Cecil B. DeMille Christian and Jewish heritage to convey a message of tolerance. "The Crusades" was the first film to show accord between Christians and Muslims. DeMille received more than a dozen awards from Jewish religious and cultural groups, including B’nai B’rith. In 1954, he was seeking approval for a lavish remake of his 1923 silent film "The Ten Commandments". He went before the Paramount board of directors, which was mostly Jewish-American. The members rejected his proposal, even though his last two films, "Samson and Delilah" and "The Greatest Show on Earth", had been record-breaking hits. Adolph Zukor, the chairman of the board,
Carl Denham in the story only at the beginning and near the end. The novel adds some detail to Denham's life, such as his year of birth (1896). In his review of the 2005 remake, film critic Roger Ebert remarked that Armstrong's performance was reminiscent of filmmaker Cecil B. de Mille, while Jack Black was reminiscent of Orson Welles. Ebert also noted that Black was criticized by other critics for being "not precisely hero material", but Ebert defended that casting decision, saying Denham was a director who did not need "big muscles". Carl Denham Carl Denham is a fictional character in the