TCM Comments on Land of the Pharaohs (1955)

[@user-nx1wj9jy8i]

This picture is an underrated film, a hidden gem. I thank Martin Scorsese for bringing this film back.

[@yvonneplant9434]

Especially the beginning with Khufu's return. The music! The brass especially! 🎉

[@robbillington1982]

As a former archaeologist, Mr Scorsese, I salute you

[@stevie68a]

Martin Scorsese is right. There is much to appreciate visually in this film. The clever plot of building a robber-proof pyramid, and also the twist ending.

[@markvargas2352]

Just fast forward anytime Collins shows up and the movie is viewable. It's typical Hollywood historical nonsense but the final scene in the pyramid is almost worth the wait.

[@FannyPlusvi]

I love this film, it's an amazing production with an interesting story, it's almost a documentary on how the pyramids were constructed. Everything feels very real except some costumes and hairdos (specially those of Joan Collins who looks too 'hollywood fifties') I don't like the music either, it sounds a bit old and perhaps too epic. (But who am I to contradic the opinion of the master Scorsesse) Anyway, I still love this film. It's a time travel to antique Egipt.

[@ericthered760]

If Cleopatra (1962) bankrupted 20th Century Fox, this picture seems even more extravagant in terms of production. Wonder it didn't bankrupt Warner Brothers - Really like the film. Fantastic and otherworldly.

[@yvonneplant9434]

Giving Elizabeth Taylor $1 million for it certainly didn't help.

[@richardw3470]

Yep, it was a stinker, real soap opera. But, the spectacle was spectacular. The Robe was a story on movie studio sets but it had more story. Boy, there were a lot of 'biblical epics at that time. My dad said when the original Ben Hur hit our town they closed the schools and the kids were taken to see it.

[@frankgesuele6298]

Today most of this would be CGI.

[@bethparker1500]

But the Hebrews did not work on the pyramids....

[@mktrafton7042]

Correct, the pyramids predate the Hebrews and were built by Egyptians. The pyramids are from the Old Kingdom. Hebrew slavery in Egypt is most probably during the New Kingdom when Egypt was a eastern Mediterranean super power, before it's decline during the bronze age collapse. As an empire it is likely New Kingdom Egypt had vast numbers of slaves to labor in the place of Egyptians. Hebrew slavery is therefore possible if not likely.