The curse of the Sphinx

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The curse of the Sphinx
Original title sphinx
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1981
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Franklin J. Schaffner
script John Byrum
production Stanley O'Toole
music Michael J. Lewis
camera Ernest Day
cut Michael F. Anderson
Robert Swink
occupation

The Curse of the Sphinx (Original title: Sphinx ) is an American adventure film from 1981. It is a literary film adaptation of the 1979 novel Sphinx by Robin Cook .

action

Thebes in 1301 BC In the Valley of the Kings , some grave robbers plunder a grave and are captured by Mernephtah, the royal architect, and his men. You are sentenced to death by dividing it into four. This is where Mernephtah comes up with the idea of ​​how he can better protect his graves. In the present, the Egyptologist Erica Baron reads the ancient records of the researcher Howard Carter how he once discovered the same graves. His companion Lord Carnarvon died four months later, as did 21 other companions on the expedition. To find out more about Mernephtah, she visits the archaeologist Abdu-Hamdi in Cairo . He can give her just an old valuable statue of Seti I . show before he is killed by unknown men. Shortly before his death he could still ask her when she travels to Luxor to give his son Tewfik a book. Before the same men can kill her too, she is rescued by Yvon Mageot, who poses as a journalist. Erica believes Stephanos Markoulis had Abdu-Hamdi killed. Mageot asks her not to go to the police, but rather to help find the statue.

She later meets Akmed Khazzan, the director of the Ministry of Antiquities of the Egyptian Republic, in her hotel room. He later instructs Gamal to pursue them. He follows her on her journey to the Sphinx. She is followed by a second man who shoots at her, killing Gamal, who threw himself protectively at her. She is arrested by the army and almost raped by an officer. Khazzan saves her from it and learns from her that she doesn't know why she should be killed. She just wants to leave the country. Khazzan helps her by handing her plane tickets. But when she leafed through Abdu-Hamdi's book in the evening, she discovered a letter addressed to Tewfik, which stated that nothing is as it seems. That's enough for them to visit Tewfik in Luxor. But this is dismissive towards her and does not want to talk. Since she teaches Khazzan, he is already waiting for her in Luxor. He tells of his youth, some of which he spent in the ruins, and guides you through all the ancient sites. In the evening he kisses her and they spend the night together.

The next morning she tries to find Sarwat Raman, the former foreman of Carter's expedition. Since he died, however, she went to his widow and received an old papyrus scroll , which she took photos and later translated in the hotel. It is an old entry in Mernephtah's diary in which he writes how he came up with the idea of ​​better protecting the riches of his designed graves. She calls Khazzan and tells him about it. However, she wants to check something beforehand. As she is again being pursued by shady figures, she asks Yvon, who happens to be in the same hotel, to distract them so that they can drive out to the graves. Once there, she is captured, pushed down a flight of stairs, and locked up. She clears away a wall and is able to get out of prison. She runs back into the valley and hides from the armed guards. In doing so, she discovers an old system of tunnels, which leads to a huge underground treasure trove filled with gold.

Back at her hotel, Markoulis chases her again. She thinks that Yvon will save her. But it turns out that Markoulis was paid by Yvon to find out where the statue is. Yvon previously killed Mewfik and wants to find out from Erica what she knows. Markoulis is killed and she successfully escapes from the hotel to see Khazzan. But suddenly the men who locked her up in the grave appear from the background. There is a shootout between Yvon's people and the ominous other men, in which Erica escapes again. She rushes to the treasury, where she already finds Khazzan, who tells her about his family history and how they have been trying for ages to steal all the riches from the graves and store them in the treasury. She asks to get out of the country with him. But instead he collapses the chamber and is struck by the falling rubble. Erica leaves the tomb full of sorrow and leaves a richly filled treasury behind.

criticism

“This film is an embarrassment,” said Variety magazine, because Schaffner's “calm and sober style” could not save the film “in the face of the many improbabilities”.

The lexicon of international films said: "An indecisive mixture between crime and horror film, which remains quite powerless despite all the pompous effort and the cultural wealth on display."

Tom Buckley commented in the New York Times : “It turns out that the curse of the pharaohs affects those who make films about it, as Frank Langella learned after it was not exactly received by critics after its New York premiere . " Vincent Canby , also in the New York Times, said:" Together, Schaffner and Byrum effectively destroyed a possibly really absurd archaeological adventure film. "The actors" are terrible "and the film" never makes sense "

background

The film was filmed on location in Egypt for over three months , with government censors accompanying the film to ensure that Egyptians were portrayed in a positive light. However, many of the scenes that were positively perceived by the censors were not used for the film. Overall, the rough cut of the film was a little over four and a half hours.

The role of Khazzan played by Langella was originally offered to Rutger Hauer . He turned it down in favor of his role in Nachtfalken .

The film opened in US cinemas on February 13, 1981, and grossed just over 2 million US dollars . In Germany, the film opened in cinemas on September 10, 1981. The film is available as a German VHS .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sphinx on variety.com from December 31, 1980 (English), accessed October 25, 2012
  2. ↑ The Curse of the Sphinx. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ a b Tom Buckley: AT THE MOVIES; by Tom Buckley; Langella tells of Egyptian adventures. , nytimes.com , accessed April 22, 2020
  4. ↑ Vincent Canby: SCHAFFNER'S 'SPHINX' , nytimes.com , accessed April 22, 2020
  5. ↑ Sphinx (1982) on boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed October 25, 2012