Talk:The Ten Commandments (1923 film)

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[edit] Technicolor

What evidence is there that the entire Biblical first half of the movie was photographed in Technicolor? Neither of the two books on Technicolor (Glorious Technicolor by Fred Basten and Technicolor Movies by Haines) claim so, nor does the biography Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, which says that only the Exodus scenes were photographed in Technicolor (pp. 202, 360). Technicolor was not used for studio photography under artificial lighting until Cytherea in 1924, and most of the Biblical scenes of The Ten Commandments are clearly filmed indoors under artificial lighting (e.g. the Pharaoh's palace). Herbert Kalmus wrote in 1938:

Neither The Toll of the Sea nor The Wanderer of the Wasteland nor any of the inserts made until the middle of 1924 had given us experience photographing with artificial light. We were therefore very glad to obtain an order for an insert in a production directed by Mr. George Fitzmaurice, called Cytherea, photographed in the United Studios lot in Hollywood, giving us our first experience in photographing an interior set on a dark stage.

— Walloon 17:40, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Your correct. I misread an article from the "Los Angeles Times" about the prologue being in Technicolor, but in fact it is only the Exodus sequences: the flight of the Hebrews from the city of Rameses, etc. AllTalking 22:36, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] CBDM's introductory comments?

Hey there, I just heard that (some version of?) The Ten Commandments has a well-known introduction delivered by the director himself... Is this true? And if so, what were the words (or better yet, any video clip found online?) BTW I heard this because the Sodenbergh film "Schizopolis" apparently parodies it by having him appear before the film saying "If you don't understand this movie, the problem is with YOU, not with the movie..." 199.214.27.209 —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 19:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)