Cecil B. DeMille: American Epic

Not only does this two-part TV documentary aired on TCM cover the life and career of CECIL B. DeMILLE, but it features interview segments with people like Elmer Bernstein, Steven Spielberg, Gloria Swanson, Charlton Heston, Angela Lansbury and Martin Scorsese, all telling interesting anecdotes about the great showman.

Lansbury had high regard for him as a director who "ruled the set with an iron hand" and Spielberg says that DeMille gave people "more than their's money worth" with his epic films. Although he was a taskmaster who strove for what he considered perfection, he was either reviled or loved by his crew, depending upon which person you talk to.

He died in '59 at the age of 77 and narrator Branagh sums it up as "the end of a life of Biblical proportions." I found the section devoted to the political witch hunts of the '50s less than compelling unless you have a complete understanding of that period of history. But when the documentary gets back on the track with his film-making projects, like SAMSON AND DELILAH and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, it's on safe ground again.

A generous amount of clips from his early silent films leads to the sound era and his early struggles to make a foothold in Hollywood. The turning point came in '34 with THE SIGN OF THE CROSS and CLEOPATRA, both of which assured him of an important place in film history a s a director of great spectacles.