Narrator: Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, this may seem an unusual procedure, speaking to you before the picture begins, but we have an unusual subject – the story of the birth of freedom – the story of Moses. As many of you know, the Holy Bible omits some 30 years of Moses’ life… From the time, when he was a three-month old baby, and was found in the bulrushes, by Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh and adopted into the court of Egypt, until he learned that he was Hebrew and killed the Egyptian. To fill in those missing years, we turn to ancient historians, such as Philo and Josephus. Philo wrote at the time when Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth and Josephus wrote some 50 years later, and watched the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Romans. These historians had access to documents long since destroyed – or perhaps lost, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God’s law, or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator, like Rameses. Are men the property of the state or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today. Our intention was not to create a story, but to be worthy of a divinely inspired story, created 3,000 years ago, the five books of Moses. The story takes three hours and 39 minutes to unfold. There will be an intermission. Thank you for your attention.

Dorothy Clarke Wilson (May 9, 1904 – March 26, 2003) was an American writer, perhaps best known for her novel Prince of Egypt (1949), which was a primary source for the Cecil B. DeMille film, The Ten Commandments (1956).

My cmnt:

IMDB – dialogue between Yul Brynner and Edward G. Robinson

• Rameses : You have rats’ ears and a ferret’s nose.
• Dathan : To use in your service, son of Pharaoh.
• Rameses : Add to them the eyes of a weasel and find me this deliverer.

• Dathan : Joshua’s strength didn’t kill the master builder.
• Rameses : Now speaks the rat that would be my ears.
• Dathan : Too many ears tie a rat’s tongue.
• Rameses : [to the Egyptian soldiers]  Go, all of you![turns to Dathan] 
• Rameses : Well… who killed him?
• Dathan : I am a poor man, Generous One; what I bring is worth much.
• Rameses : I have paid you much, and you have brought me nothing.
• Dathan : Now I bring you the world… true Son of Pharaoh.
• Rameses : You offer me the world when you cannot even bring me the deliverer. Who killed Baka?
• Dathan : The deliverer.
• Rameses : Would you play at words with me?
• Dathan : No, Lord Prince.
• Rameses : And this murderer has now fled to some distant land?
• Dathan : No, Lord Prince.
• Rameses : Name him.
• Dathan : One who made himself a prince and judge over us; and if he knew I were here, he would kill me as he killed the Egyptian.
• Rameses : I will hang you myself if you tire me further.
• Dathan : There are those who would pay much for what my eyes have seen.
• Rameses : Do you haggle with me like a seller of melons in the marketplace?
• Dathan : No, I will not haggle, Great Prince; here’s your money. But for ten talents of fine gold, I’ll give you the wealth of Egypt. Give me my freedom, and I’ll give you the scepter. Give me the water girl Lilia, and I’ll give you the princess of your heart’s desire. Give me this house of Baka, and I’ll give you the throne. Give me all that I ask… or give me leave to go.
• Rameses : I will give you more than leave to go; I will send you where you belong.
• Dathan : I belong in your service, Glorious One.
• Rameses : Very well, I will bargain with you. If what you say pleases me, I will give you your price, all of it; if not, I will give you the point of this blade through your lying throat, agreed?
• Dathan : Agreed; the deliverer… is Moses.
• Rameses : Draw one more breath to tell me why Moses or any other Egyptian would deliver the Hebrews?
• Dathan : Moses is not Egyptian; he’s Hebrew, the son of slaves.

IMDB – dialogue between Rameses and Nefretiri

Rameses: [to Nefretiri] You are going to be mine, all mine, like my dog or my horse or my falcon. Only I will love you more and trust you less.

• Nefretiri : Did you think my kiss was a promise of what you’ll have. No, my pompous one. It was to let you know what you will not have. I could never love you.
• Rameses : Does that matter? You will be my wife. You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is your own affair… but I think you will.