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Cult Camp Classics, Vol. 4: Historical Epics (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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A terrific boxed set with a cast of thousands
Review date: 2008-02-01 Rating: 10 out of 10

Howard Hawks and Joan Collins may have spent years talking the film down after its failure at the box-office, but Land of the Pharaohs isn't the kind of guilty pleasure you might expect given its DVD release as part of Warners' `Camp Classics Collection.' While it may be hokum (Jack Hawkins' gold-loving Pharaoh determines to build a pyramid that will keep him and his treasures safe from tomb robbers for all eternity while new wife Joan Collins plots to relieve him of them), there's some damn good filmmaking in there as well as a killer ending that help mark it out as one of the best of the 50s widescreen epics. The first 35 minutes, offering a truly spectacular introduction to the world of Ancient Egypt, are particularly impressive, and once the plot is set in motion it's a fascinating look at the sheer logistics of building a pyramid with only human labour at your disposal. The fact that these sequences are filmed with real human labour - literally thousands of real extras - rather than CGI trickery only adds to their real sense of awe.

Things do take a turn for the sillier with the arrival of Joan Collins' scheming temptress, pouting her way from Cypriot ambassador (yes, it's a stretch) to Pharaoh's latest wife and then plotting to separate him from his wife, his life and his beloved treasure in that order while he shows off his godlike powers by wrestling a bull barehanded. In the process, James Robertson Justice's conquered and captive architect trading his life and his talents for his people's freedom and his son Dewey Martin tend to get sidelined. Apparently the film was originally going to be longer but was trimmed down before release, and it's possible that their characters bore the brunt of the cuts. It's been done skilfully enough that it doesn't look like anything is obviously missing, although it does leave the film with no-one to root for: in Hawks' words, "Everybody was a son-of-a-b****." Yet that never really matters, since the film's S.O.B.s are much more interesting than any of the more decent characters, and the film throws in one of the screen's greatest and most delightfully ingenious poetic revenge endings as everyone gets what they richly deserve.

A forerunner to his masterly work on The Fall of the Roman Empire, Dimitri Tiomkin's florid and grandiose score may not be subtle, but this isn't a film that calls for musical subtlety: often boasting surprisingly complex construction and deconstruction of themes, this is powerful, epic stuff determined to give voice to the thousands of extras and the be heard above all the wonders and gods of Ancient Egypt themselves. Unfortunately the DVD transfer is somewhat disappointing thanks to the combination of the deeply flawed WarnerColor system that is an absolute nightmare to restore and early CinemaScope lenses which occasionally give you a loss of detail and variable color in the same shot, with long shots suffering worst of all. It's certainly acceptable and there's nothing that can realistically be done to improve it, but it is a shame. On the plus side, Peter Bogdanovich's audio commentary thankfully includes plentiful extracts from his taped interviews with Hawks and the original theatrical trailer is included. Incidentally, for another, less Hollywood take on the subject, seek out Ismail Kadare's superb Albanian novel The Dust of Kings (published in English as The Pyramid) which uses the building of Cheops' Great Pyramid as an allegory for Stalin's Five Year Plans.


The Prodigal fills in all those bits in the parable of the Prodigal Son that Jesus omitted, and very entertainingly too. It seems junior (Edmund Purdom) got the hots for the high priestess of Astati (Lana Turner) while incurring the wrath of the high priest of Baal and tyrant of Damascus (Louis Calhern) and frittered away his fortune before coming to his senses and leading the people in rebellion against their pagan oppressors. As you might guess from that synopsis, there are more than a few similarities to The Egyptian, not least Edmund Purdom selling his birthright for a second time for bit of nookie with a pagan temptress (he'd do anything for a bit of skirt, that Purdom: did he learn nothing from his experience with Bella Darvi?), although this is a lot less thoughtful and a lot more fun. A rare 50s epic shot in Hollywood rather than Cinecitta, it falls somewhere between De Mille - the apprentice child priestess in her miniature chariot drawn by a goat could be straight out of the opening of the silent King of Kings - and MGM at its most opulent. There's not much for the mind or the spirit here, but there's plenty to entertain, from Joseph Wiseman hamming away like nobody's business, even doing an imitation of a teapot in one bizarre shot, to the most imaginative Breen Office-approved sadism this side of Sodom and Gomorrah - not only do we get willing sacrificial victims swan diving into fiery pits and a fight with a stuffed vulture but when people get the knife, they get it literally in the neck, which is a pretty neat trick. Calhern offers some splendid villainy, Francis L. Sullivan's moneylender plays both ends against the middle with sly wit, Hurd Hatfield lookalike James Mitchell fulfils the mute but acrobatic sidekick duties and director Richard Thorpe ensures it all looks great in CinemaScope. It ain't art but it is great fun.


Having only see Sergio Leone's The Colossus of Rhodes in a panned-and-scanned TV version before, it's surprising how much more enjoyable the film is when you see it in its proper `TotalScope' ratio. Where Leone's previous peplum, 1959's dreary and underfunded version of The Last Days of Pompeii, looked like it could have been made by any one of a hundred unimaginatively anonymous Italian directors, Colossus always looks terrific, with a mastery of the widescreen that Leone would take even further in his Westerns: this being a particularly well-funded epic, rather than the huge close-ups and empty space of later films, it's filled with people as if the producers are afraid to leave any corner of the frame without something to look at, but it wears it well. You also get to see the redressed Roman barracks set where Chuck met Stephen Boyd in Ben-Hur again, here redressed as a royal mausoleum!

It's a genuinely spectacular affair offering pretty much everything you could want from a peplum - not much in the way of musclemen but plenty of corrupt rulers, rebels and conspiracies, torture in the dungeons and the arena, the spectacular destruction of a city in a natural disaster and imported American star Rory Calhoun imitating Victor Mature every time he laughs in profile, which is surprisingly often considering the misfortunes that befall him. Along the way Leone throws in plenty of playful riffs on Hitchcock, with the Colossus itself providing plenty of visual homages to both The Saboteur and North by Northwest. Not a major work by any means but a surprisingly enjoyable one.

While this is the American release version rather than the slightly longer Italian version, it's still a good DVD, with a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, informative audio commentary by Leone biographer Christopher Frayling and the US theatrical trailer.


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Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
James Robertson Justice
Dewey Martin
Jack Hawkins
Joan Collins
Alex Minotis

Creators:
Jack Hawkins (Primary Contributor)
Joan Collins (Primary Contributor)
Ageo Savioli (Writer)
Carlo Gualtieri (Writer)
Cesare Seccia (Writer)
Duccio Tessari (Writer)
Ennio De Concini (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 0085391145240
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 3
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2007-06-26
Universal product code (UPC): 085391145240
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Region code: 1
Theatrical release date: 1961-11
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)

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