NFR Project: 'The Ten Commandments' (1956)

 

NFR Project: “The Ten Commandments”

Dir: Cecil B. DeMille

Scr: Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., Jack Gariss, Fredric M. Frank

Pho: Loyal Griggs

Ed: Anne Bauchens

Premiere: Nov. 14, 1956

220 min.

Can you top this? Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 swan song as a director the most hyperbolic epic of all time.

“The greatest movie picture of all time!” “A supreme emotional experience!” “DeMille’s overwhelming masterpiece!”

Modesty of means and statement was never a strong point with DeMille (1881-1959), the master showman of the American cinematic extravaganza. Only he would have the guts to turn the story of Moses and Passover into a rip-snortin' romantic triangle – Moses (Charlton Heston), the future Pharoah (Yul Brynner), and Princess Nefreteri (Anne Baxter) -- complete with oily, bare-chested male leads, a drag-queen-ready performance from Baxter, and an ornery and disheveled cast of thousands.

The stiff, painterly frame compositions and bombastic, super-serious acting style make this an instant camp classic. It is time once again to teach our children the true meaning of Pesach by laughing along to this enormous zircon of a film.

Theologically, it's a nightmare, despite the reams of experts referenced defensively in the opening credits. In DeMille's very special preshow front-of-curtain chat, he clearly equates ancient tyranny with contemporary Communism. DeMille's voice continues to narrate as the film begins.

In this interpretation, Moses is more of a he-manly star-spangled freedom-seeker. Shoehorning this complex set of stories into a riches-to-rags-to-Sinai saga formula makes this Ten Commandments the apotheosis of cinematic adaptations. The crazy-mirror sumptuousness of the scenery and the burning conviction in everyone's eyes (save for Cedric Hardwicke as Pharoah, who does whatever he damn pleases on screen and gets away with it) can't anchor its outrageous extravagances.

Comparisons of this earnest Biblical confetti with the ironic, subversive theater of Charles Ludlam and others who pretended to the throne of the Theatre of the Ridiculous are apt. The mise en scene and dialogue collide, with a screech of cocked eyebrows and sideways glances.

“Moses has words. Pharaoh has spears.”

“Your tongue will dig your grave, Memnet!”

 “Does it take the entire Nile to quench your thirst?”

“Oh, Moses, Moses, why of all men did I fall in love with a prince of fools?”

“In the copper mines of Giza, the living are dead.”

“Too many ears tie a rat’s tongue.”

“All that you would have from me, he would not even take!”

“You do not cry out, Joshua. But you will – for the mercy of death!”

“So shall it be written – so shall it be done.”

And on and on. It’s a heckuva story, deliriously extravagant. Ludicrous, yet compelling.

DeMille was a past master of cinema. He made 70 movies; 52 of them in the Silent Era. He started directing movies before the U.S. entered World War I. In fact, he had already made this movie! In 1923, he cranked out a silent epic with the story of Moses an as epic prologue to a modern-day drama. This first Ten Commandments was a big hit.

DeMille was in love with things titanic – statues, sphinxes, walls, gates. His silent version of Commandments was erected at the Guadalupe Dunes, 170 miles north of L.A. where he built massive sets, ran out of money, borrowed more, and finished his grand vision. (The sets persist beneath the sand there.) In this first go-round, he takes us from the Ninth Plague to Moses’ anger at the specter of the Golden Calf.

In 1956, armed with better special effects, a killer Elmer Bernstein score, VistaVision, Technicolor, sound, and a raft of supporting that keep their performances to the proper operatic pitch. At heart DeMille was a turn-of-the-last-century purveyor of old-fashioned, grandiosely staged melodramas; what could be more inherently melodramatic than the workings of the Lord? It is stiff. It is stagey. But it is engraved on our collective psyche.

DeMille is on a quest here. He wants to give you the definitive Moses, and he largely succeeds. He is perfectly sincere in his approach, but he filters the ancient story through his showman’s imagination. He blows up everything as big as he can get it. The colors are garish, the manners bombastic. He crowds the screen with some strong actors – Edward G. Robinson, Vincent Price, John Carradine, John Derek, Judith Anderson, Yvonne De Carlo, Woody Strode, Michael Ansara.  Over-actors all. And some actors from the Silent Era – H.B. Warner, Henry Wilcoxson.

Here, Moses, the hot-shot adopted son of Cedric Hardwicke, is cast into the desert when he announces that he is actually a Hebrew, drawn from the river by the Pharoah’s sister. Oh, and he killed Baka, the overseer. This throws into the dustbin his blooming romance with Nefreteri, who must now marry his rival Ramses.

He goes out into the wilderness and gets his head together. He gets married, settles down. Ramses becomes Pharoah. Then we get the Burning Bush, the mission to Egypt. Nefreteri tries to woo him back, but Moses is all holy now (he has an overarching gray mane now that he has seen the Lord) and he doesn't want her. The ultimate revenge -- he is dedicated to God, you poor woman.

Then the Plagues, the liberation and crossing of the Red Sea, the giving of the Commandments, the disobedience of Israel.

Then we get a quick voiceover informing us that the Hebrew people then had to wander for 40 years (actually, it was the reaction to the report of the twelve scouts that condemned Israel to four decades of wandering). Finally, he gets them to the Promised Land! But he can’t go in himself. (True story: he pissed off God at another point in the wanderings.) So, good old white-haired Moses goes walking up the side of Mount Nebo, turns around, and waves bye-bye! The End.

It’s a wild ride. It’s meant to overwhelm your senses and confirm your faith in God.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: 3:10 to Yuma.

NFR Project: 'The Searchers' (1956)

NFR Project: “The Searchers”

Dir: John Ford

Scr: Frank S. Nugent

Pho: Winton C. Hoch

Ed: Jack Murray

Premiere: May 16, 1956

119 min.

It’s the best American film ever made. Fight me.

It’s also the most subversive. Within the framework of a genre film, a Western, director John Ford created an exposé of the dark and violent undercurrent beneath the myth of American progress.

To do so, he had to cast the most stereotyped actor of his day, John Wayne, to play completely against type, as a haunted and vengeful man, a racist and a bigot, obsessed with destroying what he could not rescue. Wayne lived up to the challenge, creating the character Ethan Edwards as a dark and complex figure who bears damnation in the hell of his feelings. He is the “hero” of The Searchers, and at the end he is the only one who loses everything. He is America, condemned to savage glory.

Though set on the West Texas plains, Ford shot this extraordinary film in Monument Valley, Arizona, far off in the red-rock desert. He used the near-mythic grandeur of the place to set off the tiny human figures traversing it. It is 1868, and Ethan Edwards comes home to his brother’s ranch belatedly after serving with the Confederacy in the Civil War. He has gold, and a medal he gives to his 8-year-old niece Debbie. It is obvious there is unspoken attraction between Ethan and his brother’s wife.

The Texas Rangers, led by a Reverend/Captain Sam Clayton (Ward Bond at his best), show up and enlist him and others to go on a hunt for Native Americans thought to have stolen some cattle. The men ride off, by the theft appears to be a ruse. The Indians attack Ethan’s brother’s place, killing him, his wife, and their son. Two girls, sisters Debbie and Lucy, are abducted.

What follows is a relentless decade-long search for Debbie (Lucy is presumably raped, tortured, and killed offscreen early on). Ethan vows to get Debbie back from her abductor, Comanche chief Scar (Henry Brandon). He begins following leads all over the West, from the mountains of Colorado to the canyons of Mexico. He is joined in his pursuit by Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunnter), his adopted nephew and part Cherokee. As time goes on Martin learns that Ethan doesn’t want to save Debbie; he wants to kill her. He considers her an Indian now, and wants her dead. Martin swears to save Debbie when the time comes.

Ethan and Martin break off on their quest during winters, which is when a romance sparks between Martin and Laurie (Vera Miles). Their long-delayed romance serves as comic relief for the film, and symbolizes Martin’s integration into society, despite his Cherokee ancestry, a feat Ethan cannot duplicate.

Debbie (now Natalie Wood) is found, and is at first reluctant to join the whites again. The second time they track her down, she assents to go with them. Ethan finds her first, chases her, grabs her, lifts her in his arms – and says, “Let’s go home, Debbie.” He returns her to civilization and then, ignored, he walks slowly away from the camera. He is a mythic figure, at the cost of his humanity.

The chase has made Ethan savage, no better than his enemies. He slaughters buffalo when he sees them, to deny Indians food. (Blink and you’ll miss a tombstone that tells us Ethan’s mother was killed by Comanches.) When he finds his enemy dead, he scalps him. The West needs men like Ethan to make things happen, even and perhaps especially when he is consumed with fear and hatred. However, once his savage nature is given free rein, and the goal is accomplished, he is no longer needed and must be exiled from society. He has seen and done too much. He has shown us the genocidal savagery behind the mask of Manifest Destiny, and he cannot be forgiven for it.

Every detail of the film is precisely planned; the visuals are strikingly beautiful – Winton C. Hoch’s cinematography is outstanding. All the Ford stock company players are here – there’s John Qualen, and Olive Carey, and Harry Carey Jr., and Ken Curtis, and especially Hank Worden as the disturbed but benign Mose Harper. Max Steiner’s score is top-notch. The entire experience is mesmerizing.

There’s not a wasted frame. Everything illustrates character or advances the plot, and most of the time it does both at the same time. The film rewards frequent viewings; there is telling detail on every inch of the screen. Ford loves his characters and gives them dimension and individuality, letting the camera look at them on long takes. For a real granular examination of the film, read Tim Dirks’s essay on it here. Scott Allen Nollen’s essay at theNational Film Registry is fine as well.

Ethan’s need for revenge is implacable, but time moves on and so do other people. Ethan forgives Debbie and himself just long enough to ensure an equivocally happy ending. Does the white man have to eliminate those who came before him? Is the only way to move forward to kill and burn as well? And what does that do to a man’s soul?

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Ten Commandments.

NFR Project: 'One Froggy Evening' (1955)

NFR Project: “One Froggy Evening”

Dir: Charles M. Jones

Scr: Michael Maltese

Animated by Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Ben Washam, Richard Thompson, Robert Gribbroek, Philip DeGarde

Premiere: Dec. 31, 1955

6:56

It is deemed one of the greatest cartoons of all time.

This one has a lengthy pedigree. This film began as a magazine story written by one of radio’s best writers, Lucille Fletcher. The story was adapted as a radio play by none other than the great Norman Corwin, as “My Client Curley.” This in turn was adapted into a screenplay by Lewis Meltzer and Oscar Saul and made as Once Upon a Time (1944), starring Cary Grant. It is said that this long chain of ideas playing out from their initial inspiration all influenced Chuck Jones and company over at Warner Brothers cartoon studios..

Interestingly, it contains none of the studio’s patented “starring” characters – Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. It’s a prefect little gem of a cartoon. It requires no dialogue whatsoever; we only hear the singing voice of the short’s diminutive star. It’s vivid, punchy, perfectly timed, filled with subtle expressions and bold conceptions.

In it, a construction worker uncovers a sealed box in the cornerstone of an old building. He opens it, and out jumps a singing frog, complete with top hat and cane. (Cornily, it croons the hits of the turn of the 20^th century.)

The worker sees dollars signs, literally. He grabs the frog and takes him to a talent scout. He presents the frog, who does nothing. The scout throws him out. The man rents a theater, packs it with people. The frog is singing. The curtain opens. The frog stops. In fact, it only performs when it and the worker are alone.

The worker goes nuts. His life falls apart. He’s sent to the funny farm. With the frog. Finally, he is wandering past a construction site. He finds the cornerstone. He puts the box with the frog in it inside and flees. Fast-forward to the distant future. A worker is disintegrating the now-old building and exposes the cornerstone. He finds the box. The frog leaps out and puts on a show. The worker grabs the box and gallops off. Once again, the frog has found a victim.

It’s a great little shaggy-dog story, the nightmare of knowing or possessing something special and not being acknowledged for it. The worker sees, hears the frog; why can’t anyone else? Is he nuts? Does this frog just have it in for him? Is life but a sadistic joke with a recurring punchline?

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Searchers.