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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I had heard of this movie but I had never seen it : thanks to all-beneficent "Arte" for remedying this lack.The movie does not succeed in penetrating the laws, habits and beliefs of a culture far removed from ours, let alone in penetrating its heart and soul. By the same token it does not succeed in portraying a credible pharao Cheops surrounded by a credible court. (While we're at it, most of the actors and actresses look and sound ancient-Egyptian in the same way that I look and sound Inuit. And no, their weird-looking make-up in surprising shades of beige and brown doesn't help - on the contrary.) Don't be fooled by the thousands of extras walking around in authentic-looking peasant garments : it's a pretty safe bet that one can learn more about the civilisation of ancient Egypt by watching an opera by Tchaikovsky, taking a walk on a beach or cooking a pea soup. However, the movie does have one considerable charm : this is ripest, finest melodrama, with a lot of people chewing expensive and glamorous scenery while being really, really treacherous, really, really wise or really, really deluded. In other words, a must for viewers who possess a lively appreciation of mediocre art and enjoy seeing actors perform their heads off while a bonkers tale of megalomania ! treason ! slavery ! harem intrigues ! torture ! savage retribution ! unfolds. By the swinging teats of the hippopotamus goddess, don't tell me that I didn't warn you.

I'm giving this high marks in one regard -- unlike many Hollywood films about Egypt and pharaohs, where the sets are so Technicolorish-lavish that you can't really imagine things being quite so lush back in that era, this film at least has sets that seem more realistic (although I was surprised to note green ceramic tile!). I could believe the various sets here.And, the story is a decent one...essentially about the lust for gold, and, secondarily, power and how those 2 shiny things (one physical, the other mental) lead to obsession.I was also impressed that quite a few scenes were filmed "on location" in Egypt. And it was obvious that many of the "extras" were real Egyptians (even if the main actors were not).And, I couldn't help but laugh when I learned that this film, which was directed by Howard Hawks, immediately proceeded one of Hawk's films which is one of my favorites -- "Rio Bravo" starring John Wayne and Dean Martin. Quite a contrast.In my view, a good story is close to the same importance as the acting. And the acting here -- overall -- is pretty darned good. I don't think you can go wrong with Brit Jack Hawkins, here as Pharaoh Khufu. The big surprise for me was that Joan Collins could really act (not that she was any Bette Davis) back in the 1950s; I wonder what happened to make her so lousy years later in "Dynasty" where her acting was unintentionally humorous. But, she does nicely here as the scheming Princess Nellifer. Dewey Martin...well, he had a nice body, if minimal acting skills. Alex Minotis, a Greek actor, was quite good as the pharaoh's right hand man. James Robertson Justice was also interesting as Vashtar, the architect of the pyramid in question, and a slave from another country. I guess I never knew that Sydney Chaplin -- Charlie's son -- was an actor; I felt he was quite good here as a somewhat unwilling ally of Princess Nellifer.Interesting how very White the pharaoh's son was.And, I have to admit that the film's conclusion was...well...delicious!An admirable effort by Howard Hawks, an although it was a failure at the box office, in later years it earned some deserved praise.

Big budget nonsense with Joan vamping it up as a wannabe Egyptian queen. Some impressive set pieces but moves far too slowly to be really involving. Some of the acting is so stiff that if the actors mouths weren't moving you'd think they were trees. Jack Hawkins who in other films was a fine actor is strictly phoning it in here and Joan, who was a beautiful woman, looks hideous under terrible cocoa makeup and fire engine red lipstick. The kind of picture where the actors declaim rather than interact. Incredibly one of the writers of this sandlot soap opera was William Faulkner! Still on a purely camp level there are things to enjoy.

Although reviews at the time of its release were scathing, "Land of the Pharaohs" nonetheless grips the viewer's imagination from beginning to end of its compact 105 minutes. It also features some of the most spectacular visuals ever put on film. Many exteriors were shot in Egypt, employing thousands of extras, and delivering scenes that would have received an appreciative nod from the real Khufu himself.The film opens with an impressive spectacle. Khufu, the Pharaoh of Egypt played by Jack Hawkins, has returned victorious from a war against the Kushites. Among the captives is a remarkable engineer, Vashtar, played by James Robertson Justice at his basso profundo best. Khufu persuades Vashtar to design a tomb for him that will be resistant to thieves in exchange for allowing his people to return to their lands.All is well until Khufu is presented with Princess Nellifer from the island of Cyprus. At twenty-one, this was Joan Collins' first starring role. Full-figured, sporting a deep tan and a series of midriff-bare tops, she made a big impression. The filmmakers even managed to work in a sequence where she is whipped. Although brief and tame by today's standards – or lack of them – the scene would probably have needed some selling to the censors in 1956.Khufu falls under her spell and takes her as his second wife. However she proves treacherous, scheming from the start to become sole ruler of Egypt. In a memorable ending, Nellifer's plans come spectacularly unstuck but Vashtar's grand design works perfectly, and the movie ends with his people beginning the exodus back to their homeland.Although Jack Hawkins as Pharaoh projected the appropriate sense of power, this was undermined somewhat in a scene where Khufu strangles a bull. This was a stretch for Hawkins, who by this stage in his career didn't look like he had the muscle tone to finish a round of golf. An element of the movie that really delivered was Dimitri Tiomkin's score. It was truly one of the stars of this movie. Operatic in its grandeur, symphonic in scope it was a remarkable achievement in a decade noted for monumental scores.The Kushites were a dark-skinned people from lands south of Ancient Egypt. Great license was taken in casting James Robertson Justice and Dewey Martin as Kushites. But as the Kushites in this film are virtually cast in the role of the Israelites, including an Exodus from Egypt, one just has to go along with this amendment to history. More telling for the film's credibility, Dewey Martin plays Vashtar's son, Senta; it is in his character and the domestic sub-plot that the film struggles to be taken seriously. Howard Hawks, the director, felt the movie failed in the area of dialogue and although he was too critical of the final movie, he pinpointed the film's major weakness.However, the intensity of the drama, and the scale of the movie offset the odd misstep. Finally, "Land of the Pharaohs", like the great pyramids themselves, is big enough and bold enough to leave a lasting impression.