Land of the Pharaohs

Epic Howard Hawks production about the building of the Egyptian pyramids, starring Jack Hawkins as the Pharoah who instructs his people to construct a great pyramid to house his body, his wealth and all of his staff when he dies. But trouble lies ahead in the form of Joan Collins, a 5,000 year predecessor of Alexis Colby who decides she wants to have the pyramid for herself., Historical epic about an Egyptian ruler who orders and oversees the building of a magnificent, thief-proof tomb for himself, and the scheming wife who puts him there., In ancient Egypt the Pharaoh Khu-fu is obsessed with acquiring gold and plans to take it all with him into the ‘second life’., Lavish, spectacular costume drama which recreates life in ancient Egypt. For decades, the great pharaoh drives his people to construct his tomb, an enormous pyramid that will protect his body and wealth, and guarantee his soul’s safe passage into the afterlife. But the pharaoh’s earthly court is rife with duplicity and intrigue., Howard Hawks’ spectacular epic set in Ancient Egypt and centred on the intrigue surrounding Pharaoh Jack Hawkins’ building of a Great Pyramid to beat grave-robbers and ensure his life in the second world., “Nobody knew how a Pharaoh talked!” That’s how producer/director Howard Hawks explained some of the sillier dialogue exchanges in the William Faulkner-Harry Kurnitz-Harold Jack Bloom script for Hawks’ Land of the Pharaohs. Extravagantly produced with a cast of seeming millions (actually there were some 10,000 extras), the film speculates on the circumstances surrounding the construction of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Jack Hawkins plays the Pharaoh, who orders enslaved architect James Robertson Justice to build a magnificent, thief-proof tomb for him. At first, the people of Egypt willingly pitch in to construct the huge pyramid. But as the years roll by and the work shows no signs of abating, the Pharaoh begins relying upon forced labor from lands he has conquered. He also plunders the coffers of his neighboring countries. Cyprus can’t pony up the necessary gold, so the country sends luscious Joan Collins (complete with a jewel in her navel) as a “present” for the Pharaoh. Fascinated by the spitfire Collins, the Pharaoh makes her his second wife. What he doesn’t know is that Collins is just as much a predator as she would be in the TV series Dynasty. Hoping to gain all of the Pharaoh’s kingdom and the riches therein, she stage-manages her husband’s death. After the funeral procession, the Pharaoh is sealed in his tomb by a series of sand-operated weights, levers and pulleys (this speculation as to how the Pyramids were closed is the most fascinating part of the film). Collins watches in barely controlled glee; she isn’t yet privy to the Egyptian custom of entombing the Pharaoh’s widow alive, along with her husband’s body–but she soon will be.