“Oh Moses, You Stubborn, Splendid, Adorable Fool!”

This insanely anachronistic bit of dialogue was uttered by Anne Baxter’s Nefretiri to Charlton Heston in the 1956 version of “The Ten Commandments.” Cecil B. DeMille’s second retelling of the Passover story (he first filmed the Biblical tale in 1923) is the campy benchmark against which all other cinematic depictions of the Exodus will forever be compared, including the new ABC mini-series that concludes tonight. For some, DeMille’s film eclipses even the Bible. “I don’t need to read the Haggadah,” I remember telling my horrified grandfather as a kid at our seder table. “I already saw the movie!”

The Haggadah is the book that Jews read every year at their Passover seders to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Did you know that the name of Moses never appears once in a traditional Haggadah? Moses was said to have omitted his name from the story out of sheer humility. He wanted God to get all of the credit for the deliverance of the Jewish people. Charlton Heston’s Moses, however, was about as humble as Benito Mussolini. His performance as the Hebrew leader was larger than life and I can barely think of a scene in which Heston did not appear. And just in case there was any doubt about the true savior of the story, Charlton Heston also supplied the voice of God in the film. DeMille was no shrinking violet either. The tagline for his film was a modest “The Greatest Event in Motion Picture History!”

I like to watch “The Ten Commandments” every year as I get ready for the Passover holiday. I would even say that for many Jews, this annual viewing is a tradition on par with eating gefilte fish and removing chametz from the home. And yet, in spite of its important role in the pre-holiday frenzy, “The Ten Commandments” is the most goyishe Jewish film ever created. Charlton Heston may be playing the liberator of the Hebrews, but this Evanston, Illinois native is the quintessential Goy Boy. True, he won an Oscar for his post-Moses role as the Jewish Ben-Hur, but his decidedly non-Jewish looks and persona were used to great advantage in roles ranging from John the Baptist and Michelangelo to Brigham Young and Nazi butcher Josef Mengele. 

As a matter of fact, despite the prevalence of Jews in Hollywood, you’d be hard pressed to find a single Jewish actor in DeMille’s film. Moses’ right-hand man Joshua was played by über-Goy heartthrob John Derek who is best known for his series of successively younger wives (Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek) who looked so much alike they could have passed for grandmother, mother, and daughter. Moses’ sister Miriam was played by shiksa Olive Deering, the first wife of Leo Penn (father of Sean) who also played a catty anti-Semite in “Gentleman’s Agreement.” Moses’ mother Jochelbel was played by the very Gentile Martha Scott (the original Emily in “Our Town”) who repeated her role as Heston’s Jewish mama in “Ben-Hur.” Jewish slave girl Lilia was played by 50s starlet Debra Paget who usually appeared as Indian squaws, Arab princesses, harem girls, or South Sea maidens. The great John Carradine played the role of Moses’ older brother Aaron. Carradine was the ex-preacher in “The Grapes of Wrath” and played Gestapo henchmen in no less than four different films. Sultry Yvonne DeCarlo took on the role of Moses’ loyal wife Sephora. DeCarlo would play Mary Magdelene a few years later before hitting the big time as Lily Munster. Indeed, the only bona fide Jew I could find in “The Ten Commandments” was Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg) who was deliciously evil as Dathan, the self-serving Israelite who betrays his own people.

Is it dangerous to base my understanding of Jewish history on the work of an anti-Semitic film director? Okay, that slanderous label may be unfair but DeMille was unable to shake it following the release of his controversial 1927 film “King of Kings.” That silent blockbuster was the first film to leave viewers with the impression that the Jews, not the Romans, were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and it was thought to have ignited a new spate of pre-war anti-Semitism in this country. Under pressure from Jewish groups, DeMille added a title card that exonerated the biblical Jews but the prickly director didn’t help his case when he angrily responded to charges by Jewish critics by stating, “If Jesus were alive today, these Jews might crucify him again!”

Nevertheless, while working on “The Ten Commandments,” DeMille called on one of the most influential Jewish leaders in Hollywood. Rabbi Edgar Magnin of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple was known as the “rabbi to the stars” for decades, and his beautiful temple was funded by the Jewish heads of the major studios (I visited the synagogue recently and marveled at the Warner Brothers mural that still encircles the grand dome). Rabbi Magnin, who once lived a block from our house, acted as a consultant on DeMille’s film and the two must have had a friendly relationship. In the above letter, DeMille thanked Magnin for his kind birthday wishes. Or were Magnin’s wishes really a curse? DeMille may have begun his 78th year “with renewed vigor” but he’d be dead a few months later. “The Ten Commandments” was his final film.

If the casting of the Jews in DeMille’s epic raised the hackles of the Anti-Defamation League, the actors playing the Egyptian characters in DeMille’s movie suffered no less of a genetic mismatch. Sir Cedric Hardwicke’s Sethi was clearly the whitest Pharaoh ever to grace the screen. With tall, blonde Nina Foch as Egyptian Princess Bithiah and Anne “Eve Harrington” Baxter as Queen Nefretiri, DeMille presented an Egyptian royal family that could have passed for the court of King Gustaf of Sweden. At least Yul Brynner’s Rameses II had a more authentic look, despite the fact that Brynner was born in Vladivostok, Russia, quite a trek from the North African Kingdom of the Pharaohs.

But who cares about authenticity when you’re watching one of the most gloriously absurd epics ever filmed? How could anyone resist such dialogue as the following?

Nefretiri: You will be king of Egypt and I will be your footstool!
Moses: The man stupid enough to use you as a footstool isn't wise enough to rule Egypt.

Rameses: You have a rat's ears and a ferret's nose.
Dathan: To use in your service, son of Pharaoh.
Rameses: Now speaks the rat that would be my ears.
Dathan: Too many ears tie a rat's tongue.

Rameses (to Nefretiri): You will be mine, like my dog, or my horse, or my falcon, except that I shall love you more—and trust you less.

Moses: Your fragrance is like the wine of Babylon.
Nefretiri: I'm the beggar, Moses. Begging you to hold me in your arms.

Nefretiri: Oh, Moses, Moses! Why of all men did I fall in love with the Prince of Fools? Why must you deny me and yourself?
Moses: Because I am bound to a God, and to a people, and to a shepherd girl.
Nefretiri: A shepherd girl? What can she be to you unless the desert sun has dulled your senses? Does she grate garlic on her skin or is it soft as mine? Are her lips chafed and dry as the desert sand or are they moist and red like a pomegranate? Is it the fragrance of myrrh that scents her hair or is it the odor of sheep?
Moses: There is a beauty beyond the senses, Nefretiri.

Nefretiri: You need have no fear of me.
Sephora: I feared only his memory of you.
Nefretiri: You have been able to erase it?
Sephora: He has forgotten both of us. You lost him when he went to seek his god. I lost him when he found his god.

Baka: Will you lose a throne because Moses builds a city?
Rameses: The city that he builds shall bear my name, the woman that he loves shall bear my child. So let it be written, so let it be done.

That last brilliant line rivals Brynner’s own “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera” that he made famous four months earlier when the movie version of “The King and I” opened. I wouldn’t be surprised if many people confused Brynner’s two most famous roles and believed that 19th century King Mongkut of Siam was wandering around Ancient Egypt 3000 years in the past. Though both rulers were despotic egomaniacs I felt sorry for them by the end of the films. Charlton Heston and Deborah Kerr both succeeded in emasculating poor Yul. I’m no scholar of Ancient Egypt but I strongly doubt that any Pharaoh ever stated, as Brynner’s Rameses did in utter defeat, “His God…IS…God!” Oy.

When he filmed “The Ten Commandments,” Charlton Heston was a liberal Democrat and was even considering a Democratic run for the Senate. Like his Democrat pal Ronald Reagan, Heston would make a whiplash-inducing turn to the right, eventually becoming the President of the National Rifle Association and working for pro-life groups. These later leanings of Heston’s were probably more in line with Moses’ political affiliations. Though socially liberal (Moses’ fight against slavery mirrored Heston’s support for civil rights), both had a religious zeal that could rival any fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist preacher.

Watching the new version of “The Ten Commandments” last night, I was even more struck by Moses’ blind fanaticism. In this take on the story, we hear God as a voice inside Moses’ head. That voice could have told him to murder his closest loved ones and Moses would have dutifully obeyed. Is that holiness or a bad case of paranoid schizophrenia? Dougray Scott’s Moses, looking like a cross between Jesus of Nazareth and magician Doug Henning, seemed far more psychotic than Heston’s self-assured Hebrew leader. I shouldn’t say too much about the new film, however, since I was only able to stomach about 40 minutes of it. I haven’t watched anything on broadcast TV (without the fast-forwarding capability of TiVo) in years and I found the constant commercial interruptions intolerable. In this day and age, with most people zipping through the commercials with their remotes, can’t they think of a better way to pay for their shows without interrupting the story every five to ten minutes?

This version of the Exodus is supposed to be more authentic but I’m not buying it. It is definitely more violent. The constant savagery and bloodletting makes DeMille’s epic look like a Shirley Temple movie. No one is spared the wrath of this tortured, neurotic Moses. If his own people act out in some way against their Lord, there’s only one answer: Death! And I’ll take DeMille’s parting of the Red Sea any day, accomplished by flooding two huge “dump tanks” in the Paramount parking lot and then showing the film in reverse.

I never thought I’d find myself longing for Charlton Heston. Where’s that stubborn, splendid, adorable fool when we need him?

Comments

[justin kreutzmann]

I want to see the uncut version with the missing commandments.
"The 13 Commandments" - director's cut!

[Tamar]

I love the original so much, I couldn't bring myself to watch the new one last night. Gulp! So I watched re-runs of Sex in the City instead!

This post is grandly fitting for the holiday. I can count on you, Danny, for that! Happy Passover to you and yours!

[Heather]

Can you believe I've never see any version of The Ten Commandments? Even after 13 years of Catholic school and having a Jewish father who adored that older movie as much as you do? I do, however, have the Haggadah fairly well memorized (well, not the Hebrew -- I only know the songs in Hebrew).

Good Pesach, Danny.

[psychotoddler]

I thought the new one was terrible. I think the producers had an agenda: Let's pretend God doesn't exist and all of the Judeo-Christian ethic can be explained as a schizophrenic hallucination (abetted by some underwater seismic activity and the like).

I liked the Heston version. It was campy, like Batman. Maybe if they had tapped Michael Keaton for the new one...

[Randi(cruisin-mom)]

Danny, great post...I love the Heston version...we never miss it. Just to hear Anne Baxter say "MOOOOOOSes"...is worth the whole 50 hours of that movie (at least it feels like 50). I tried to watch the new one...made about 10 minutes...why did everyone have an English accent? How does that make them more authentic? I'm with Psychotoddler....maybe George Clooney?...Naaaah.

[Neil]

The scene where Charlton Heston gets the Ten Commandments and his beard gets all white is probably one of the most "religious" experiences I had as a child.

[OldOldLady Of The Hills]

I am not sure I ever saw the film all the way through...Biblical movoes never interested me so there are many I've never seen.....
I wish you and Kendall a very Happy Pesach, and a beautiful seder....Wish I could join you, too!
Eat a piece of Gefilte Fish for me, my dear.

[psychotoddler]

Most people know the story of Passover from The Ten Commandments. I remember being in camp and having a kid ask why Moses' hair turned all white when he came down from the mountain. The counselor said that was Hollywood.

If you do the math (Moses died at 120 after 40 years in the desert), you realize that he was already 80 when he went up the mountain.

[David]

This post gets four "oys"!!

I have always enjoyed the Ten Commandments. It hasn't become an annual ritual in our house, but you make me think that perhaps it should.

Chag Sameach!

[nappy40]

Great post, Danny. And David beat me to it: Chag Sameach!

[Vicki Forman]

Most important: who found the matzoh? Thanks for this, Danny.

[Jay]

I've never seen the ten commandments. How I've managed to avoid it is beyond me. But you raise some really interesting points here. For my money, I prefer The Prince of Egypt.

[Inland Empress]

Yul Brynner. Yum. They don't make pharoahs like that anymore.

Happy Passover. Hope your seders were fun.

[Ezzie]

Best line, as per our family tradition to watch The Ten Commandments as the greatest comedy ever...

Bithya, as she takes Moses from the water, says [in English] :

"I shall call him Moses, for I drew him from the water!"

How about calling him "Drew"?! Note to filmmakers: Some things don't translate well.

[psychotoddler]

I have a nephew named Drew.

[Tzipster91 (PT'sneice)]

I saw a little bit of what I assume is the new one, but I am in Canada so I don't think it was on ABC. Anyway, the English accents really threw me, and since me and my sister are studying for the National Bible Contest, we were quoting the Hebrew verses at each other all the way through...Mostly I saw the bit with Yitro and Tzipporah; it was really weird.
Personally, I prefer the original - Sefer Shmot.

[parcequilfaut]

I believe in God, but I enjoy things like The Messenger (another movie which seems to echo psychotoddler's assessment of the "agenda" of this film). So I might find the new 10 Commandments interesting...

Things like that don't threaten my faith, they strengthen it. God is the ultimate in "things are not always as they seem". I love the original because I used to watch it with my Nanny and my Grandma as a little girl, but I caught on that it "wasn't like that" even at that age. I dunno. But I want to see the movie, if only for comparison.

[kel]

i wanted to watch the new one mostly to see the reproductions of Luxor and Karnak,(since I had just been to Egypt a couple months before)but i missed the first day, after watching second day i ended up reading Exodus to get the real story again, it is, i belive, very interesting because the new one does tell the story of the Isralites battle with the Amalakites (sp)(backwards though), and id has it own made up stuff, it showwed that Moses was made to be the "judge" of the people, it was, I think "interesting" and I am glad it prompted me to read the sorry, the Bible(new international version) Of course I watched the "original" DeMill/Heston classic, a few days later, which also gave me reason to refer to the "real original". hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Enrique Sanchez]

Wasn't Yul Brynner Jewish? His mother was of Jewish heritage although her father converted to Christianity.

[Cindy Schermerhorn]

I had read a most amazing article. It said that they did DNA studies on Rameses hair from his mummy and he was RED haired because the color was right in the roots of his hair and not dye or fading and that the folicle was oval so he had wavy red hair and was light complected and a white person like all the pharoah's before him. The statue of Mereyetamun (who was Rameses daughter and wife) was white skinned and blonde. Rameses was the last white pharoah. You can clearly see that his father Sety was a white man by his mummy. It is believed that moses sister (Miriam) was actually Queen Nefertiti (the statue). The queen of Sheba was Queen Hatshepsut who was blonde (they have her mummy). Joseph of the bible was also blonde (they have his mummy and it's in excellent condition. He also had 2 holes in each earlobe and evidently wore earrings. In those days, white people ruled Egypt, not darker people although there were 'other' people of different ethic races in Egypt at the time. Joseph of the bible was the great grandfather of King Tut which is why they have never done DNA on him for fear it would show Jewish blood. So, all of the actors in the Ten Commandments were correct in being white. I just thought that all of this was interesting and if you have any information for me, I would love to have you write me. Thank you.

[Dave]

Yet another writer who thinks he has the magical ability to determine who is Jewish or not without actually looking it up. And then insists on using termins like "uber-goy" or "shiksa", just to rub in his mistakes, I guess. (and how does one become an "uber" goy as opposed to your average one off the street?)

One of your mistakes was Olive Deering, who was certainly Jewish, as was her husband, Leo Penn, Sean Penn's father (Sean Penn's mother was not Jewish).

[Dave]

Btw, Cecille De Mille's mother was Jewish. Yes, she converted to Christianity to marry his father, a minister, but still. It's misleading to accuse him of anti-Semitism without mentioning his own heritage.

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One of most famous aspects of Karnak, is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re, a hall area of 50,000 sq ft(5,000 m2) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of these columns weigh an estimated 70 tons.

[SDG]

FWIW, John the Baptist was Jewish too. I'm just saying.

[Pigglet]

What are some of the lessons learned from this movie?

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[Paul Hecht]

FYI: Olive Deering was 100% Jewish, and so was her brother Alfred Ryder!