On schedule, ABC-TV broadcast The Ten Commandments on Saturday night for Passover. I recall seeing it for the first time in 1956 at the Loews Valencia in Jamaica, Queens (NYC). Quite a visual impact for a 9-year-old kid. Even more amazing was that I went without adult supervision, just me and my two pre-teen cousins. And, we had to take a city bus to Jamaica and back.
What parent today would send a kid off on such an outing? What kid today would even be interested in seeing such a movie? Kids today wants films with frenetic action by the second not every half hour. The parting of the Red Sea ain’t gonna make it. The kids’ go-to film as I write is Minecraft where humans interact with animated characters – lots of fights, explosions, and sarcastic humor.
So, do Jewish families watch The Ten Commandments after their Seder, as another tradition? How well-trained are Jewish kids to sit through such a long and campy movie? Never having attended a Seder I wonder how the adults can get their young’uns to read the Seder script and eat symbolic foods. My grandson would insist on King Crab Legs or KFC, not bitter herbs or a shank bone. He’s smart enough to read the script, but watching Egyptian brick-making might be a bummer.
More to the point, what does The Ten Commandments have to do with Italians? There is some passing reference to the Pharaoh hiring “Sardinian swordsmen” to deal with the fleeing Hebrews, but it’s the cast that interests us.
Sephora, the wife of Moses, was played by Yvonne De Carlo. Actually, that was her mother’s maiden name. Yvonne was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her mother Marie De Carlo was born in France to a Sicilian father and a Scottish mother. Marie married a man, Yvonne’s father, who turned out to be a cad. He was involved in various swindles and took ship out of Canada, promising to send for his wife and child. Marie and Yvonne never heard from him again. Eventually, Yvonne took her mother’s name and Italian good looks to ‘go Hollywood.’ She had many roles over her career, but it was as Herman’s vampire wife Lily in The Munsters that transcended the generations. Even with fangs her sensual beauty shines through in reruns. Yvonne died in 2007 at age 84.
Another cast member of The Ten Commandments was Frank De Kova as Abiram, right hand man of Hebrew traitor Dathan (played by Edward G. Robinson). De Kova was born Frank Campanella in New York City. Rough-looking De Kova, oddly enough, was a school teacher then tried a bit of Shakespeare. Discovered by Hollywood he was soon typecast as a mobster. But like Yvonne De Carlo he ended his career in a sitcom as scheming Chief Wild Eagle on the zany Western satire F Troop. De Kova died in 1981 at age 71.
still hairless
between takes.
The third cast member we can identify with was Pharaoh Ramses’ son-with-no-name. That 8-year-old was Eugene Mazzola, born in Hollywood. At age 2 he broke into the business as a baby in The Asphalt Jungle. After The Ten Commandments he took on the stage name of Eugene Martin and advanced himself to jobs behind the camera as an assistant director and later owned a movie equipment rental business. He did a stint in the Navy serving in Vietnam and is still managing and producing films. His ‘Egyptian’ career was short-circuited as his character was a victim of the first Passover, nixing any chances of becoming Rameses III in sequels. No pyramid for him!
With these insights The Ten Commandments can now have an Italian angle. –JLM
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