The scene where the people stream in is very Eisenstein, except the funeral scene in Potemkin has the benefit of all those stairs, levels & depths. I appreciate the care Hawks takes in documenting the building of the pyramids, but the movie is in general lazily directed; Faulkner's script is terrible in places & parts can be tolerated only in the spirit of camp.
Something tells me Hawks had a blast with this camp classic which casts a host of Brit actors in almost pantomime roles ,it really defines the word camp classic
i've yet to make it through spartacus, ben-hur or the ten commandments but i watched most of this. it's oddly compelling but cheesy as hell
When I was younger I loved so-called Epics, including the 3 you mention above! I've somehow never got round to seeing Land of the Pharaohs but as it's directed by Hawks, one of my favourite directors, I have to see it at some point - cheese or no cheese!!
it's not without redeeming qualities, thx to faulkner's script probably. also joan collins is almost unrecognizable. did she get a whole new face at some point? :\
She must have done. She appears on UK talk shows all the time these days and looks remarkably well preserved for someone who must be at least 120 years old!!!
A disaster upon its original release, Howard Hawks' CinemaScope epic is actually a pretty entertaining melodrama. A lavishly designed visual spectacle with a compelling, fast-paced plot (co-written by William Faulkner) and a great boisterous score by Dimitri Tiomkin. There are a number of overheated moments and performances, but somehow that's all part of its bloated pulp charm. Underrated.