Goofs for
The Ten Commandments (1956)

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• Continuity: When Moses is talking to the Hebrew crowd as the deliverer for the first time, the stick in his hand changes hands as it is filmed from different positions.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Moses on top of the large rock with a watch on.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The floating basket bounces in the water when the lid is closed as would be expected; but scenes in which the lid is open and the baby Moses is visible the basket is stationary, very obviously supported under the water. Maybe the basket could not float with the weight of the baby, or maybe it was for safety reasons.
  
  

• Continuity: When Nefretiri appears carrying their newly-dead son to Ramses, the boy's skirt is hanging very low. In the next shot, the excess skirt is suddenly wrapped under her arm.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Ramses stands in front of the Saqarra pyramids, with the Nile in the background and deports Moses into the desert. Unfortunately this will send Moses due west into the Sahara, instead of east across the Sinai.
  
  
• Continuity: When the chariots are riding out of the city, the shots alternate between a clear blue sky and a sky with clouds.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The words on the stone tablets are clearly visible before they are "carved" into the stone.
  
  
• Continuity: When Yochabel is trapped before the stone her robe's rope belt varies in length.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The safety pin on the infant Moses' diaper can be seen when the baby is afloat on the Nile.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Israelites are making the golden calf, one of the male dancers carelessly, but harmlessly, backs into the pot of molten metal.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Nefretiri is playing "Hounds and Jackals" and talking with Rameses, the lace trim at the top of her brassiere is visible.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Moses is standing on the rock with the Ten Commandments in his hand, he points to the Hebrews and his voice is heard saying, "Blasphemers! Idolaters!" but his lips do not move.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Hebrews are going out of Egypt, a camel eats some fruit that a man is carrying on his back. In the next shot, the amount of fruit has decreased markedly (too much for the camel to have eaten it all).
  
  
• Anachronisms: When "Bithia" fishes Moses out of the Nile, you can't miss the blatant zipper up the back of her dress. I accept that Edith Head couldn't make every costume historically accurate, but there were ways of fastening clothes that don't call for a mechanism invented in AD 1892.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the movie, the 10th Plague (killing of the firstborn of the Egyptians) occurs with a crescent moon showing. However, the Jewish holiday of Passover, which coincides with the 10th Plague, occurs on the 14th day of the month of Nissan, according to the biblical book of Exodus. Because the Jewish calendar is based on a lunar cycle, there would be a full moon on the 14th of the month.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Pharaoh's chariots leave the city gates to go after the slaves, some shots of the chariots have long shadows, as if shot in late afternoon. But in other shots of the chariots, their shadows are short, as if shot in mid-day.
  
  
• Errors in geography: As Nefretiri watches Rames lead the chariots out of the palace to catch up and destroy the Hebrews, the shadows from the chariots and Nefretiri are cast from two different angles.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Jethro's daughters are dancing in the tent in front of Moses and the Sheiks, the music starts before the musicians actually begin "playing".
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the chase in the Red Sea, the lead chariots are riding on ground was already neatly grooved with wheel tracks. There is no evidence of the footsteps made by thousands of slaves and animals. A shot of the slaves exiting the Red Sea reveals how trampled the ground should have looked.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Moses is building the city, and calls for a blue signal, the guard waves a blue flag in front of the backdrop, and the flag is filtered out and becomes transparent, alluding to the fact that there is in fact a blue-screened backdrop and not an actual city behind them.
  
  
• Continuity: The position of Pharoah's arm changes when he calls "Forward!"
  
  
• Continuity: Nefretiri's position changes while playing Hounds and Jackals, when told that Moses and Ramses are coming.
  
  
• Continuity: "The Red Sea" changes color many times while being parted. Perhaps this is due to the blue screen process, color-timing errors, or print degradation, but at times it appears blue, green, and even gray in color. When later remastered (for TV and DVD)the Red Sea became deep blue in color without a hint of green in it!
  
  

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