Product Details

• Actors: Theodore Roberts, Charles de Rochefort, Estelle Taylor, Julia Faye, James Neill
• Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, Silent, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: February 24, 1998
• Run Time: 146 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300215431
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,658 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not what you might be expecting!, July 31, 2004

By 

Barbara (Burkowsky) Underwood (Tumut, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ten Commandments [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I already had high expectations of this film to begin with, and was not disappointed when it turned out to be quite different from what I had expected. For a start, the famous "Ten Commandments" story (10 plagues of Egypt, Israelites leave via parting of the Red Sea, Moses receives 10 Commandments on Mt Sinai while Israelites misbehave and make a golden calf) later made famous by Charlton Heston as Moses, is actually only the PROLOGUE in this silent 1923 version, and the larger part of the story is a contemporary drama showing the modern-day relevance of the ten commandments with similar dire consequences to those who defy them. This might be a disappointment to those who expect a full Biblical epic and a famous Cecil B DeMille spectacle, but for those who value a brilliant story with poignant highlights to impress its ideas, this one rates the full 5 stars. The prologue (about 45 minutes) with its beautiful Egyptian sets and convincing special effects has a special feature, namely a 20-minute colour sequence of the highlight, the parting of the Red Sea, and although the colours look soft, weak and washed-out, it's interesting to see one of these first experiments with colour.

The contemporary story shows a mother with two sons; one is a god-fearing and humble carpenter, the other an unbelieving go-getter determined to prove his mother's teaching of the Ten Commandments of no use in the modern world. Although you can guess that this defiant son's attitude will be proven wrong, being the parallel to the defiant Pharaoh of Egypt in the prologue, DeMille's direction of the story is still unpredictable and suspenseful enough to keep you enthralled and wondering exactly how it will turn out. He also gets the main message across several times in various effective ways, namely that defying God's AND man's laws only leads you to ruin, but far from feeling lectured or preached to, this excellent film gets you involved with the characters and the morale of the whole story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early epic-morality play still feels modern enough, February 10, 2010

By 

Muzzlehatch (the walls of Gormenghast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ten Commandments [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Cecil B. DeMille's first attempt at the story of Moses has more in common with such other silent films contrasting the ancient past to stories of today, than it does to his later epic retelling of the story. Griffith's "Intolerance" 7 years earlier had intercut several stories of sin and violence to show that the more man changes, the more he stays the same; Fritz Lang's "Destiny" and Carl Dreyer's "Leaves from Satan's Book" (both 1921) also worked out biblical themes in both ancient and modern contexts. All four directors were at one point or another quite serious Christians, though DeMille seems to have been the most obsessive in his faith, and certainly his many films on Biblical themes are often more obvious and blunt in their attempts at pedagogy.

Which is not to say that "The Ten Commandments" is just a lesson in "thou shalt nots"; but it is throughout informed of a very deep, and perhaps naive faith that the stories of the past are alive and exactly transferable to the lives we have today. In this case, we see a man break essentially every commandment in his quest for personal greatness, destroying in the process his own life and those of many around him, including his own mother. DeMille doesn't intercut multiple story lines like his predecessors, but rather uses the Biblical story as a 50-minute "prologue" to one feature-length story taking place in modern-day Los Angeles.

It's fascinating to watch the film if you've just watched the later version, as I did; the prologue is almost exactly the same as the last 50 minutes of the '56 version, picking up in the middle of the plagues that Moses has set upon Egypt. Like the later film, only the killing of the first-born is given significant play, and the majority of this section is given over to the flight from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea (jello!) and destruction of the pursuing Egyptians, and the creation of the Ten Commandments and Moses' fury at the idolators. It's all very well done, in many respects more thrilling and powerful than in the later film, with many scenes that DeMille obviously liked enough to re-do almost shot-for-shot - the flight of the Israelites from the Egyptian city, and in particular the shot of Moses standing in front of them exhorting them to flee are good examples. Theodore Roberts was 62 when the film was made and looks a bit crazy and obsessive - he certainly feels more like the older Moses to me than Charlton Heston, though Charles de Rochefort doesn't leave a huge impression as Rameses. All in all, it's quite a spectacle and segues nicely into...

The modern-day story, of two carpenter/architect brothers, one ambitious and unscrupulous and the other honest and devoted to their saintly, Bible-reading mother, and how they vie for the love of a vagrant girl who comes to their doorstep, is obviously freighted with the weight of the prologue: the two brothers quarrel over God, there is honoring and not honoring of the parent, coveting of the neighbor's (or brother's) wife, stealing, etc. The central theme couldn't be more obviously stated as they build a cathedral, which ultimately collapses due to the bad brother's cheap materials, killing someone dear. Every commandment gets tested and broken at one point or another, but what's fascinating is how seamlessly they're all woven into a relatively simple story and how DeMille refuses to cast the "bad" brother as completely evil, or the "good" brother as entirely strong and virtuous. Only the mother comes across as something of a caricature. Nicely lit and shot throughout - the rain sequence where the girl first comes to the home of the family is very real and moving, and only the scenes involving the unscrupulous brother's mistress seem at all overwrought. This is overall a more graceful and disciplined film than the later version, or any of DeMille's work that I've seen so far.

Probably seen to best advantage on the newer DVD editions which add this as an extra to the '56 edition, but this older VHS is perfectly fine should you happen to come across it cheaply, or if you're not all that interested in the later film version.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SILENT "COMMANDMENTS" MOVIE MELODRAMA AT IT'S PEAK, April 1, 2002

By 

Darryl M. Haase "dothehucklebuck" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ten Commandments [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Ten Commandments" (1923) is grand scale entertainment which, in its time, served as a moral caveat against the excesses of the Jazz Age. DeMille, in my opinion, had more in common with P.T. Barnum than the Pope, and the film ends up being campy, solemn and riddled with eye-popping special effects. The parting of the Red Sea, done with Jello and water is definitely more effective than in the over-blown 1950's remake with Heston and Brynner. DeMille was always an entertainer first and not a theologian or historian, yet he sometimes wore the latters' hats just to give some authority to his films. DeMille always was most comfortable with highly theatrical and melodramatic plots, evidenced by his early associations with colleagues such as Jesse Lasky and David Belasco. The silent "Commandments" is an antique of another era, but is a great example of early movie magic and over the top melodrama. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!