New Videos A Sampling Of Demille’s Art
Some said his ego was as big as the biblical spectacles for which he was noted. Others said he was the most intense and driven man in Hollywood.
One thing is certain: Director Cecil B. DeMille parlayed that drive and intensity into one of the most prolific and successful careers in Hollywood.
You can sample some of his most famous works in the recently released “Cecil B. DeMille Collection” from MCA/Universal. Each of the five films is priced at $14.98 and all are typical of DeMille’s work in the 1930s and 1940s. They are long, sprawling and based (loosely) on historic fact.
DeMille began his directorial career in 1913 with “The Squaw Man” and was soon turning out five to six films a year. He was noted mostly in the 1920s for his sex comedies, some of which led to the formation of the Motion Picture Code of Decency.
Somewhere along the way, DeMille discovered the Bible. But it wasn’t just the religious element that attracted his attention. He thought all the sin that was depicted in the Bible would make good stories.
A good example of how DeMille used biblical history as an opportunity to also show scantily clad maidens and drunken orgies is “The Sign of the Cross,” one of the five films in the MCA collection.
Released in 1932, the movie tells of the Christians’ struggle to gain religious freedom in Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero, excellently played by Charles Laughton. And, yes, DeMille gives us the moment in which Nero fiddles while Rome burns.
“The Sign of the Cross” is one of three films in the collection that are being offered on video for the first time. The movies also demonstrate that DeMille was interested in more than just the Bible.
The other new-to-video movies:
“The Crusades” (1935) A young and beautiful Loretta Young finds herself swept up by love and the religious fervor of the times. Henry Wilcoxon is the man who leads his men on their journey to supposedly liberate the Holy Land. Also in the cast are C. Aubrey Smith, Ian Keith, Katherine DeMille.
“Unconquered” (1947) Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard star in this Technicolor spectacle about pre-Revolutionary War America in which the settlers are battling the French-inspired Indians. More show than substance.
Rounding out the collection:
“Union Pacific” (1939) Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck are determined to see that the first trans-continental railroad is completed. Villain Brian Donlevy is out to stop them.
“Reap the Wild Wind” (1942) John Wayne and Ray Milland vie for the attentions of Southern belle Paulette Goddard in this tale of 19th-century divers off the coast of Georgia.