Cecil B. DeMille's epic silent masterpiece revitalized with synchronized symphonic music, digital image enhancement, original title cards reproduction and a new opening titles sequence.
A landmark silent epic, Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 production The Ten Command-ments astounded audiences and critics alike with its unprecedented grandeur, opulence and--as with many DeMille films--righteous self-importance.
By the early 1920's, an increasing number of churches and community groups were becoming alarmed and outraged by the reckless immorality so casually depicted in the films of many successful directors. Along with threats of censorship and boycotts, these groups kept demanding movies with clean, godly, uplifting stories. DeMille, ever pandering to the broadest possible audience, decided that if the public wanted sermons, he'd give them sermons--fully illustrated.
The Ten Commandments added a new, key ingredient to the DeMille film formula: religion. As his niece, Agnes de Mille, said, the pairing of lurid sexuality with extreme religious fervor proved "unbeatable as a combo." The formula never failed him. For the rest of his career, his biggest hits contained this magic mixture of sex and God: The King of Kings (1927), The Sign of the Cross (1932), Samson and Delilah (1949) and the remake of The Ten Commandments (1956).
Unlike the remake, the 1923 film has two parts: the Prologue, depicting the Biblical tale of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, and the Story, a 1920's melodrama about two brothers, one good and one bad. Much derided by viewers today, the film's modern story catered to audience preferences of the time--costume pictures were generally not popular with a movie-going public increasingly enthralled by the "roaring" jazz age. Thus, after Moses, Pharaoh and the wrath of God, audiences were treated to flappers, vamps and the vices of capitalism.
So prepare to be dazzled and delighted, as Sounds of Silents presents a GCM Production of a MaxManLA Video: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923), with synchronized symphonic music, digital image enhancement, original title cards reproduction and a new opening titles sequence. The link below offers FREE online viewing and several FREE downloading options.
A silent classic revitalized with synchronized music, image enhancement, original title cards reproduction and a new opening-titles sequence
Big, lavish, expensive productions were
abundant in the 1920's--The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Orphans of the Storm,
Scaramouche, The Queen of Sheba, The Sea Hawk, The King of Kings, to name
but a few--but for sheer entertainment, few could match Douglas
Fairbanks' 1922 production of Robin Hood.
Though not the first film based on the
medieval folk tales of a fallen Saxon noble who robs the rich and rewards the
poor (a short British feature, Robin Hood and His Merry Men, was
made in 1908), this production, with
its colossal sets and a cast, literally, of thousands, was one of the first
films to cost over one million dollars.
Fairbanks himself wrote the story (as
"Elton Thomas," his favorite pseudonym) and hired Alan Dwan to
direct. One of the so-called "Big
Four" directors of the 1920's (the others were D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. De
Mille and Rex Ingram), Dwan was a master at mixing comedy with drama, thus he
worked well--and often--with Fairbanks, whose films always had a playful,
devil-may-care tone.
Some interesting incidentals:
* Robin Hood was the first film to have its world premiere in Hollywood. The great event was held on October 18, 1922, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre at 6706 Hollywood Blvd. (now the home of the American Cinematheque).
* Alan Hale (father of Alan Hale Jr., who played the Skipper in the TV series Gilligan's Island) played Little John in both this 1922 production and ithe 1938 Technicolor production The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn.
* Some of the sets for Robin Hood were designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
* The famous castle set was bigger even than the massive Babylonian set in D. W. Griffith's 1917 epic, Intolerance.
* A year after appearing in Robin Hood, Wallace Beery (who had the dubious honor of being Gloria Swanson's first husband) portrayed King Richard again in the 1923 film Richard the Lionhearted.
* In 1938, when Douglas Fairbanks learned that a "remake" of Robin Hood was in pre- production, he threatened to sue Warner Bros. for copyright infringement of his 1922 screen story and wasn't appeased until his lawyers read the shooting script for The Adventures of Robin Hood and determined there were no grounds for a lawsuit.
Now, almost 100 years after its premiere, Sounds of Silents proudly presents
the GCM Production of a MaxManLA Video, ROBIN HOOD, with synchronized
symphonic music, digital image enhancement, original title cards reproduction
and a new opening titles sequence. The link below offers FREE online viewing and several FREE downloading options.
