Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how long Hollywood has
been making movies. It is difficult to believe that it’s been going on for well
over 100 years. And yet so much of the history of Hollywood has disappeared
even though the means to preserve it have increased over the decades. When you
read a list of lost films that are known but no longer exist it is astounding.
Recently efforts have been made to preserve the John Wayne directed and
starring film THE ALAMO, only made as far back as 1960 and yet deteriorating as
we speak in the vaults of MGM.
But what if you learned that there was a bit of history of
classic silent film making that still existed? Not a page or two of a film
script or a few feet of film but almost an set built up from scratch to be a part
of one of the most expensive and awe inspiring films of its time. An entire
city buried in the dunes of California and undiscovered for decades. Wouldn’t
that be something worth discovering?
Such was the mindset of film maker Peter Brosnan when he heard
the story about the buried sets for Cecil B. DeMille’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
Not DeMille’s 1956 classic but his first take on the film released in 1923.
After hearing the stories about the construction of the massive set used in the
film and how it was demolished when the film finished, his curiosity got the
better of him.
In 1982 he went to Guadalupe, CA, and met some of the folks
who lived there and talked to them about the production. A few of them were
even in the film and still living. Through the information he gathered he went
to the nearby dunes where folks had noticed that while the sand shifted and
changed the shapes of the dunes they didn’t seem to affect just one of them
there. This was where the set had been.
Using a combination of the story of Cecil B. DeMille and his
career and the search for this lost city, Brosnan tells a fascinating story
that offers not just the tale of his search but a source of information about
the way films were made when they first began. For instance one might ask why,
after constructing such a huge and costly set, would DeMille order it
destroyed? The answer, provided in the film, is that had he left it standing
other studios would have swooped in to use the same set for their own movies,
many of which would have been rushed into production to beat the release of his
film and thus making the sets seem old to movie goers by the time his film came
out. By tearing them down and burying them he prevented that from happening.
Bouncing back and forth with the historical aspects of
making the film is Brosnan’s own journey into both digging up the lost city and
his making a film about it. If ever there were a tale about bureaucratic red
tape, the need for less government intervention and corruption it is this
story. Brosnan didn’t try to dig up the city once but several times over the
years. The end result was that it took over 30 years to finally get the story
told and the film artifacts recovered. And by then time had taken its toll on
them.
I’ll admit that for many this film has a dry subject matter
to be discussed. But when you consider the historical aspects of the film it
becomes a fascinating movie. In the end not everyone who signed on to be
involved in the project is still alive, the financial people behind it change
from one to another, voices from people who were in the film are lost as they
pass away and the town of Guadalupe learns to embrace their film heritage.
It may not be a blockbuster film or have a chance of beating
out the next Marvel hero to grace the screen. But the movie is interesting and
worth watching to learn about his lost city. Who knows, maybe there are more
lost treasures just waiting to be found. For now enjoy the story of this one.
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