"Pharoah" DVD

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I've always gotten a goofy kick out of Howard Hawks' Land of the Pharoahs (1955), which has an upcoming 6.26 DVD release. One reason is that a presumably half-drunk William Faulkner helped write the script. I don't know of any eyewitness accounts of Faulkner's behavior during this period, but if you were Faulkner wouldn't you booze it up if you were stuck writing an ancient Egyptian costume flick?

Here are four more reasons: (1) those slinky bikini-harem costumes worn by costar Joan Collins (only 21 at the time of filming, and allegedly referred to in mid '50s industry circles as "the British Open"), and the way Jack Hawkins, as the Pharoah Khufu, tears off her covering veil in an early scene, (2) Dimitri Tiomkin's grandiose, slam-bang musical score, (3) Hawkins' tough-guy performance as an arrogant man of action, and (4) the finale that has a crying, screaming Collins ("I don't want to die!") realizing she's been tricked into being buried alive inside Khufu's pyramid.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 11, 2007 at 1:35 PM

comment #1

Larry says ...

No question, it's one of his worst films, but even bad Hawks has fun stuff in it, especially the finale.

Posted by Larry at June 11, 2007 1:51 PM

comment #2

Rich S. says ...

Roger Ebert's site just had a terrific reprint of his 1969 review of the Russian version of War and Peace. He theorized at that time that films like Cleopatra and Fall of the Roman Empire had killed off the epic once and for all and that smaller films were coming into vogue. War and Peace, which he considered the greatest epic ever made, would serve as the epitaph of the sprawling epic.

It's fascinating reading in light of today's movie industry.

Posted by Rich S. at June 11, 2007 2:09 PM

comment #3

Jayne Gacey says ...

I wonder why no one ever thought to make a movie STARRING Faulkner. Maybe Steinbeck too. Perhaps a road picture?

Posted by Jayne Gacey at June 11, 2007 2:11 PM

comment #4

le corbeau says ...

GODDAMMIT JEFF, YOU GAVE AWAY THE ENDING!

You missed the main advantage that LOTP has over the other Biblical epics of the 50s-- it's less than half as long (106 minutes into Ben-Hur, you haven't even had the sea battle yet). Yeah, it's silly, but it doesn't ooze by like so many of them do. Tiomkin's score is really good, and I don't think he was a particularly strong composer, but he hits just the right level of bombast.

Posted by le corbeau at June 11, 2007 2:13 PM

comment #5

jeffmcm says ...

At least now Wells is spoiling movies made before most of us were born. Next up: the Tramp gets the girl at the end of City Lights!

Posted by jeffmcm at June 11, 2007 2:46 PM

comment #6

Rich S. says ...

In this case, Jeffrey is in the clear as to spoilers. Look at the one sheet itself.

Posted by Rich S. at June 11, 2007 2:58 PM

comment #7

le corbeau says ...

Yeah, I noticed that. As well as the absurd rendition of Jack Hawkins' physique (which calls to mind Groucho Marx's comment on Samson and Delilah: "I don't like any movie where the leading man's tits are bigger than the leading lady's.")

Posted by le corbeau at June 11, 2007 3:07 PM

comment #8

BurmaShave says ...

Maybe Jeff's Sopranos spoilers would have been better last week like this:

WHACKED!
The Cruel Phil Leotardo's decree
Bobby!
Silvio!

Posted by BurmaShave at June 11, 2007 3:08 PM

comment #9

Craig Kennedy says ...

"You missed the main advantage that LOTP has over the other Biblical epics of the 50s-- it's less than half as long"

I can't think of a time when Hawks was bloated and inefficient. Of course, I'm sure I'm about to be quickly proven wrong...

Posted by Craig Kennedy at June 11, 2007 3:08 PM

comment #10

Terry McCarty says ...

I remember seeing it in the 90s at the old Four Star Theater on Wilshire before it was closed and remodeled into a fundamentalist church.

Did anyone else here go to the Four Star during that period? I remember when they had a double-bill of DELIVERANCE and THE ROAD WARRIOR (if I recall correctly, both films were shown in 70mm).

Posted by Terry McCarty at June 11, 2007 3:14 PM

comment #11

le corbeau says ...

"Of course, I'm sure I'm about to be quickly proven wrong..."

No, not really. Even the lame Hawks movies pretty much move. And he's probably the only guy whose remakes of his own movies are shorter than the original (Rio Lobo is shorter than El Dorado, which is shorter than Rio Bravo).

Posted by le corbeau at June 11, 2007 3:30 PM

comment #12

Pdorwick says ...

Let me do it for you: "SPOILER ALERT"

Jesus, is this your first day on-line? I know you think yourself above such a bad movie but don't give away the ending.

...asshole.

Posted by Pdorwick at June 11, 2007 4:36 PM

comment #13

nemo says ...

Faulkner and Hawks! And drinking! Those were the days.

There's a story that Hawks and Hemingway were sitting in a duck blind together drinking whiskey, and Hawks told Hemingway he could make a good picture from Hemingway's worst novel. Hemingway asked, so what's my worst novel? Hawks answered without hesitating, To Have and Have Not. Hemingway agreed it was pretty bad.

When Faulkner heard that Hawks was making To Have and Have Not, he told Hawks he wanted to write the screenplay, because he always wanted to have the chance to re-write Hemingway.

And supposedly that's how To Have and Have Not ended up as the only movie ever written by two Nobel Prize winners.

Posted by nemo at June 11, 2007 5:10 PM

comment #14

nemo says ...

"(4) the finale that has a crying, screaming Collins ("I don't want to die!") realizing she's been tricked into being buried alive inside Khufu's pyramid."

Sounds like Paris Hilton was trying out for the remake.

Posted by nemo at June 11, 2007 5:13 PM

comment #15