‘The greatest drama in the world’

The great Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille said that the relationship between God and man is ‘The greatest drama in the world.’ Which is the timeless message of his monumental movie, The Ten Commandments. DeMille intoned that God has set down the Ten Commandments for us to follow, ‘They break us if we disregard them.’

As with his earlier epic, The King of Kings (1927), DeMille took no profit from The Ten Commandments (1958). His share was assigned to a trust fund for educational, charitable and religious work.

A member of the Episcopal faith, DeMille was a reader even as a young boy of the Bible, the major influence in his life. He produced The Ten Commandments so that men of all faiths — Christian, Jewish, Muslim — will live in harmony, with Moses binding them.

The Ten Commandments had received many honors all over the world, but perhaps the eloquent came from the editorial of the Boston Herald, ‘Cecil B. DeMille is to motion pictures what Winston Churchill is to statesmanship.’

The epic gathered the biggest stars of Hollywood, led by Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Rameses II. Sharing stellar billing were Anne Baxter, Edward Robinson, Yvonne de Carlo, Debra Pagent, John Derek, Nina Foch, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Martha Scott, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson.

Captured on the big screen were the awe-inspiring exodus from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and slopes of Mount Sinai where Moses received from God the tablet containing The Ten Commandments.

This columnist first watched The Ten Commandments in 1958 at the Shochiku Piccadilly Theater in Tokyo. After a year, the film was exhibited in Manila, at the Galaxy Theater along Avenida Rizal, where it ran for almost a year. It was reissued every so often, especially during the Lenten Season.

Of course, I watched the epic at Galaxy a few times.—RKC