Caught the second half of this one on TCM last night (have seen it before, but it has been a loooong time). While it does have a spectacular chariot race sequence, the rest of the movie just leaves me flat. The chariot race takes place about 3/4 of the way through the movie, and then you are left with the 'leper mother and sister' storyline to keep the audiences interest for another hour. The direction and set ups, aside from the grandiose set pieces, are of the garden variety 'biblical epic' style i.e. a lot of side views, as if you are looking at rennaisance paintings (a lot of the set-ups in DeMille's Ten Commandments are cut from the same cloth).
Won 'best picture' in a year with rather weak competition (although if the Academy had any guts or imagination, they would have given it to "Some Like It Hot", as well as the Best Actor award to Lemmon, which went to Heston). Heston is his usual scenery chewing self, and Hugh Griffith has some fun with his role as an Arab horse trader.
Not a huge fan of the 'biblical epic', but am somewhat more interested in Roman history, and suggest: Gladiator, I, Claudius, Spartacus