The Ten Commandments

Silent, Religious, Epic film

The film is divided into two parts: the Prologue, which consists of the epic tale of Moses, and the Story, set in a modern setting and involving living by the lessons of the commandments.

The Prologue

The opening statement explains that modern society mocked and laughed at Judeo-Christian morality until it witnessed the horrors of the World War; it then beseeches the viewer to turn back to the Ten Commandments, stating: "the fundamental principles without which mankind cannot live together. They are not laws—they are the LAW." From there, the Book of Exodus is recounted.

At the point of the Ten Commandments, Moses is seen on Mount Sinai, having witnessed the commandments given as writing in the sky, which he then manually carves into stone tablets. When he returns, he finds that the Israelites have fallen into debauchery, having built the golden calf to worship. An Israelite man and woman seducing each other find, to the horror of both, that the woman has hideous sores covering her hands and is now unclean, prompting her to beg Moses to be cleansed. A furious Moses commands the power of God to destroy the calf with lightning and smashes the commandments, deeming the Israelites unworthy.

The Story

Two brothers, John and Dan McTavish, are under the influence of their mother, a strict believer in the Biblical law (she scolds her sons for dancing on Sunday, for example). The two sons make opposite decisions; John follows his mother's teaching of the Ten Commandments and becomes a carpenter living on meager earnings, and Dan, now an avowed atheist, vows to break every one of them and rise to the top.

The film shows his unchecked immorality to be momentarily gainful, but ultimately disastrous. The mother reads the story of Moses and emphasizes strict obedience and fear of God. Dan wins over a beautiful young woman, Mary, with his wealth and freewheeling attitude, although she in fact has unresolved love for John, which John reciprocates even though he respects Dan and Mary's marriage and will not covet.

Three years later, Dan has become a corrupt contractor. He earns a contract to build a massive cathedral and decides to cut the amount of cement in the concrete to dangerously low levels, pocketing the money saved and becoming very rich. He puts John, still a bachelor, in charge of construction, hoping to use him as a conduit to provide the gifts to their mother that she refuses to accept from Dan.

Dan cheats on Mary with Sally, a Eurasian adulteress. One day, his mother comes to visit him at his work site, but the wall collapses on top of the mother, killing her. In her dying breath, she tells Danny that it is her fault for teaching him to fear God, when she should have taught him love, confessing her strict lawful morality to be flawed in comparison to her son's version.

This sends Dan on a downward spiral as he attempts to right his wrongs and clear his conscience, but he only gets into more trouble. To make money, he steals pearls from Sally, who reveals herself to have smuggled herself into the country from Molokai through a contraband jute shipment and is thus infected with leprosy, thus likely infecting Dan as well. In rage, he kills Sally and attempts to flee to Mexico on a motorboat, but rough weather sends him off course and he crashes into a rocky island. His dead body is seen among the wreckage.

Mary, fearing herself to also be infected, stops by John's office to say goodbye, but John insists on taking her in. As he reads Mary the New Testament story of Jesus healing the lepers (re-enacted on screen, with Jesus shown only from behind), a light shows Mary's hands not to be scarred at all, and that her perceived scars had disappeared in the light—a metaphor for the healing salvation of Christ.

Throughout the film, the visual motif of the tablets of the commandments appears in the sets, with a particular commandment appearing on them when it is relevant to the story. (Wikipedia)

Directed by: Cecil B. DeMille
Starring: Theodore Roberts, Charles De Roche, Estelle Taylor, Julia Faye
Produced by: Cecil B. DeMille
Story by: Jeanie MacPherson
Cinematography: Bert Glennon, Peverel Marley, Archibald Stout, J.F. Westerberg
Edited by: Anne Bauchens

Release date: December 4, 1923 (Los Angeles premiere), December 21, 1923 (New York City premiere)
Running time: 136 minutes
Country: United States
Language: Silent with English intertitles

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Sisters of Death

During an all-girl secret society college initiation, one of the new members is killed playing Russian Roulette.

Jail Bait

The film stars Clancy Malone as the delinquent son of a famous doctor, and his involvement with a dangerous criminal.

The Fast and the Furious

Charged with a murder he did not commit, a truck driver has broken out of jail and kidnaps a young woman. To elude police, the couple slips into a cross-border sports car race.

Man in the Attic

On the third night of the Jack the Ripper killings, a man rents out an attic from an older couple in need of extra income. The man, a research pathologist, begins working on his experiments in the rooms. Helen Harley, the landlady, becomes suspicious of the man.

Born to Win

The film follows a former hair dresser falling into drug addiction.

Beggars in Ermine

John Dawson, a steel-mill owner loses his legs and his company in an accident engineered by his crooked secretary/treasurer, Jim Marley. After meeting a blind peddler, he travels the country, under an assumed name, organizing beggars, peddlers, and the handicapped into a dues-paying system. Drama.