History Trivia / TheTenCommandments

* Creator/CecilBDeMille originally wanted Creator/AudreyHepburn for Nefretiri, but she was deemed too slim to wear Egyptian gowns.

** CharltonHeston's [[Film/BenHur other best-known role]] also has him playing a Jewish character, who returns after being years away to set things right.
** In Yul Brynner's case, it's good to be the king. Prior to this role, [[Theatre/TheKingAndI he's running Siam and wooing the English tutor]] in both the Broadway musical and later the film. Ironically in that role, Anna tells the story of Moses, and he responds,"This Moses is a fool." Three years later, Brynner would go on to play [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_and_Sheba King Solomon.]]

* ScullyBox: While they were both rugged, muscular men with deep commanding voices, there was simply no getting around the fact that Yul Brynner was a lot shorter than CharltonHeston, so all they could do was have Brynner either stand on a box out of frame or otherwise have him standing on something like a staircase so Brynner would appear eye level with Heston.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[Film/BenHur Judah Ben-Hur]] is betrayed by [[Film/LittleCaesar Rico Bandello]] and exiled to the desert by his brother, [[Film/TheKingAndI The King of Siam]]. He also hooks up with [[Series/TheMunsters Lily Munster]] and is helped by [[KnockOnAnyDoor Nick Romano]]. Oh, and Creator/VincentPrice (yes, '''that''' one) is the master builder.
** Originally [=DeMille=] wanted William Boyd to play Moses. Boyd declined, not because he didn't like the script, but he had been so solidly associated with the role of HopalongCassidy for so long that he was afraid that audiences wouldn't be able to take Moses as seriously if he played the character.
** It didn't hurt that old Heston bore an uncanny resemblance to a statue of Moses by Michelangeo (whom Heston himself later played in ''The'' ''Agony'' ''And'' ''The'' ''Ecstasy'').

* RealLifeRelative: Moses as an infant was played by Charlton Heston's real life son, Frasier Heston.

** It typically airs on the night of Easter Sunday or the night before, although nothing in the movie has anything to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is because Easter is always the Sunday after Passover (or the paschal full moon, technically), the feast Jesus celebrated during the Last Supper, and is linked to Passover with Jesus being the new sacrificial lamb in Christianity.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: Creator/{{ABC}} has televised this film [[LongRunners every year but once since 1973]], according to TheOtherWiki. (The one year they ''didn't'' air it, they received more complaints for that than for anything else they did that season.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: Creator/{{ABC}} has televised this film [[LongRunners every year but once since 1973]], according to TheOtherWiki. The one year they didn't air it (1999), they received more complaints for that than for anything else they did that season.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: Creator/{{ABC}} has televised this film every year but one [[LongRunners since 1973]], according to TheOtherWiki. The one year they didn't air it (1999), they received more complaints for that than for anything else they did that season.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Of a sort. Heston, many years later, told of how on one location shoot, many of the locals were rounded up to serve as a huge crowd of extras... many of whom didn't even need to be dressed up as they were still wearing that sort of clothes today, and didn't really have the scene explained to them other than very basically. As Heston walked through the crowd in costume during the scene, he heard many of them whispering "Mosah! Mosah!"... and realized they thought that ''he actually was Moses''.

** CharltonHeston's [[Film/BenHur other role]] also has him playing a Jewish character, who returns after being years away to set things right.

** It typically airs on the night of Easter Sunday or the night before, although nothing in the movie has anything to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. This is because Easter is always the Sunday after Passover (or the paschal full moon, technically), the feast Jesus celebrated during the Last Supper, and is linked to Passover with Jesus being the new sacrificial lamb in Christianity.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: Creator/{{ABC}} has televised this film every year but one [[LongRunners since 1973]], according to TheOtherWiki. The one year they didn't air it (1999), they received more complaints about for that than for anything else they did that season.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: Creator/{{ABC}} has televised this film [[LongRunners every year since 1973]], according to TheOtherWiki. (The one year they didn't air it, they received more complaints for that than for anything else they did the season.)

** De Mille, normally very kind to his actors, said mildly nasty stuff to Deborah Paget before the scene where she becomes Dathan's sex slave, so she would be appropriately distraught.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[Film/BenHur Judah Ben-Hur]] is betrayed by [[LittleCaesar Rico Bandello]] and exiled to the desert by his brother, [[TheKingAndI The King of Siam]]. He also hooks up with [[TheMunsters Lily Munster]] and is helped by [[KnockOnAnyDoor Nick Romano]]. Oh, and VincentPrice (yes, '''that''' one) is the master builder.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: Creator/{{ABC}} has televised this film every year since 1973, according to TheOtherWiki. (The one year they didn't air it, they received more complaints for that than for anything else they did the season.)

* AdoredByTheNetwork: ABC has shown this on either Easter Sunday or the the day before every year since 1973, according to TheOtherWiki. The one year they didn't air it, they received more complaints for that than for anything else they did the season. (Nothing in the movie has anything to do with the death and resurrection of Christ, of course.)
** It's because Easter is always the Sunday after Passover (or the paschal full moon, technically), the feast Jesus celebrated during the Last Supper, and is linked to Passover with Jesus being the new sacrificial lamb in Christianity.

** DeMille, normally very kind to his actors, said mildly nasty stuff to Deborah Paget before the scene where she becomes Dathan's sex slave, so she would be appropriately distraught.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: ABC has shown this on either Easter Sunday or the the day before every year since 1973, according to TheOtherWiki. The one year they didn't air it, they received more complaints for that than for anything else they did the season.

* EverybodyHatesHades: Rameses II lays his dead son in the arms of an idol he addresses as "Dread Lord of Darkness". The lighting, background music and Brynner's attitude suggest he's praying to Satan. Actually, this is Sokar, better known as Seker, the guide of the dead, a kindly disposed deity who is also a form of the risen Osiris [[note]]i.e., an Ancient Egyptian equivalent of ''Jesus Christ'']] and patron of craftspeople and builders. De Mille DidTheResearch on this too. Both Seti I and Rameses II had art depicting Seker in their private chambers. He is one of the oldest Egyptian deities.