Slideshow
LAND OF THE PHARAOHS
U.S., 1955
Directed by Howard Hawks
Starring Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins, Dewey Martin
Approx. 106 min. 35mm
“Two sections in LAND OF THE PHARAOHS feature the most commanding use of CinemaScope I have ever seen. The opening sequence of the pharaoh with his legions returning victorious from foreign conquests is a nonpareil Hollywood procession. Greeted by cheering onlookers, thousands of sol-diers, trumpeters, and prisoners march in unison across the screen. In an extended sequence of the building of the pharaoh’s pyramid, the camera pans slowly over nine thousand Egyptians toiling in the desert heat and arranged in ziggurat fashion in monumental long shots. Remarkably, these scenes of peerless (and pre-CGI) visual magnitude are the work of Howard Hawks, a director with a good ear for the spoken word and a normally indifferent eye.” – Foster Hirsch