The Bible in film religious epics produced as vehicles for its biggest stars. "Samson and Delilah" was the biggest moneymaking movie of 1949 and is considered the picture that sparked the biblical-epic film craze of the 1950s. It was followed by two of 1951’s biggest box-office hits, "Quo Vadis" and "David and Bathsheba". Charlton Heston starred in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben-Hur". According to author Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, in the 1950s and 1960s, during the era of the production code, "the most acceptable cinematic path for movies to incorporate sex and violence was the biblical epic". Basing a film on the Bible
Agnes de Mille the American Silent Film" (1980) primarily discussing the work of her uncle Cecil B. DeMille. DeMille's 1951 memoir, "Dance to the Piper", was translated into five languages. It was reissued in 2015 by "New York Review Books". De Mille was a lifelong friend of modern dance legend Martha Graham. De Mille, in 1992, published "Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham", a biography of Graham that de Mille worked on for more than thirty years. After suffering from a near-fatal stroke, she went on to write five books: "Reprieve" (which outlined the experience), "Who Was Henry George?", "Where the