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Land of the Pharoahs
Quite possibly the most anomalous film in the legendary director Howard Hawks' oeuvre, Land of the Pharoahs, if taken with a grain (OK, pillar) of salt can be immensely enjoyable on its own merits. Hawks, more usually associated with intimate character studies, works on an epic canvas here--the building of the great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu)--and plies the Cinemascope image (the only time he worked in this format) for all it's worth. With a screenplay co-written by none other than William Faulkner (a frequent Hawks collaborator), the dialogue can be more than a bit stilted, even to the point of humor at times, but the basic plot device--a Pharoah so single-minded he can only think of hoarding treasure for his "second life", to be housed in a thief-proof pyramid, no matter what the cost to him or his people--is worthwhile and, in a way, more typically Hawksian than some people have given it credit for being. Jack Hawkins essays the Pharoah with his stolid reserve, and a very young and voluptuous Joan Collins vamps it up as his second wife and would-be Queen. James Robertson Justice provides solid support as the slave architect forced to design the pyramid. Dimitri Tiomkin provides a colorful, if not especially Egyptian sounding, score, that ranks with his epic work on The Fall of the Roman Empire. This was an epic widescreen spectacle filmed in 1955 to lure people away from their new toy, television, and, if taken at that level, can provide two hours of escapist fare.
The DVD
Video:
The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at, surprisingly so, considering it was filmed in Warnercolor, which, unlike Technicolor, had a tendency toward browns. It is presented in an anamorphic 2.55:1 ratio, the first time on home video the film has been seen in its correct aspect ratio since an early 90s Laserdisc. The transfer is excellent, though expect a bit of graininess in the opticals, a standard issue with DVD quality resolution. There was no noticeable layer change when played on my Sony.
Sound:
The four track stereo soundtrack is well represented on this DVD, with excellent separation and distortion free reproduction. Listen carefully for the two or three times when Joan Collins either was dubbed or had a really bad cold on her ADR days.
Extras:
Not much to write home about here--the expected theatrical trailer and a "commentary" by Peter Bogdanovich that would be pretty useless were it not for his inclusion of his late 60s interviews with Hawks himself. Hawks freely admits he doesn't like the film much, that it was more of a "DeMille picture," at which point he launches into several hilarious anecdotes about DeMille.
Final Thoughts:
If you're a fan of "large canvas" historical epics, you can't go wrong with Land of the Pharoahs. Solid performances, gorgeous photography and a boisterous score make up for the ludicrous aspects of the dialogue.
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