Cecil B. De Mille

March 31, 1997

The master of the grandiose epic, De Mille was born in Ashfield, Maine on August 12, 1881. He started work as a filmaker in the 1910's, doing mostly short films. His first memorable work was The Cheat (1915), which created the rules of making the standard Hollywood melodrama. After many memorable features, he got his first major box-office hit with the biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923). The film was the most expensive feature ever produced up until that point. It also brought back an extremely good profit for both De Mille and fledgling film company Paramount.

De Mille's subsequent work were mostly large-scale films, which featured lavish sets, overly melodramatic performances and impressive visuals. His most successful works were widely different in stories, but strikingly similar in their storytelling. They included biblical epics like King of Kings (1927), Sign of the Cross (1932), Samson and Delilah (1949) and the spectacular remake of his earlier 1923 hit, The Ten Commandments (1956). This film (De Mille's last) again made a large profit for Paramount. De Mille however was much disliked by this point, and rightfully so, for his ultra right-wing tactics and heated anti-communist stance, as well as his helping in the witch hunts of that era. His attempt to take control of the Director's Guild from Joseph L. Mankiewicz...mainly because Mankiewicz was not born in America and was thought to be an "undesirable alien"...only ended up backfiring in his face (thanks in part to John Ford, who personally disliked De Mille and was one of the few directors in Hollywood to constantly stand up to him). Despite these rather tragic flaws, De Mille does remain an amazing influence on countless filmakers, many of whom still wish to combine a good story with impressive, stylistic productions and visuals.

My rating on a scale of 1 to 10: 8

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