Land of the Pharaohs (1955)

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

William Faulkner (written by) &
Harry Kurnitz (written by) ...

Release Date:

24 June 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

HER BLOOD STAINED EVERY STONE OF THE PYRAMID

Plot:

A captured architect designs an ingenious plan to insure the impregnability of tomb of a self-absorbed Pharaoh, obsessed with the security of his next life.

Plot Keywords:

Pharaoh | Egypt | Tomb | Architect | Ancient Egypt

Cast

Jack Hawkins	...	Pharaoh Khufu
Joan Collins	...	Princess Nellifer
Dewey Martin	...	Senta
Alex Minotis	...	Hamar (as Alexis Minotis)
James Robertson Justice	...	Vashtar
Luisella Boni	...	Kyra (as Luisa Boni)
Sydney Chaplin	...	Treneh
James Hayter	...	Mikka, Vashtar's servant
Kerima	...	Nailla
Piero Giagnoni	...	Xenon (Pharaoh's Son)

Also Known As:

Howard Hawks' Land of the Pharaohs (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

Canada:144 min | UK:105 min | USA:106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (optical prints) | 4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording) (magnetic prints)

Certification:

UK:U (cut) | Australia:G | West Germany:12 | USA:Approved (certificate #16995) | Finland:K-16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Egypt

Company:

Continental Company

Trivia:

The movie was Howard Hawks's first commercial failure. It caused Hawks to take a break from directing and travel through Europe for a number of years. He made his next movie, Rio Bravo (1959), four years later - the longest break between two movies in his career.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Domesticated camels feature throughout the film, which is set in the early Old Kingdom. But the camel was not domesticated around Egypt until the end of the New Kingdom, some two thousand years later.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Hamar: I, Hamar, Lord High Priest of Egypt, am preparing a chronicle of the reign of Khufu, ruler of Egypt. Word has come that again he has been victorious in the war against our enemies and now Egypt has taken its place as the greatest of all nations in the world! Today, Pharaoh and his armies return.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Cineastes en acció (2005)

Great for its genre

It's hard to know how to rate movies like this because the genre is so inherently cheesy. In the grand scheme of all cinema, it probably should only get a 6 out of 10, but within the "swords and sandals" genre, it surely rates a 10! There are many classic themes here: an aging man's wish to be remembered through a great monument, a slave's desire to win freedom for his people, an ambitious woman's lust for power at any cost. Of course, everything is overacted and obvious as hell, but the plot stays focused, unrolling inexorably to it's horror-movie ending. This is Saturday afternoon escapism at its best.