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,
David MacDonald (director) to one story, while in Malaya he met Douglas Fairbanks who encouraged MacDonald to try his luck in Hollywood. MacDonald broke into Hollywood by getting a job as technical adviser on a film "Prestige". After that he was out of work for nine months. He eventually got a job working for Cecil B. de Mille on "Four Frightened People" directed by Cecil B. de Mille. MacDonald worked as De Mille's assistant on "The Sign of the Cross", "Cleopatra" and "The Crusades". He worked on "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" with Henry Hathaway. He also worked for King Vidor and Raoul