Stars Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, Carlos Thompson And Kurt Kasnar.
Released in 1954, this is a highly enjoyable adventure film and a document in time. The fifties saw the rise of television programs and people were staying home in the evenings to watch TV shows like I Love Lucy and Syd Ceasar's late night comedy show. Technicolor films, like this one, with attractive actors, exotic locales and exciting themes, were made to lure people into the movie theaters once again. Robert Taylor was a big star and his taking part in this film is an obvious attempt to draw his fans. Here he portrays the macho archaeologist Mark Brandon, and let's remember this is decades before Harrison Ford took up a whip and sought the Lost Ark in the Indiana Jones movies in the 80's. He is witty, intellectual and relies on both his smarts and his fists. He does a wonderful job and his fans must have been delighted to see him in an action/adventure film. His co-star and romantic interest is Eleanor Parker. If you don't know who she is, she played the cynical, wealthy Baroness Schreider in 1964's The Sound of Music, in which she was Julie Andrew's rival. Eleanor Parker is a willful, beautiful woman named Anne Barclay Mercedes whose dying father's wish was to find archaeological evidence of the Biblical Joseph's life in ancient Egypt. Carlos Thompson plays Anne's husband Phillip. Along with Brandon they journey into Cairo, risk their lives, go on a carriage chase through the marketplace, weather a sand storm, fight enemies and discover ancient tombs and treasures. The Arabic actor Kurt Kaznar plays the villain. Too bad at this time Americans still looked at Middle Eastern people as villainous. Kaznar's character fits the stereotype down to the last detail. But its' fun to watch Hamed Backour plot and lose against Robert Taylor. The cinematography is gorgeous. In black and white, this film would not have had the same impact, for we are treated handsomely to a visual feast of colorful silks, turbans, Egyptian treasures, the Statues at Abu-Simbel, deserts, caravans and all kinds of exotica. The music is melodramatic and pulsing with excitement. For fans of these types of adventure films. Collect it along with the Indiana Jones and The Mummy films.
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