The Ten Commandmentswas noted for great fire and brimstone scenes (with remarkable special effects) and its huge cast of characters, with a very appropriate tagline: "THE GREATEST EPIC OF ALL!"The mid-1950s film - DeMille""s first widescreen film and his most expensive production, was also his greatest financial success.Both men (and all the other males in the town) had been symbolically stripped ("undressed") of their masculinity or phallic-strength mounted on their hips.Pearl White was the most famous star of the silent serials, known for their archetypal cliffhangers that left audiences wondering what would happen in the next chapter.She explained how the killer was taking revenge on the children - descendants of those in a lynch mob who had murdered him years earlier.