually holding a worn, modern-day portfolio. Heston said he tried to get producer and director Cecil B. DeMille to make them scrolls, which would be more period-worthy, but DeMille refused.

Yul Brynner and Anne Baxter shared their final appearance in this movie when their figures fade into Mount Sinai. Both died in 1985, Brynner in October and Baxter in December.