LAND OF THE PHARAOHS (1955)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 104 Minutes 21 Seconds
Video: B&W 1080p HD Widescreen (2.55:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Jack Hawkins, James Robertson Justice, Joan Collins, Kerima, Sydney Chaplin, Carlo D'Angelo
Director Howard Hawks historical Cinemascope-shot epic The Land of the Pharaohs (1955) is a fictional account of the building of The Great Pyramid on Egypt, a lavish production shot on location in Egypt with up to ten thousand extras. In it Jack Hawkins (Theatre of Blood) stars as Pharaoh Khufu who at the start of the film has returned from a war campaign with a vast array of war spoils treasures and newly enslaved people, among them a skilled stone architect named Vashtar (James Robertson Justice, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) whom he tasks with building a impenetrable tomb in which Khufu will be buried in upon his death alongside his great riches, allowing him to take them with him into his "second life". If Vashtar does this for the Pharaoh he has been promised that upon completion his people will freed, but because he knows the secret of the tomb he would be buried alongside Khufu.
Meanwhile, the Khufu begins collecting taxes to fund his in the place of monetary offerings send the beautiful Princess Nellifer (Joan Collins, Tales from the Crypt) to the Pharaoh in lieu of taxes. The bronzed-skin beauty is quite insolent, but despite this and because of her beauty she quickly becomes a favorite of the Pharaoh, becoming his second wife, his first being Queen Nailla (Kerima, Outcast of the Islands) who has bore the Pharoah a male air. After laying eyes on the Pharaoh's treasures the duplicitous Nellifer decides she will usurp the throne so that the coveted jewels and gold do not end up buried with Khufo, but first she has to do away with the queen. To that end she hatches a scheme with the help of a palace guardsman Treneh (Sydney Chaplin, Satan's Cheerleaders), whom she has seduced, and her loyal slave Nabuna (Carlo D'Angelo, Battle of the Worlds) to unleash a cobra upon the queen and an assassination by night on the Pharaoh.
The plot such as it is is mighty thin considering there were three writers, one of which was none other than celebrated Nobel-prize winning author William Faulkner - we get the usual conniving queen brand of palace intrigue, it's really no great shakes to be honest. What makes this one so fantastic is the on-location shooting in Egypt, and that the sets are so grand, with lavish palace locations, and pyramid interiors that take us through the labyrinth of the massive carved stone structures, which are lavishly decorated in later scenes, establishing the magnitude and scope of the production. There are probably a few too many montages of the giant carved stones being unearthed, pulled along, hoisted-up, or carried on boats to the Pyramid construction site, but given the short-changed main story they had to pad it with something I guess, and the locations add authenticity to the setting. The way that Vashtar's sand-hydraulic stone structure work and are depicted in the film, particularly in the final few minutes when the tomb is sealing itself up, looks magnificent and certainly convey the scope and magnitude of the construction of the inner workings of the pyramid.
I thought Jack Hawkins was solid as the Pharaoh, he was neither easy-going nor a tyrant, but comes off as faior, always aided by his ever present high priest Hamar (Alexis Minotis, Notorious). Of course Joan Collins makes for a seductively beautiful presence, basically doing what she always did on film, playing an gorgeously conniving ice queen, whose greed and continual treachery leads a pretty tasty bit revenge of revenge from beyond the grave.
Audio/Video: The Land of the Pharaohs (1955) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Warner Archive in 1080p HD widescreen framed in the original Cinemascope 2.55:1 aspect ratio. The source is in great shape, a lovely restoration all around by WAC, faithfully rendering the WarnerColor (aka Eastmancolor) with loads of ultra--bronze skintones that sometimes lean grey in certain lighting, but otherwise the colors are often quite vibrant, and black levels during night scenes and the torch lit interiors of the pyramid look great. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 stereo with optional English subtitles, it's free of age-related issues and sounds terrific. The surround is not the most active but the full-bodied and often brassy score Dimitri Tiomkin (Angel Face) score benefits quite nicely from it.
Archival extras include an Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Director Peter Bogdanovich that features archival interview comments by Howard Hawks. The Hawks clips are pretty great as he is fairly candid about his feeling on the film. Notably, the commentary is only viewable via a separate standard-def non-anamorphic version of the film. I am assuming because of issues having to do with how the commentary was originally recorded, and I guess this was the only way to include it, and I am glad they did! We also get the 4-min Original Theatrical Trailer. I am a bit disappointed that the wrap advertises the Classic Warner Bros. Cartoon 'Sahara Hare' that is unfortunately nowhere to be found on the disc, apparently omitted by accident and/or not caught during the QC process - a rare gaff from WAC.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Director Peter Bogdanovich (with archival interview comments by Howard Hawks) on SD Version Only
- Original Theatrical Trailer (4:18)
Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray:
