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The Egyptian Overview:

The Egyptian (1954) was a Drama - Historical Film directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck.

The film was based on the novel Sinuhe egyptiläinen (The Egyptian) written by Mika Waltari published in 1945.

Academy Awards 1954 --- Ceremony Number 27 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyLeon ShamroyNominated

The Egyptian BlogHub Articles:

The Egyptian Theatre Returns to the TCMFF

A flurry of excited emails arrived in my inbox yesterday, announcing that for the first time since 2019, the Egyptian Theatre will screen movies for the TCM Classic Film Festival. This is welcome news for classic film fans, who have worried about the fate of the theatre since Netflix acquired the pr... Read full article


The Egyptian Theatre back as a TCM Film Festival venue

The Egyptian Theatre back as a TCM Film Festival venue The legendary Egyptian Theatre, which opened its doors in 1922, is back as a major venue for the TCM Film Festival. Recently renovated by Netflix, the theatre is able to show 35mm, 70mm, digital formats, and nitrate prints. The TCM website ... Read full article


The Egyptian Theatre Returns to the TCMFF

A flurry of excited emails arrived in my inbox yesterday, announcing that for the first time since 2019, the Egyptian Theatre will screen movies for the TCM Classic Film Festival. This is welcome news for classic film fans, who have worried about the fate of the theatre since Netflix acquired the pr... Read full article


Of Netflix and the Egyptian

I've never seen a photo of Carole Lombard at the fabled Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, but we do have this image of one of her films playing there, "True Confession" in late 1937. Perhaps she was at its premiere. But since the Sid Grauman-built venue opened in 1922, it's highly likely Lomb... Read full article


The Egyptian ( 1954 )

"I feel the fever of Thebes in my blood, and I know that I was born to live in the sunset of the world and that nothing matters, nothing, but what I see in your eyes." Sinuhe, a poor orphan in Egypt during the eighteenth-dynasty, rises to fame as a great physician and, along with his friend Horemhe... Read full article


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The Egyptian Quotes:

Sinuhe: [Older Sinuhe voiceover] I have spent my life in seeking knowledge. This is what I know. I have written this for you my son, wherever you are and for your children and your children's children. It's a poor legacy. But it's all I have.

[first lines]
Sinuhe: [Older Sinuhe voiceover] I, Sinuhe the Egyptian, write this. In my place of exile on the shores of the Red Sea. There is no more desolate spot on earth. Soon the jackals and the vultures will make a poor meal of what is left of me. No monument will mark my resting place. I will leave only this, the story of my life. I have lived fully and deeply. I have tasted passion, crime and even murder. It is for you to judge me. You must weigh the good against the evil, the passion against the tenderness, the crime against the charity, the pleasure against the pain. I began life as I am ending it, alone. I rode alone on the bosom of the Nile in a boat of reeds dawbed with pitch and tied with fowler's knots. Thus the city of Thebes was accustomed to dispose of its unwanted children. I grew up on the waterfront of the city in the house of my foster parents who had saved me from the river. My foster father lived there by choice because he was also, by choice, physician to the poor of the city. From the rich he could have commanded princely fees, for he alone, in Thebes, was master of the ancient art of opening skulls. From the beginning I kept to myself. I used to wander alone on the banks of the Nile. Until the day came when I was ready to enter the School of Life. In the School of Life were trained the chosen young men of Egypt. The future scientists, philosophers, statesmen and generals. All the learning of Egypt lay in the keeping of the gods. For ten years I served them in the school that I might earn the right to call myself a physician. I learned to bend my body to them, but that was all. My mind still asked a question. Why?

Nefer: Wait. Before you touch me I must give you a warning.
Sinuhe: Warning?
Nefer: There is a reason the Goddess of Love takes the form of a cat.
Sinuhe: When I look at you I care nothing for cats or gods.
Nefer: Look Sinuhe. A cat's paws are soft. But they hide claws. A cat takes pleasure in tormenting its victim. Not until the creature is nearly dead does it show pity... and put an end to it.
Sinuhe: What has this to do with you and me?
Nefer: You've had less experience, and I must be what I am. Leave now and do not return through the gate in my wall, or you may regret it all your life.
Sinuhe: I don't even know your name.
Nefer: In their foolishness, men gave me the name which means, beautiful.
Sinuhe: Nefer. Nefer. Nefer.

[Horemheb is praticing his archery when a stranger's arrow hits his target. He spins around and sees Princess Baketamon]
Horemheb: Your Highness shoots well for a woman.
Baketamon: A child's game. I see one promotion.
Horemheb: Why not? A real soldier here is like a falcon among sparrows.

Nefer: No. I brought you here only to show you the gate in my garden wall. Later, when all of my guests have gone... I will be here by my lotus pool.
Sinuhe: Why do you tell me this?
Nefer: Perhaps because I am fond of gifts, and the greatest gift any man can bring to a woman is his innocence, which he can give only once.
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The Egyptian Facts
Average Shot Length (ASL) = 13 seconds

After shooting was completed, Fox made back some of the film's immense cost by selling many of the set pieces, props, and costumes to Paramount, which then employed them in an even bigger epic, Cecil B. DeMille's remake of The Ten Commandments.

Dirk Bogarde turned down the lead role after Brando bowed out.

At a cost of five million dollars, the film took two years to research, the designers ultimately cataloging five million items of clothing and properties for the epic.

In a publicity press book for the 20th Century Fox new CinemaScope projects for 1954, the cast of 'The Egyptian' was headed by 'Marlon Brando', 'Burt Lancaster' and 'Kirk Douglas'. Brando dropped out at the last minute.

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