Movie Screening & Discussion - The Land of the Pharaohs

Join Marcus Renna in the Scott Room for a screening and discussion of the 1955 historical epic Land of the Pharaohs. Directed by Howard Hawks, written by a team of William Faulkner, Harold Jack Bloom, and Harry Kurnitz, and starring Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins, and Dewey Martin, Land of the Pharoahs is a fictionalized depicition of the building of the Great Pyramid.

Pharaoh Khufu (Hawkins) is the all-powerful ruler of ancient Egypt and has amassed unimaginable wealth through the conquest of distant lands. He enlists Vashtar (James Robertson Justice), a brilliant, enslaved architect, and offers freedom for Vashtar's people if he can create a pyramid impervious to all thieves. As the years pass, zeal among Pharaoh Khufu's subjects for building the pyramid begins to flag, and the restive province of Cyprus offers the beautiful Princess Nellifer (Collins) to Khufu in lieu of taxes. Nellifer soon begins to intrigue within the court, attempting to become his favorite and heir. With Vashtar's eyesight failing, he turns to his son Senta (Martin) for assistance, secretly teaching him the hidden knowledge of the pyramid's construction. When Khufu is injured and soon to die, Nellifer puts her treacherous schemes to hasten his death into action, setting up a dramatic moment as the pyramid is finally completed and sealed.

The film, in the same vein as other Hollywood epics of antiquity at the time such as The Ten Commandments, was initially a box office failure. The production was lavish, with thousands of extras and shot on location in Egypt. Upon its original release, the film was banned by the Egyptian government for "distortion of historical facts." It later enjoyed renewed attention when director Martin Scorsese listed the film among his favorites.

A lavish, visually arresting epic bringing the feel (if not always an accurate history) of ancient Egypt to life.