ROBERT S. BIRCHARD: READY WITH MR. DEMILLE’S CLOSE-UP

Mention the name of Cecil B. DeMille and more than few film scholars will snicker. DeMille, to many cineastes, is little more than the old-school showman who entertained less-than-sophisticated audiences with corny, stodgy Biblical epics like “Samson and Delilah” and “The Ten Commandments…”