The Lost City of Cecil B. Demille (Peter Brosnan, 2016): United States

Reviewed by Vincenzo Muia at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2016. Fiesta Theater.

Making its world premiere at the 2016 Santa Barbara International Film Festival is The Lost City of Cecil B. Demille (Peter Brosnan, 2016). A Q & A session prior to the screening revealed the film finally came to fruition after  30+ years of legal and financial roadblocks. Since the documentary has local ties, it was not surprising to hear cheers and jeers from the audience.

This documentary film discusses the quest to discover the excavate the long lost set of The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. Demille, 1923), which was filmed in the town of Guadalupe, CA on the central California coast in Santa Barbara County. The quest began in 1982, when aspiring filmmaker Peter Brosnan heard a sensational story from his roommate, Bruce Cardozzo, that he had decrypted a message from Demille’s memoir about the location of the larger than life set of the 1923 epic film which was one of the expensive silent films in history.  The massive set depicting Ancient Egypt constructed from nearly 184,000 yards of lumber, 24000 lbs. of nails and 300 tons of plaster. When filming was complete, Demille ordered it to be dismantled and buried, rather than pay transportation fees to ship the set from location. With a clue within Demille’s posthumously printed memoir that the set was beneath the sand dunes, it was the furious winds of an El Niño winter that began to reveal the secrets beneath the sand, exposing statues that Hollywood had forgotten. Finally, with the location pinpointed, the quest to raise the set is met with severe obstacles, ranging from differing archaeologist philosophies, to the Native American Chumash tribe monitors to the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development’s dreaded Coastal Development Permit to financial backing which seem come and go with the tides. The documentary speaks of a guilded Hollywood era, with interviews with townspeople involved in the film, who offer on-set secrets about the production.

County of Santa Barbara Planning and Development: Coastal Development Permit Application:

South County Office 123 E. Anapamu Street Santa Barbara, CA 93101 Phone: (805) 568-2000 Fax: (805) 568-2030

Request for Coastal Development Permit Hearing:

We are requesting a Coastal Development Use Permit for a historic excavation project in the Guadalupe Nipomo Dune System located on West Main Street in the town of Guadalupe, California.  The project would serve a historical and cultural significance of the Silent Era of Filmmaking as well as provide revenue and tourism to the town of Guadalupe, California.  A museum of artifacts is also proposed at an address yet to be determined within city limits of Guadalupe, California.  No signs are proposed at this time. No native flora and/or fauna will be disturbed and/or removed at the proposed excavation site. The parking area will not interfere with the current parking within Guadalupe, California and will be limited to 100 spaces and will be screened with a formed sand berm. Any excavated areas of sand dune shall be re-graded according to conformity of existing dunes. Supplemental drainage will be created should any aspect of said escalation interfere with storm water run-off.

The documentary is a treasure hunt and since the film has local,  profound ties, it serves as both entertainment and educational. It is a sweeping look at social and political commentary on Hollywood history, Santa Barbara politics, and the visionaries mission to retell the story of one of the greatest feats of Hollywood cinema.