Cecil DeMille's "Ten Commandments": Research and Cultural Compromise in the Making of an Epic

Film scholar Katherine Orrison tells the story behind the story of Cecil DeMille's 1923 silent epic, remains of whose massive production are decaying up and down California. The parting of the Red Sea was filmed off Seal Beach, and Pharaoh's temple was built (and later buried) in the Nipomo Dunes and is a bona fide archaeological site itself. Still more of the story was filmed in San Francisco. Orrison's talk is in 110 Barrows Hall on the UC campus, and is free and open to the public.