Skin as White as Curd
The Ten Commandments (1956)
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I think I expected more in the way of celebrity cameos, but DeMille limits most of the personal drama to a handful of major characters. Not that anyone could top Vincent Price's turn as a "master builder," or the pleasure he takes in plowing down "grease women" with building stones. A greased-up Heston is there to correct and later murder him, all in a bright green headdress.
The Voice of God seems awkward when asked to join in while other men oggle pretty girls. When Moses is given his pick of a shepherd's daughters, that grin of his gets so big that it's indistinguishable from a grimace. A cohort nearly drools beside him, slurring the phrase "a pleasant task" with a leer. Not for Chuck! The best that Heston can muster is one more pained smile as he stammers out an unconvincing "Indeed."
No, the heroes of The Ten Commandments are without a doubt Rameses and Nefretiri. "Better to die in battle with a god than live in shame," says Pharaoh, who alone stands fast while his disloyal advisers quake before parlor tricks. Nefretiri loves Moses enough to kill for him, loves him in spite of the news that turns his uncle's heart against him, loves him as a Hebrew shepherd as much as if he were her king. For her, there is love, which is passion, and nothing else.
Not so Moses, so caught up in tit-for-tat that nothing but more slaughter will satiate him. Even his own people get tired of it, and turn to Edward G. Robinson for an old-fashioned Hollywood Saturday night. Pharaoh's out of the picture by then, probably at home with his brokenhearted queen, wondering why he ever bothered to miss that bearded moralist.
Such a silly story, but DeMille deserves credit for a deft touch. When the angel of death appears like a hand in a green fog around the moon, and families sit and listen to the unnatural murder of firstborn sons in the streets and homes around them, one is aware that nothing is as effective for horror as silence in a crowded city. Rameses asks for his fastest chariot, but we do not see it. We see Moses delivered, walking the marble halls of that endless temple alone, surrounded by silent columns and fires on open braziers.
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I think I expected more in the way of celebrity cameos, but DeMille limits most of the personal drama to a handful of major characters. Not that anyone could top Vincent Price's turn as a "master builder," or the pleasure he takes in plowing down "grease women" with building stones. A greased-up Heston is there to correct and later murder him, all in a bright green headdress.
The Voice of God seems awkward when asked to join in while other men oggle pretty girls. When Moses is given his pick of a shepherd's daughters, that grin of his gets so big that it's indistinguishable from a grimace. A cohort nearly drools beside him, slurring the phrase "a pleasant task" with a leer. Not for Chuck! The best that Heston can muster is one more pained smile as he stammers out an unconvincing "Indeed."
No, the heroes of The Ten Commandments are without a doubt Rameses and Nefretiri. "Better to die in battle with a god than live in shame," says Pharaoh, who alone stands fast while his disloyal advisers quake before parlor tricks. Nefretiri loves Moses enough to kill for him, loves him in spite of the news that turns his uncle's heart against him, loves him as a Hebrew shepherd as much as if he were her king. For her, there is love, which is passion, and nothing else.
Not so Moses, so caught up in tit-for-tat that nothing but more slaughter will satiate him. Even his own people get tired of it, and turn to Edward G. Robinson for an old-fashioned Hollywood Saturday night. Pharaoh's out of the picture by then, probably at home with his brokenhearted queen, wondering why he ever bothered to miss that bearded moralist.
Such a silly story, but DeMille deserves credit for a deft touch. When the angel of death appears like a hand in a green fog around the moon, and families sit and listen to the unnatural murder of firstborn sons in the streets and homes around them, one is aware that nothing is as effective for horror as silence in a crowded city. Rameses asks for his fastest chariot, but we do not see it. We see Moses delivered, walking the marble halls of that endless temple alone, surrounded by silent columns and fires on open braziers.
posted by NPK at 12:01 AM
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