The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic religious drama film produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille,[5] shot in VistaVision (color by Technicolor), and released by Paramount Pictures.

The film stars Charlton Heston in the lead role, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Seti I, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.

According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition, it is the eighth most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation.

Meanwhile, Dathan exploits the people to gain power; claiming that Moses is dead and urging a reluctant Aaron to construct a golden calf idol.

[20] From the beginning, his plan was to produce the film on a "lavish scale" with "a cast of outstanding stars" and a budget that would allow it "to possess the quality and spectacular values that have earned for DeMille the title of 'Hollywood's master showman.

A constant stream of letters to me from all parts of America and from foreign countries for the past few years, and particularly of late, has proved this and has largely influenced me to the subject of Moses, the heroic figure revered by Jews and Christians alike.

He bought the screen rights to Dorothy Clarke Wilson's best-selling novel Prince of Egypt,[23] from which he got the "lively" Nefertari[24] (spelled "Nefretiri" in both the novel and the film) and her romance with Moses.

[25] He also found a novel about Moses titled On Eagle's Wings by English minister and author Arthur Eustace Southon, who sold the screen rights to DeMille.

[32] Rory Calhoun, Jeff Chandler, Anthony Dexter, Mel Ferrer, Stewart Granger, William Holden, and Michael Rennie were considered to play the film's leading antagonist.

[39] Many actors were considered for the role of the evil overseer Dathan, including Raymond Burr, Lee J. Cobb, Leo Genn, Victor Jory, Fredric March, Raymond Massey, Stephen McNally, Gary Merrill, Arnold Moss, Robert Newton, Hugh O'Brian, Jack Palance, Eric Pohlmann, Basil Rathbone, Dale Robertson, Robert Ryan, George Sanders, Everett Sloane, and Peter Ustinov.

[43] Judith Ames, Anne Bancroft, Anne Baxter, Shirley Booth, Diane Brewster, Peggie Castle, June Clayworth, Linda Darnell, Laura Elliot, Rhonda Fleming, Rita Gam, Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Green, Barbara Hale, Allison Hayes, Frances Lansing, Patricia Neal, Marie Palmer, Jean Peters, Ruth Roman, Barbara Rush, and Elizabeth Sellars were considered for the part.

[32] DeMille considered Pier Angeli, Vanessa Brown, Pat Crowley, Piper Laurie, Irene Montwill, Lori Nelson, Cathy O'Donnell, Jean Peters, Donna Reed, Karen Sharpe, and Elaine Stewart for the part of the Hebrew water girl, Lilia.

[47] Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, Vince Edwards, Eric Fleming, Arthur Franz, Rock Hudson, Brian Keith, Cameron Mitchell, George Nader, Jack Palance, Michael Pate, Richard Todd, Clint Walker, and Cornel Wilde were considered for the role of the stonecutter Joshua.

Utah-born artist Arnold Friberg designed Moses' distinctive robe in red with black and white stripes, and the film's researchers later discovered that these colors were associated with the Tribe of Levi.

[55][56] According to Friberg, the costume was woven on an ancient loom using goat's hair,[55] although the film's publicity stated it was made from jute, wool, and linen fibers.

Jesse Lasky Jr., a co-writer on The Ten Commandments, described how DeMille would customarily spread out prints of paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema to inform his set designers on the look he wanted to achieve.

[63] Some of the film's cast members, such as Paget, Derek, Foch, and Eduard Franz, wore brown contact lenses, at the behest of DeMille, in order to conceal their light-colored eyes which were considered inadequate for their roles.

[66] Fulton's effects included the building of Seti's Jubilee treasure city, the Burning Bush, the fiery hail from a cloudless sky, the Angel of Death, the composites of the Exodus, the Pillar of Fire, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the tour de force, the parting of the Red Sea.

[70] Unlike the technique used by ILM for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist of injecting poster paints into a glass tank containing a salt water inversion layer, the cloud effects for The Ten Commandments were formed with white Britt smoke filmed against a translucent sky backing, and colors were added optically.

[76] In total, Bernstein composed 2½ hours of music for the film, writing for a full symphony orchestra augmented with various ethnic and unusual instruments such as the shofar, the tiple, and the theremin.

The score is written in a highly Romantic style, featuring unique musical leitmotifs for the film's characters (God, Moses, Rameses, Nefretiri, Dathan, Sephora, Lilia, Joshua, et.

Adjusted for inflation, it has earned a box office gross equivalent to $2 billion at 2011 prices, according to Guinness World Records; only Gone with the Wind (1939), Avatar (2009), Star Wars (1977), Titanic (1997), The Sound of Music (1965), and E.T.

[97] As Mr. DeMille presents it in this three-hour-and-thirty-nine-minute film, which is by far the largest and most expensive that he has ever made, it is a moving story of the spirit of freedom rising in a man, under the divine inspiration of his Maker.

Bosley Crowther for The New York Times was among those who lauded DeMille's work, acknowledging that "in its remarkable settings and décor, including an overwhelming facade of the Egyptian city from which the Exodus begins, and in the glowing Technicolor in which the picture is filmed—Mr.

[98] Variety described the "scenes of the greatness that was Egypt, and Hebrews by the thousands under the whip of the taskmasters" as "striking", and believed that the film "hits the peak of beauty with a sequence that is unelaborate, this being the Passover supper wherein Moses is shown with his family while the shadow of death falls on Egyptian first-borns".

[99] Anne Baxter's performance as Nefretiri was criticized by Variety as leaning "close to old-school siren histrionics",[99] but Crowther believed that it, along with Brynner's, is "unquestionably apt and complementary to a lusty and melodramatic romance".

[98] He also commended the film's "large cast of characters" as "very good, from Sir Cedric Hardwicke as a droll and urbane Pharaoh to Edward G. Robinson as a treacherous overlord".

The site's critics consensus states: "Bombastic and occasionally silly, but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille's all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story.

[citation needed] In fact, many of the supposed inaccuracies were actually adopted by DeMille from extra-biblical ancient sources, such as Josephus, the Sepher ha-Yashar, and the Chronicle of Moses.

In the Philippines, the film is traditionally aired every Holy Week (yearly except 2019) since it premiered on April 1, 2015, on GMA Network, either cut for time or in full, and dubbed in Filipino.