Written in Stone

by Katherine Orrison

From concept stage through production in Egypt to release of the film, Katherine Orrison carefully recreates the behind-the-scenes story of Cecil B. DeMille's beloved epic. WRITTEN IN STONE treats the reader to an insider's view through the firsthand accounts of the movie's stars (including Martha Scott, Donald Curtis, Yvonne DeCarlo, Joan Woodbury, "Woody" Strode, and Vikki Bakken) and crew (including Henry Wilcoxon, associate producer; Jesse Lasky, Jr., screen writer; and William Sapp, special effects "wizard"). The book is vividly illustrated by the exclusive location photography of Ken Whitmore.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 1999

Reviews

[Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a collection of anecdotes from those who worked on "The Ten Commandments." Some editing would have helped since many anecdotes were repeated.

[Eliel Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written In Stone is not just another good read. It's a Fascinating read. Author Katherine Orrison has done a wonderful piece of work in this book, giving us an insider's glimpse of the behind the scenes world of a Hollywood era that is no more. For those of us who like to read human interest stories like this, then I would suggest that this book is a Must read !

[Mickey Asteriou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this after reading the Ten Commandments chapter in Empire of Dreams, hoping it might go into even greater depth. The book turns out to be a series of interviews with cast and crew members; a sort of oral history. It’s nice to have these anecdotes, in the speakers’ own words, but I still would’ve preferred something less scattershot and with more of a narrative.

[Zachary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is certainly a valuable record of its type. It’s useful and important to keep a record of the stories and reminiscing of people involved in monumental works like The Ten Commandments. But I was surprised at how kind of spare some of the recollections were, almost like unfinished memories. I guess I wished that the book had been a bit more fleshed out, connecting memories and interviews with other sources to give a more comprehensive picture of the movie’s production, distribution, and marketing. I was interested, for instance, in learning more about how statues of the Ten Commandments were commissioned as advertising pieces for the film and then spread to courthouses throughout the country…but that wasn’t mentioned here; instead the interview with the film’s PR guru mostly centered on his relationship to DeMille and the general vibe of his work without getting into any of the specifics. All this to say, there was some real insight in some of these chapters and the interviews were all fascinating to read, but occasionally the most interesting parts of the story were actually strangely left out.

[Dale Jennings · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a short read that should be even shorter since many of the stories told about the film are repeated. Still it’s fun to flip through after watching the movie. The author did the commentary on the DVD set and that might be a better choice.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read after watching The Ten Commandments (ahhh, the nostalgia) on Saturday night before Easter