'The Ten Commandments'

A perfect example of a bygone era of films.

When the director walked from behind a curtain on the "stage" and introduced the film and cited the texts the writers used to construct the story. An introductory score. An intermission. A three-and-a-half-hour film about a Bible story.

We will never see these things again, even on their own, more or less in one film.

All the while, despite all this decorum, Cecil B. Demille changed the name of Nefetiti to Nefetiri because he didn't want people to make "boob" jokes.

This was Demille's final film. He actually had a heart attack during the film missing two days of work and then coming back, against doctor's orders. He probably figured if he's going to keep all those extras around for three weeks filming the "orgy" scene (sex in film at the time was a man picking a screaming woman up and running off with her), that he should battle through a bad ticker.

I remember distinctly every Easter eve finding this on ABC. I don't ever remember watching all of it in one sitting before this go round, but I've seen all of it in bits and pieces, here and there.

It's really a feat in filmmaking. This is 1956. This is the era of painted popcorn, filming large tanks of water and red dye in the water. No telling how they pulled off the trick of Moses' staff turning into a cobra.

Speaking of, isn't that a really weird part of the story. So, God turns Moses' staff into a cobra. OK. That's supernatural. This is God. He can whatever he wants.

Ramses proclaims its a magic trick and has his, I guess, magician pull the same trick. I guess my point is that what is more remarkable in this scene isn't that Moses has God's ear, but that the other guy is a real fucking magician and can conjure snakes.