The Ten Commandments **** (1923, Theodore Roberts, Richard Dix, Rod La Rocque, Charles de Roche, Estelle Taylor, Edythe Chapman, Leatrice Joy, Nita Naldi, Agnes Ayres) – Classic Movie Review 12,236

Director Cecil B DeMille’s sprawling 1923 silent biblical epic The Ten Commandments is told in two distinct parts. The first half follows the story of Moses from the bull-rushes to the presentation of the Ten Commandments. Visual highlights include the parting of the Red Sea, Moses (Theodore Roberts) receiving the Commandments and the dance round the Golden Calf.

The modern second half follows the story of two brothers, one good (Richard Dix) and one bad (Rod La Rocque) who is not only cheating on his wife but also supplying shoddy materials for the building of a cathedral. But divine retribution is at hand, as he finds out that his girlfriend (Nita Naldi) is from a leper colony and that he has become infected. When the cathedral collapses, his mother (Edythe Chapman) is killed inside.

DeMille’s huge over-the-top spectacle is still rousing and impressive, though it is overshadowed by his own 1956 remake The Ten Commandments. The 1923 silent is a visual treat and the two-tone Technicolor sequences are a considerable asset.

It was a box-office hit, and became the first in DeMille’s original biblical trilogy, followed by The King of Kings (1927) and The Sign of the Cross (1932). As a work from 1923, it entered the public domain in the US in 2019.

The Ten Commandments is available for free download at the Internet Archive.

The cast are Theodore Roberts as Moses the Lawgiver, Charles De Roche as Rameses the Magnificent, Estelle Taylor as Miriam, the Sister of Moses, Julia Faye as The Wife of Pharoah, Pat Moore [Terrence Moore] as The Son of Pharoah, James Neill as Aaron, the brother of Moses, Lawson Butt as Dathan the Discontented, Clarence Burton as The Taskmaster, Noble Johnson as The Bronze Man, Edythe Chapman as Mrs. Martha McTavish, Richard Dix as her son John McTavish, Rod La Rocque as her son Dan McTavish, Leatrice Joy as Mary Leigh, Nita Naldi as Sally Lung, a Eurasian, Robert Edeson as Redding, an Inspector, Charles Ogle as The Doctor, and Agnes Ayres as The Outcast.

It was banned in a category of ‘superstitious films’ in China in the 1930s because of its religious subject matter involving gods and deities.

The two-tone Technicolor process is properly called Technicolor Process 2 (1922) and is often wrongly called two-strip Technicolor today.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,236

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