Land of the Pharaohs (1955)

Directed by Howard Hawks. Starring Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins, Alexis Minotis, James Robertson Justice, Dewey Martin, Kerima, Sydney Chaplin, James Hayter, Luisella Boni.

Large-scale historical epic—from Howard Hawks, at that!—set in Ancient Egypt and offering up a fictional depiction of the construction of the Great Pyramid. Englishman Hawkins ain’t exactly pharaoh material, but he plays the greedy, vainglorious ruler who demands the pyramid to be built to keep grave robbers from stealing the riches he’ll be buried with after passing on to the next life; Collins is similarly miscast (and overly made-up) as one of the pharaoh’s wives, a schemer who has her own designs on the treasure. Dialogue is anachronistic and downright silly, and the romantic melodrama elements are bad even for their type, but there’s lots to look at (populated by thousands of extras), and although it’s short on action/battles—one middle-of-the-road swordfight, a threatening snake, some palace intrigue, a juicy just-desserts ending, and that’s about it—there’s camp value to spare. William Faulkner is one of the credited screenwriters, believe it or not; easier to believe is the vigor of Dmitri Tiomkin’s score. The first flop of Hawks’ career, and it would be four years before he returned to the silver screen (with Rio Bravo).

56/100