The Annual DL 'The Ten Commandments' Easter Thread (2018 edition)

my first masturbations: to chuck heston as he weilds that dam staff....

[quote]The Annual DL 'The Ten Commandments' PESACH Thread (2018 edition)

STOP CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!!!!

Mooooooooooooooooooses!

BTW fabulous gif, OP

Nefretiri : Don't exhaust yourself, Great One. Dear Great One.

Sethi : Why not, kitten? You are the only thing I regret leaving. You have been my joy.

Nefretiri : And you my only love.

Sethi : Aha. Now you're cheating. There was another. I know. I loved him, too. With my last breath, I'll break my own law and speak the name of... Moses.

Sethi : Moses.

This movie is such a piece of unremitting shit that I don't know how any of you can sit through it. I've only ever seen bits and pieces and none of them have left me wanting more.

Joshua...

NuKyle's wardrobe makes him look like one of Riddler's henchmen.

"So let it be written, so let it be done."

Edward G. Robinson is WAY too funny in this movie - like he's doing a self-parody

Your tongue will dig your grave, R6!

Derek and Heston, between takes

Where's your messiah now?

[quote] I've only ever seen bits and pieces

The splinters of scenery Anne Baxter spit out. See R3.

Anne Baxter was . . . [italic]delicious[/italic].

[quote] Where's your messiah now?

At R10.

The Passover night scenes where the fog strands crept through Egypt and killed all those innocent kids while sparing the families tipped off by Moses scared me as a kid and then later bothered me.

What kind of God punishes kids for the sins of their parents?

It cost 13 million USD to make the movie. The movie has made (Adjusted) gross: $1,202,580,000--Mar. 19, 2018

[quote] On ABC at 7 PM sharp.

Still on ABC? I guess I’ll have to miss Ed Sullivan.

And . . .

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

Gonna smoke a blunt and watch, wouldn’t miss it.

Oooh, this will be the first time I'll be watching on my new flat screen TV!

Ah, what could have been:

[quote]DeMille liked Audrey Hepburn but dismissed her because of her figure, which was considered too slim for the character's Egyptian gowns. Anne Baxter (who was considered for the part of Moses' wife) was cast in the role.

[quote]Grace Kelly, DeMille's first choice for Sephora, was unavailable.

[quote]For the role of Memnet, Flora Robson was considered and Bette Davis was interviewed (DeMille's casting journal also notes Marjorie Rambeau and Marie Windsor)[29] but DeMille chose Judith Anderson after screening Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca..

wow to Derek in R12! My rod, my staff, will comfort thee.

R9 Their research was impeccable. I had no idea Egyptian headdresses (generic) were made of jersey and gold lame. I assume the Illuminate of Hollywood came into possession of this secret information in exchange for the ritual sacrifice of James Dean.

R23 That effect still looks amazing more than 60 years later. But that badly animated pillar of fire and some of the effects on Mount Sinai look as awful as ever. What were they thinking by putting such cheap effects in a big budget movie like this?!

The costumes for this, many designed by the brilliant Irene Sharaff (The King and I, Cleopatra, Funny Girl, West Side Story, etc.) are gorgeous and still hold up well aesthetically, even with the bullet bras and other 1950s influences.

CBS stopped its annual airing of The Wizard of Oz years ago. Surely this film holds the record for national network broadcasts.

There's a lot that can still catch the eye, and obviously camp humor value for others. I would guess the spectacle is lost on most viewers now so accustomed to CGI.

Yes! I love you messy bitches and I will be watching this classic. I won't dare tell my mother though; she'll want to pray with me on the phone or something.

I'm surprised that Yuliy Briner's low-hanging balls didn't make an appearance in this film, with those ridiculously short skirts he had to wear as Ramses.

[quote]This movie is such a piece of unremitting shit that I don't know how any of you can sit through it.

LOL! How can you not like it. All of the performances are SO over the top! LOL!

Edward G. Robinson, the Egyptian with the very heavy New York accent! And then many of the lines and how they were delivered;

"His God is the God"

[quote]What kind of God punishes kids for the sins of their parents?

The one who gave Jada Pinkett and Will Smith's kids their faces.

No love for Baka, Queen of the Nile, around here?!

R6=Dathan

What the story of Moses has to do with Easter, I have no idea. I have always wondered at ABC's insistence on this annual Old Testament potboiler.

R15, YUL was delicious in this! He owns this film...HAF!

The antagonism between Moses and Dathan is the prototype for the relationship between Jerry and Newman on Seinfeld. 'Hello...Moses', Hello...Dathan...'

Anyone else remember seeing the movies in the theater and you had the opening by Mr. DeMille?

Well... here it is!

Lol R34!

I know it's an Easter thing (Which I never really understood because it's Old Testament. Why isn't Godspell the go-to Easter movie?). But ... this movie is a big bore. It has been televised every year of my increasingly long life and I have never been able to watch the whole thing. And no, I don't have ADD. It's just a big, FUCKING bore.

It’s a camp-fest up there with VOTD. How can you not love it?

R39 There was an introduction to the movie that's already almost 4 hours long? I really admire the iron attention span the moviegoers had back then.

[quote]What the story of Moses has to do with Easter, I have no idea. I have always wondered at ABC's insistence

Watch me pull an Easter Bunny out of my hat!

Or maybe turn my walking stick into a cobra! Magic

This movie is longer than the actual Exodus was.

I'm a full fledged atheist, but I still love the old classic Hollywood Biblical epics. TTC and The Bible are my faves. I got a definite stirring in my 13 year old nether regions in 1966 when seeing The Bible at the theater when Michael Parks appears naked in the Garden Of Eden.

Oh YES, R43! I remember seeing it as a little boy when we went to see the movie in the theater! And, that was indeed the introduction by Mr. DeMille.

[quote]I know it's an Easter thing (Which I never really understood because it's Old Testament. Why isn't Godspell the go-to Easter movie?).

I believe the movie plays upon the "power of God" angle/belief. If you have any type of religious upbringing you have some belief and fear of a higher power. In the "Ten Commandments" you have God making a pillar of fire, parting a sea, talking through bushes, writing with lightning bolts etc.

Shit! All Jesus ever did was walk on some water and raise a few people from the dead... no biggie.

[quote]BTW fabulous gif, OP

LOL! It really is! It captures the over the top reverence and whatever else acting that's throughout the whole movie!

And for tonight's musical number!

"Shit! All Jesus ever did was walk on some water and raise a few people from the dead... no biggie."

I hope you're kidding about that. Otherwise your soul is just going to disappear when you die, since there is no Hell.

R47, We KNOW what the movie entails, FGS (NPI). Not the frickin' point of my criticism.

Oh, is it a Passover movie? It can be televised post-Easter.

Yul Brynner was hot. Damn he was hot. And I liked the way they wrote his character. Charleton Heston was hot too, but not after he turned and got all religious. It was all that Burning Bush that got him. I got a lot more out of Heston's Ben Hur as far as the sexy.

R41=Memnet

It rivals Mommie Dearest and Valley of the Dolls for the highest quotient of unintentionally hilarious lines of dialogue.

"I wish every day were a shearing festival!"

"So let it be written; So let it be done" is a line that bad bosses have used on occasion for many years! At least two people in my experience have said it in meetings, unironically. And I know a judge who has put it in letters to attorneys (maybe trying to be funny, but serious as well).

Is this on streaming at all?

R56, It's on Netflix according to their page.

Man, I have missed this side of DL.

If you enjoy this campfest, there are more treats in store. DeMille is even more insanely prurient and puritanical in THE SIGN OF THE CROSS (32) and you will totally adore it.

Charlton Heston Wasn't too bad himself!

I loved him as Moses in the mud pits, but it was short lived. I loved him as a galley slave so much better, especially later, when he and Jack Hawkins were stranded in the ocean...be still my beating heart...

I thought they said "...so let it be written, so let it be done..." and then the Pharaoh also said, " so SHALL it be written, so SHALL it be done..."

Easter is during Passover. That's the whole point of Easter. Christ fulfilled the promise of the Hebrew Bible by being centuries later the sacrifice of the firstborn son.

R60 - watch the scene with Moses in the mud pits. When Anne Baxer comes to him, she is on a litter carried by two white, blond haired men. When did Caucasians appear in ancient Egypt? (Yes, I know the whole cast is white, but at least they wore Elizabeth Arden pancake to appear Egyptian).

OP, I love that shot! Whenever I am at the beach and a big wave rolls in, I always mimic the girl at the top (arms outstretched, horrified look on my face - sorry, no veil trailing behind me).

Four hours and 44 min run time?!

They used to have intermissions in movie theaters for the big long epics, supposedly, as theaters do now for most plays and musicals.

Go take a piss and buy some food and drink, r63, because there is so much more to come.

r61 Easter and Passover are lunar holidays, which is why their dates change every year. Some years the two coincide, some years they are adjacent, or barely overlap and other years not close in the least.

I love how two holidays bookended Lent/Easter this year. Jesus must have SOME sense of humor to have Lent start on Valentine's Day, and then have Easter on April Fool's Day. Is He sending a message, or just being cute?

Did Ms Baxter ever realize how MUCH scenery she was ingesting? Considering her grandfather was architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was she trying to drum up some business for him?

R65 Ms. Baxter drummed up lots of business, period. Ask her dentist's grandkids.

Yes, OP's GIF is perfection!

R67 Thanks. I couldn't find it anywhere online so I made it just for this thread from a youtube clip. Those are the most fabulous two seconds ever captured on film, no doubt about that. I wonder whatever became of those three women.

I love the comments on this thread.

I used to have a boss that was from Queens and he took great delight in mimicking Edward G. Robinson’s “yeah where’s yer Moses now” line in his NY accent.

And then, I turned gay. Twas a miracle!

OMG, how could I forget that scene with John Derek . He should have been a huge star instead of a popular B-lister. Alas. His moment was too short!

I haven't watched this since I was kid, but now I'm so thirsty I'd drink the Red Sea. Thanks for doing the Lord's work, R70. He really does work in mysterious ways.

Every year I say I'm going to watch this. And every year I always forget to do so. Maybe this year will be the one. Or maybe I'm just too much of a heathen to be worthy of it.

12 Thank you!

I live for the Feast of the Golden Calf.

Pharoah’s acceptance of “his god is God” is the best line.

After Heston as Moses became the spokesman for his People and his God, he adopted that booming, judgmental voice he would use decades later in ads for the NRA and various Repug candidates.

FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! etc.

Folks who watch network TV with commercials are so quaint.

Poor Miss Anne Baxter. That story about how she collapsed in the streets of NYC and people just kept walking by thinking she was a bag lady is a really sad one.

I WOULD HAVE PLAYED IT BETTER!

Has anyone else ever had a feeling that Charlton Heston was gay? Well... not gay but sexually promiscous and fluid? I could imagine him at some swinger party when he was young and viral.

I read that Heston is also the voice of God in the burning bush in this.

No, R82, I think DeMille was the voice of God in the Burning Bush.

DeMille's publicist and biographer, Donald Hayne, maintains that Heston provided the voice of God at the burning bush, but Hayne provided the voice of God giving the commandments.

The Ten Commandments (1956) - Trivia - IMDb

Holy Moses John Derek!

Anne Baxter is unrecognizable from her Magnificent Ambersons days.

This thread is the DL I love. Thank Christ it's STILL not dead.

R69 Billy Crystal also liked to make fun of that line and out-of-place accent.

LOL R88

Ok, R84.

Yul: Moses, Moses, the people treat him like a god!

Anne: I prefer him as a MAN!

A singular utterance of the name 'Moses' does not occur in this film. It's 'Moses, Moses' or nuttin'.

Highlights: Charlton Heston looks his fuckable best as a shimmering sweaty, muddy slave toiling in the hot sun. Never forget the shepherd tent dancing girl scene where bellies dance and wigs are flung about the place, all for the pleasure of Moses, Moses, until he picks Lily Munster for his bride. Also the orgy of delights when the runaway Hebrews worship the golden calf. Last of the good times.

I love this movie. I really love it.

Yeah, baby

I watched it once and that was enough. And I can't stand Heston for what he did for the NRA

It just occured to me that Bo Derek wasn't even born yet when this film was released (she was hatched about a month later). John Derek may have been hot but he was a perv.

Anne Baxter is glorious. She swoops around all bedazzled in those beautiful gowns bitchin at everyone.

[quote]John Derek may have been hot but he was a perv.

How is he much different from the many here on DL? The 50 and 60 year olds that salivate over the 18 and 20 year olds?

^ good point

R80, Bette Davis was up for the role of Memnet, but didn't get it. Yes, she would have been Anne Baxter's maid. The role went to Judith Anderson.

Damn she was a sour-ass thing

This always bothered me.Moses was a Prince of Egypt. He was the Pharaoh's favorite. Why didn't he just shut p and wait. He could have been Pharaoh and freed the slaves and a Jew would have ruled Egypt and we could have avoided a lot of shit over the centuries.

I always felt bad for that Egyptian general who lost his son during the Passover.

You're a pragmatist R101.

I luv you, Op - Fabulous Gif!

Only 3 more minutes, ladies - so quickly grab your wigs, cigs and cocktails and tune in to this fabulous campfest.

[quote]It rivals Mommie Dearest and Valley of the Dolls for the highest quotient of unintentionally hilarious lines of dialogue.

Indeed.

Is there a man among the sheep?

I have seen the Ten Commandments compared to Game of Thrones. Moses like Jon Snow was raised believing himself to be totally someone different and those plagues are every bit the show stoppers as the dragons.

R96 Never forget Anne's Betty Page bangs. So Egyptian!

[quote]Only 3 more minutes, ladies - so quickly grab your wigs, cigs and cocktails and tune in to this fabulous campfest.

Ooh, DOGS! I must be an hour behind you. Time to hit the edibles!

Memnet is the patron saint of DL and the original DLer.

The first time I saw this movie I was around 8 years old and thought it was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Now I can't sit through it without wetting myself laughing.

Memnet terrified me as a youngster

R111 that’s kind of how I am as well about it but no matter what it is very entertaining.

Shouldn't Memnet be dead by now? She was old when Moses was an infant.

Datalounge meets ancient Egypt

I forgot about this horrible stone crush part...

My fave part is the plagues

Who the hell was Rameses' mother? And who the hell were Nefertiri's parents?

My favorite line: Which God?

Some of the props, scenery, and costumes were made for The Egyptian. They all look much better in that film.

Every drag queen on the planet should study Miss Anne Baxter in this film

Her eyes are so, um, expressive.

I love Miss Baxter but did she ever give a subtle peformance in her whole career? Her Oscar-winning turn in The Razor's Edge was also hilariously over the top.

It was always known in my house as Moses, Moses. They can never say his name just once. It still cracks me up.

Do people not know that the Last Supper was a Passover seder? And the Ten Commandments is about Passover events?

Is that gal on the left in the OP gif Rita Moreno?

[quote]I love Miss Baxter but did she ever give a subtle peformance in her whole career? Her Oscar-winning turn in The Razor's Edge was also hilariously over the top.

Not even her interviews. talk about over the top!

HILARIOUS!

R126 Ha, I loved that. J'adore her phony mid-atlantic accent.

[quote] It was always known in my house as Moses, Moses. They can never say his name just once.

R91 and you should date.

His mother used "the lash" twice in four minutes.

So, nobody questioned how Bithiah all of a sudden has this BABY in her arms????

With a husband in the House of the Dead?? I agree. This is Jerry Springer stuff.

I've always wondered about the fact that this movie tells a Jewish story and yet it's on a day of the week where observant Jews can't even turn on a fucking light much less watch tv!!!!!

What's up with that!?!?

I love it nonetheless.

I heard Don Lockwood was lined up to play Moses and Lina Lamont screen-tested for the part of Nefertiti.

Thank you R31, for the Yul Brenner pic. He was my first crush...at age 5

Death cometh to meeeeeeeee, to set me freeeeeeeeee.

Heston had a gorgeous set of shoulders and pecs...his face wasn't so bad either. He got so grizzled in his later years, but he was rather handsome in an equine sort of way.

Same here r46. I don't believe any of this biblical shit, but just like Christmas, it's more of a cultural thing for me as opposed to a religious or spiritual one.

R135: Too bad he couldn't act worth a damn.

I only really enjoy watching the first two hours. After Moses is found out he becomes a bore.

Yvonne de Carlo is no Anne Baxter, r138. I kinda agree.

I thought it was damned generous of Rhamsees lets him live. He even gives Miss Ann time alone with her true love before he banishes him.

So. I guess Moses was a legit Egyptian name. Like there was Thutmoses the I, II, & III I gather Nefertiri was a popular name too. Seti not so much. I love theold biblical nad ancient history epics.

[quote] ... all for the pleasure of Moses, Moses, until he picks Lily Munster for his bride.

Okay, that made me laugh out loud.

[quote]After Moses is found out he becomes a bore.

And after he comes down from the Mountain he becomes Barry Gibb, R138.

R128 Apologies. I didn't read the whole thread before I posted. R91 Single?

I much prefer Anne to Elizabeth in the era's 'epic movies.'

It’s all about the fabulous footwear.

John Derek makes me swoon.

The people in the movie are mostly white, which is actually the way it would have been in real life, considering a lot of the Egyptians were Greek transplants from multiple invasions and occupations. I know the trend was for awhile to think they were all black Africans, but I don't think that was the case.

Can a man judge God?

Indeed.

[quote]watch the scene with Moses in the mud pits. When Anne Baxer comes to him, she is on a litter carried by two white, blond haired men.

Damn, that one in the front was gorgeous!

I have a bottle of Chardonnay, sack of Cadbury eggs and my remote. Happy Easter Darlings!

For the younger DLers with no patience for this. Here is all you need.

12 minutes to go on the Left Coast!

I actually much prefer the second half, with the Exodus and, of course, the plagues. Not many of these epics get better 2 hours in.

OMg, I had forgotten about this until I just saw this thread! Thank you, OP! I tuned in time to see those fabulous dancers, Yul, etc. I just love the Egyptian scenes.

I've never seen this movie the whole way through. It's just too long and boring.

I can't believe the poster above who talks about Anne Baxter's bullet bras. In fact, for most of the film she is obviously braless and you can sometimes see her nipples under the translucent fabric. DeMille wrapped his shameless displays of nudity and depravity his entire career under a veneer of Christian righteousness and always got away with murder.

The fabulous CLAP CLAP dancers with the CLAP CLAP red puffballs in their CLAP CLAP hair?

That "interview" with Anne Baxter was very obviously well rehearsed by her AND the interviewer.

R18, but by Hollywood accounting it is still 100 billion dollars in the red.

R142, I prefer this version of Moses

Who else can soften pharoahs heart...or HARDEN it!

Of my own free will! I also HARDEN things of my own free will.

I thought the plagues were done to fantastic effect on the Cristian Bale movie. I saw it recently and was grossed out by the entire thing.

I also loved how some "scholar" or priest or whatever the hell he was was explaining each plague as a consequence of the previous one. Very much like recent scholars have detailed how those plagues may very well have happened at some point in ancient times.

It was a serviceable movie. I do love me some Ridley Scott epic melodrama.

Those "night" scenes are really just done in the day but using filters, right?

[quote]The people in the movie are mostly white, which is actually the way it would have been in real life, considering a lot of the Egyptians were Greek transplants from multiple invasions and occupations. I know the trend was for awhile to think they were all black Africans, but I don't think that was the case.

The Egyptian Royal Family had a Nubian strain that lasted for a thousand years. National Geographic did a cover story on it. Sorry to put a dent in your Aryan myths.

Besides, the bible is all lies and fairy tails anyway.

📣 MOW-ZEZ !

📣 MOW-ZEZ !

R164 Your poor movie taste could charm tears from a crocodile.

"Plagued by frogs" just sounds cute.

Amalekites!!

R165 - Yes. Another technique to achieve 'dusk' in oldie-timey film making is to film in daylight without any lightening enhancements.

R166 has a fairy TAIL

Dammit! That is . . . "without any lighting enhancements."

The Greeks took over Egypt but that was like a thousand years later, no? When Alexander the Great showed up.

I find myself wishing for Pharoah's son's end. Irritating little jerk.

Can't be much longer.

I think "day to night" scenes looked pretty good in this film. Watch Deliverance to see what a really sloppy use of that technique looks like.

I said it was serviceable, R168.

I also liked the part where both Moses and Ramases were caught up in the water after the Red Sea fell back together.

I thought both were dead for sure!

Come to me no more, Moses! For on the day you see my face again, you will surely DIE!

[quote]Those "night" scenes are really just done in the day but using filters, right?

It's also how "Where Eagles Dare" was filmed.

Considering that this move was made 62 years ago (1956) it had some special effects of epic proportions. It certainly has stood the test of time. When I first saw it as a kid, I was mesmerized by the parting of the sea. Too cool.....it's still my favorite scene.

I’ll be watching Easter Parade instead

The Ten Commandments has its place in terms of old Hollywood spectacle movies, and I do realize that. However, "Ben Hur" is my favorite Easter movie. C.Heston, once again. but I actually get very seriously caught up in the story, which maybe makes me weak or simple. If so, I guess I like being weak and simple. The film that is the subject of this thread is campy and fun, but "Ben Hur", as a kid, had me promising to stop cussing, being mean, and to be a better person.

R166, R147 may be thinking of the Ptolemaic dynasty, who were Greek but ruled over a thousand years after the events in The Ten Commandments allegedly took place. In 1500 BCE the Greeks certainly were not conquering or invading Egypt, the most powerful country on the planet. Of course, it's easy to get confused, since the costumes and scenery seem to be "timeless" Egyptian/Las Vegas.

So Sephora was serving up some carne asada and lentils? Plus tortillas, of course.

It looks good.

Every year while I watched this film with my family, I always imagined Anne Baxter was freshly scented with the finest Egyptian oils and fragrances as Nefertiti. Mesmerizing.

TCM is showing the silent film Noah's Ark on Wednesday, April 4 at 8:00 PM. Trust me, not to be missed. Lavish production, campy as hell. They truly don't make them like this anymore!

Ben-Hur is a classic that has been watched and enjoyed by millions, most of whom have watched it repeatedly.

Nothing weak and simple about it, r182./Now wanting to become a kinder and compassionate human being.

Happy Easter !

Oh dear, R183 wrote what I was going to write. Whatever "Nubian" strain the ancient Egyptian dynasties had in them, they wouldn't be considered "white" as we use the term, and there was no substantial Greek population, let alone among the rulers of Egypt, until the late 300s BC. For that matter most of the ancient Greeks and Macedonians (which is what the Ptolemies were) probably wouldn't be considered "white" as we use the term; they were Mediterranean, not northern European.

I've never seen Ben Hur, but Gore Vidal wrote it and said the two main characters were lovers when they were young/teens and in the present day one wants to resume it while Chuck Heston's character does not and that is the whole subtext. I should watch it someday.

This thread blows.

I've seen this film too many times before so I decided to listen to the cunt at R58 and watch "The Sign of the Cross" instead. Oh boy, that movie is so dull I had to turn it off after 30 minutes. Frederic March and that Italian leading lady had all the charisma of a damp rag. Not even a shot of Claudette Colbert's perky titties while bathing in unpasteurised donkey milk could save this one for me.

I think I'll just stick to The Ten Commandments next year.

I love, love, love Sephora's speech to Moses.

It's truly beautiful.

"Moses!! There is a man among the sheep!!!!!" My favorite laugh line.

When I was a kid, it was tradition during Holy Werk to go to a local theater to watch "King of Kings."

Admission was always free, but donations were accepted. We always put ten cents (our bus fare) in the donation can, and walked home.

And he said the words....."it passed over your house." Passed. Over. Get it???

That’s a sweet memory, R194. Thanks for sharing.

The movie is pure entertainment, campy fun. And God, Charlton Heston was something. That body, that voice...wow.

So who the hell are Nefertiri's parents??

Was she an orphan??

What??

Hunky Clint Walker makes his screen debut in this movie as captain of the guards, but you have to have a keen eye to spot him.

R194, "King of Kings" will be on TCM tomorrow. I agree, it's a great movie.

Whose bright idea was to put that old psycho dyke Memnet in charge of a group of young scantily clad girls?! I'm sure she molested them on regular basis while Bithiah wasn't looking.

😘 Thanks r200, I didn't realize that.....I'll be watching !

In one of the early scenes with Nefertiri he looks absolutely beautiful. This still is from it.

Where are we going? Do you know where we're going?

Hey! Ben Hur will be on tomorrow as well.

Another Yul Brenner movie as well : Solomon and Sheba.

Quo Vadis also.

Clint Walker looking virile in the background.

As a child, 'The Ten Commandments' was my idea of high art!

I was mesmerized by it once we got a color tv!

What an amazing year 1956 was for Yul - The Ten Commandments, The King & I and Anastasia.

Yul was definitely fangurling over Charles. I bet Yul sucked him at least once.

They air it on Easter because Easter was a big deal back in Moses' time.

And who said John Derek was a perv? He had people falling for him all through he later years.

Gotta go, bitches! NOW, it's broadcasting on the Left Coast!

I'll catch up with ya later!

I don’t think Easter had happened yet in Moses’ time R210.

Did I read on Datalounge that John Derek was bisexual?

And here's Charlton Heston's 1956 appearance on What's My Line?.

Was there ever a more humorless Mystery Guest? Bennett was having none of it and he virtually ridicules the film, demonstrating not everyone was taken in with its hokum back then.

I'm switching back and forth from The Greatest Story Ever Told to The Ten Commandments.

Sidney Poitier! Wow!

"Costume Designers"

Edith Head . . . !!!!!!

Are Nefertiti and Nefertiri twin sisters?

[quote]I don’t think Easter had happened yet in Moses’ time

Neither did the Passover nonsense in the film. That happened AFTER the Jews were liberated and left Egypt.

r212 Baka love in r34

Easter happened in 33A.D., when Jesus was crucified/died/buried/resurrected !

Legend has it that Anne Baxter's character's name was changed from Nefertiti to Nefretiri because Cecil B. DeMille was afraid people would make "boob" jokes. In reality, DeMille was sticking to history: Rameses II's queen was actually named Nefretiri. Nefertiti, by contrast, lived about 60 years earlier and was the queen of Amenhotep IV (named Akhenaten later in his reign). Nefretiri means "beautiful companion" in Egyptian.

In the initial Egyptian sequence, Nefretiri is referred to as "the throne princess" who "must marry the next Pharaoh." According to ancient Egyptian royal custom, this implies that she is Sethi's daughter, who is expected to marry his successor, regardless of her kinship to that man (the real Nefretiri's parentage is unknown). However, if Sethi was explicitly identified as her father, it would be clear that in the end, Rameses married his sister in an incestuous union. This was evidently seen as inappropriate for a 1950s audience that would certainly include children. As a result, Nefretiri was only called "the throne princess," without any explanation.

[Quote]This always bothered me.Moses was a Prince of Egypt. He was the Pharaoh's favorite. Why didn't he just shut p and wait. He could have been Pharaoh and freed the slaves and a Jew would have ruled Egypt and we could have avoided a lot of shit over the centuries

That got me wondering: suppose the crown prince of Saudi Arabia (and Jared BFF) was secretly the bastard son of a Jewish Israeli?

Thanks, R222 and R223.

Interesting. I guess they really couldn't say she was a daughter.

"Watch your tongue, Old Frog!"

R34 "He doesn't thirst for water!"

So the first born women as well? I thought it was just the men.

Also if Pharoah's arteries kept hardening then why didn't his doctors ever perform an angioplasty?

R222.....

Do you mean like Nefertittie ?

Or Nefer's Titties ?

Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's ass!

It was supposed to be a joke.

Apparently God uses comic sans font.

I doned it again. Damn. Moses... Moses!

AMEN !

At least she wasn't named Hefertiti

Of her own free will.

Sister Mary Agony let us stay up late tonight to watch the Ten Commandments.

It was awesome! It was epic! I've never felt so inspired!

I'm ready to blow this pop stand, stow away on a flight to Hollywood, and become an actor !

Interesting

[quote] So. I guess Moses was a legit Egyptian name. Like there was Thutmoses the I, II, & III I gather Nefertiri was a popular name too. Seti not so much.

Why not so much?

OH the humanity!!

Where did they film? There's a shitload of extras!

How many would have been moving if this had really happened?

😳😳

Primary filming location: Egypt per IMDB.

Dathan, what an asshole!

Yvonne DeCarlo should be mentioned amongst the most beautiful Hollywood faces ever. I'd love to see a restored version of this on the big screen. It's got the right amount of spectacle, camp and gorgeous people. Even Henry Wilcoxon was still handsome.

Jesus god how long was he up that mountain that they were able to build an idol the size of a VW Beetle?

And I thought the way the commandments burned onto the stone was cool.

40 days and nights

lonely days and lonely nights. Moses was a boo-yah kind of guy.

The DVD commentary mentions that the Hebrew woman who clasps her head and screams about the chariots coming is an Egyptian speaking foreign. Her lines are dubbed.

How they did the parting of the Red Sea

Fascinating, R249!

[quote]Memnet is the patron saint of DL and the original DLer.

LOL! Troo dat.

Those of you wondering why Moses did or didn't do this or that. You surely know that Moses is nothing more than a legend. There is no proof that he ever existed.

^ that tongue will dig your grave

Who played Ftatateeta?

You're all fools. To talk of empty hearts before the Pharaoh's daughter. What is there in her heart but the memory of a dead husband?

What makes this movie a classic is not the special effects. I mean the pillar of fire that held back the Egyptian chariots was SO cheesey. And back then there were a lot of epic, spectacle sword & sandals movies. No. Ten Commandments stood apart because of the way Yul Brynner, Edward G Robinson and Ann Baxter put such life into those characters. Even my devout, 80 yr old father used to laugh out loud at Dathan.

This was Charleton Heston's first BIG ROLE. After this he did Ben Hur and El Cid, and all three of them are worth seeing. Sophia Loren was breathtakingly beautiful in El Cid. But I think he got a little too into his role in Ten Commandments. When he was older and couldn't find work, he "resurrected " his career with Readings from the Bible.

R257, he starred in Dark City in 1950, and even you meant "big role" in an epic type film, he was in The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952.

[quote]I think he got a little too into his role in Ten Commandments. When he was older and couldn't find work, he "resurrected " his career with Readings from the Bible.

GOOD for him! You do what you have to do to pay the bills. It's not as if he was such a great actor that he had tons of acting roles to choose from.

As self-reverential as 10 Commandments is, it is so much more fun and entertaining than other Biblical epics like The Bible directed by the great John (The Maltese Falcon) Huston and The Greatest Story Ever Told, which was on TCM last night. What a ponderous bore and directed by the usually dependable George (A Place in the Sun) Stevens, of all people.

Yeah, Nefertiri is Ramses' sister. Why else would she have a lock on marrying the next pharoah, if she wasn't the only woman around who can keep the royal blood "pure"? DeMille may have loved sanctimoniousness, but he also loved sneaking little bits of perversity into his religious epics, and IMHO this is one.

Which does make there last scene together even sadder. Two people who absolutely despise each other, trapped together by the bonds of both marriage and family, feeling utterly accursed, absolutely obligated by law and tradition to stay together and do their damdest to have more children. Both thinking death sounds like a better deal. DeMille could really hit the nail on the head sometimes.

This movie is almost pure camp from beginning to end, every other line is a howler, every pose worthy of a gif like the marvelous one at the start of this thread.

But the truly amazing thing about this movie is that You Brynner is NOT camp, he's NOT ridiculous, even when wearing gold lame miniskirts, he's regal and masculine and awesome! He's what the ancient pharoahs of Egypt should have looked like! He really was an amazing talent, too good for 1950s Hollywood. And he's the one who makes this movie work, he gives it fabulousness and charisma and exoticism, something this mid-century cheesefest sorely needed.

Why isn't The Song of Bernadette as popular as this movie around here?! It's just as piously hilarious, if not more. And Gladys Cooper's character is very similar to Memnet.

Gotta love HBO...I've been watching the Gregory Peck/Lee Remick version of The Omen!!!!

[quote]Why isn't The Song of Bernadette as popular as this movie around here?! It's just as piously hilarious, if not more. And Gladys Cooper's character is very similar to Memnet.

Then start a thread about it R263.

My god, that chariot race in Ben Hur is spectacular!!

R266 = Jack Huston

WHY is this considered an Easter movie?

Read the thread, R268. All of it.

The 10 C's?

It's a Paasover movie. Easter and Passover occur around the same time so, it's shown around Easter time.

💁🏼

It's a Flyover movie. Spring, Easter, Passover, and Daylight Savings Time all occur around the same time.

I love you R253

Every time that big lisping queen Vincent Price would make a move on that slave girl I'd sit there and say "BITCH PLEASE!".

Read the whole thing, r269. Not a single satisfactory answer to my question

Jesus was celebrating Passover like a good Jew on his last night of freedom, genius, the "Last Supper" was a passover dinner.

Why is Ben-Hur not shown on TV anymore?

R276: It was on TCM today (Sunday April 1st) at about noon Central Time. I turned it on just in time to see Jesus give Charlton a cup of water as he is being marched off to the galleys.

It was then that I shouted, "Thank you, Jesus!"

[quote] Read the whole thing, R269. Not a single satisfactory answer to my question.

Then you are truly lost.

R252 next you will be telling us there was NO Noah's Ark!

[quote]I mean the pillar of fire that held back the Egyptian chariots was SO cheesey.

For all we know, it may actually have looked like that.

You all need to watch The Fall of the Roman Empire from 1964 to see how it should really be done. Magnificent movie and historically accurate. The sets alone will give you a master class in the classics.

Ah yes, R281with DL fave Stephen Boyd as Livius and a quite hot Christopher Plummer as Commodus

I’ve never seen Fall but am tempted to buy it. I like all those type films. I would like Fall ?

"Henry Wilcoxon"

But, R244, by1956 he was Henry Wontcoxon.

R280, it actually did look like that.

Completely sacrilegious, but I prefer 'Land of the Pharoahs' more. Not as campy; turgid, in fact, but cutie Dewey Martin in his little vest makes it bearable.

More Dewey vintage studliness.

Did yall know that Dewey was briefly married to Miss Peggy Lee? He's long been a fave of mine. Joan's fate in LOTF is pretty awful. The movie was directed by Howard Hawks, of Gentlemen, and Big Sleep. And William Faulkner supposedly worked on the script, as he had on Sleep.

"Land of the Pharoahs" - I remember that. Jack Hawkins was the Pharoah with Joan Collins as his greedy, treacherous wife who came to a nasty end.

I think I remember that Joan said she would gain and lose weight during the shoot and Hawks was complaining. Given her costumes, it would certainly be noticeable.

It has a nasty surprise for the vicious Joan who tried to kill the king's son and heir and plotted the successful death of the king.

Spoiler below shows Joan's fate and the ending

Joan's ultimate demise at the end of that Land of the Pharaohs movie haunts me to this day.

She was so smug and confident, until the sand started spilling.

Hush, R279!!!! years ago they found the bones of an old ship at the top of Mt. Ararat in Turkey. This pisses me off since so many things I thought happened somewhere else, particularly Ancient Greece, actually happened in modern day Turkey. Like Troy. Troy was in Turkey. And Alexander the Great fought Darius in Turkey. This was before he chased him back to modern day Iraq. Tyre was in Turkey. Lots of ancient myths were Turkey. Even when St. Paul was out there preaching. He went to Ephesus. (in Turkey.)

[quote] Hush, R279!!!! years ago they found the bones of an old ship at the top of Mt. Ararat in Turkey. This pisses me off since so many things I thought happened somewhere else, particularly Ancient Greece, actually happened in modern day Turkey.

We called it Asia Minor, dear.

Really Olivia? We called it Uruk.

Asia Minor had quite a sizeable Christian population until 1923 when they were all forced to move to Greece, while the Turks from Greece were relocated to Turkey. Elia Kazan's parents also came from there.

Tyre was not in Turkey, it was (is) in modern-day Lebanon, and in any case the national boundaries of today didn't exist then, nor did the Turks settle in Anatolia until the Middle Ages, so settle down, R291. Anyway why would you think Troy was in Greece? The Greeks conquered it, remember?

R288, yes, I do recall that mentioned in a few old Hollywood magazines I bought cheap on eBay for Dewey features.

In Lee's memoir, she wrote that Dewey (paraphrasing) "hit me so much I thought I should get a football helmet."

That soured me on him, but one can still admire his muscles, even though he was a jerk.

403 Forbidden

Dewey is still alive by the way (age 94). Any rumors about him? His bio indicates that his ONLY wife was Peggy Lee, and that lasted less than 2 years.

Fewer

R292, is Asia Minor related in any way to India Wilkes?

R295, stop pestering me with irksome details...

My, Joan Collins is a wooden actress.

Yes, the movie is a campfest but it's a delightful campfest. I love it. Ann Baxter's over the top performance is great fun, and Yul Brynner's somber, underplayed performance perfectly balances it out. Heston is a lot of fun until he goes on Mt Sinai and talks to the burning bush, after that he's a crashing bore and reads all his lines as if in a trance. But I very much enjoyed watching it again.

[quote]years ago they found the bones of an old ship at the top of Mt. Ararat in Turkey.

Nah, that was a fraud.

[quote]Ann Baxter's over the top performance is great fun

It's AnnE.

I want another copy of the original gif!

R306

Thank you, r107!

Wishing you a Happy Shearing Festival coming the month from your friends at QAnon.

Where we go one, we go all.

I mean

Thank you, r307!