Sinuhe the Egyptians (film)

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Movie
German title Sinuhe the Egyptians
Original title The Egyptian
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1954
length 139 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Michael Curtiz
script Philip Dunne
Casey Robinson
Mika Waltari
production Darryl F. Zanuck /
20th Century Fox
music Bernard Herrmann
Alfred Newman
camera Leon Shamroy
cut Barbara McLean
occupation

Sinuhe the Egyptians is a monumental film by the American director Michael Curtiz based on the novel Sinuhe the Egyptians ( Sinuhe Egyptiläinen ) by Mika Waltari, first published in 1945 .

content

The film tells the life story of the Egyptian doctor Sinuhe , who manages to rise from a poor background to become Pharaoh Akhenaten's personal doctor .

Sinuhe is abandoned as an infant and found by his future foster parents, a doctor and his wife. He is the half-brother of the Crown Prince, which nobody suspects at first. He learned the medical profession from his stepfather and went into business for himself. In his search for patients, the destitute kafta joins him as his famulus . After the Pharaoh dies, Sinuhe and his friend Haremhab save the life of an unknown man on a lion hunt, who later turns out to be the new Pharaoh. Despite their deed, they are charged with lese majesty, but are pardoned and placed in his service by the Pharaoh, Sinuhe as personal physician and haremhab as commander of the bodyguard. Later, Sinuhe succumbs to the charms of the wealthy noble prostitute Nefer and gradually gives her all his possessions, through which he hopes for her love services. He also gives the house and the future grave of his foster parents to Nefer, to the horror of Merit, a barmaid who really loves him. When Nefer finally rejects him, he goes to his parents' house impoverished and learns from Kafta that his foster parents have committed suicide. He desperately tries in the House of Death to have them embalmed, which he is assured against the admission to embalm the dead himself, which is considered dishonorable work. After completing this work, he buries his parents in the Valley of the Kings. Together with Kafta, he then sets off to leave Egypt. In Greece , Babylon and other regions of the known world at that time, they initially live from theft, later from Sinuhes' medical art, which increasingly only offers this to wealthy patients. There is also a warrior general from whom Sinuhe receives a sword made of the new metal iron in return. He brings this to Egypt to present it to Haremhab and to show the vulnerability of Egypt. When the Pharaoh rejects a defensive war based on pacifism, Haremhab and Sinuhe decide to poison the supposedly madman, which they finally carry out. Haremhab then ascends the throne of the pharaohs as a general. When he suspects a plot by Sinuhe after the sister of the slain Pharaoh has revealed that Sinuhe is actually the rightful heir to the throne, he banishes Sinuhe to the Red Sea, where he writes his life story. Merit and the meanwhile impoverished Nefer, who comes to him as a patient, had also met Sinuhe again after his return.

Remarks

Originally Marlon Brando was supposed to play the title role, but he canceled shortly beforehand and so the production company had to quickly find a new lead actor. Edmund Purdom, about whom Peter Ustinov said: "He is charming, but not a Marlon Brando", was still relatively unknown, which is considered to be the reason for the relatively low commercial success of Sinuhe .

Awards

The camerawork in Cinemascope of Leon Shamroy was with Oscar honored nomination.

Reviews

  • Grandiose monumental epic from the time of the pharaohs with love, death, lion hunt and diverse melodramatic effects. Magnificent spectacle. (Rating: 2½ stars = above average) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in the lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , pp. 750-751

DVD release

The DVD was released on November 26, 2010 by Winkler Film (Alive). It contains the German and English dubbed versions, has a good picture quality and, as extras, has a reversible cover, some text panels, a German trailer and a picture gallery.

literature

Web links