October 2023 Schedule Posted, Charlton Heston is SOTM

I wish TCM could show THE TEN COMMANDMENTS during Heston' star of the month. I know ABC has a lock on the film, but audiences don't get the true experience. So many commercials breaking up the pacing. They cut DeMille's intro relating the sources used for the screenplay and that the story is about the world should be ruled by the law not the whims of one person and no one is above the law. I cringe at some of the points where ABC cuts to commercial-most cring-worthy: Ramses spends the film declaring there are no gods and that Moses' God does not exist. Ramses mocks God during the plagues. He finally lets the Hebrews go, but regrets the decision. He leads his army to bring back the Hebrews.

For the time the film was made, there is the great special effect of the pillar of fire stopping the Egyptian army followed by the destruction of the army when the parted Red Sea crashes down. Ramses is frustrated, ego brought down--cut to commercials. When the film resumes, a defeated Ramses, the non-believer of any god, states "His god (Moses' God) is God".

The impact of the declaration is lost after a dozen commercials.

Henry Wilcoxon was a producer and actor in the film-he leads the Egyptians into the Red Sea. He wrote his biography THE LIONHEART IN HOLLYWOOD. His description of being in the giant Paramount tank to film the scene is frightening-those actors and horses really are hit by that monstrous wave. Some of the things I've read and heard on tv about what actors have done for a film-those people are crazy!

I also meant to add a thought about October/Halloween/Scary films - I wish TOM would play Dean and Jerry's film Scared Stiff 1953 co-starring Lizbeth Scott. I'm not a big Jerry Lewis fan, but this is one of my favorite films that Dean did with Jerry. It's, as most of their movies were, a light hearted romantic scare. TOM doesn't seem to play any of the 16 films that they did together even though in the early 1950's they were the most popular and highest paid act in Hollywood. In TCM's earlier days they played many of their films - My Friend Irma, The Caddy, Artists and Models, etc. I don't know why they don't play them anymore.

Like I said, I prefer Dean's work post Jerry Lewis - I think he was more himself and felt more freedom, but it's still Hollywood film history.

There's also a cute cameo by Bing Crosby and Bob Hope at the end of Scarred Stiff!

  Perfect photo!