arthur_tafero The Egyptian was a film before its time. Heavily steeped in philosophy and introspection, it was extremely unique for a Hollywood film. Only The Razor's Edge with Tyrone Power made a few years earlier had the kind of incisive content that this movie possessed. The idea that monotheism occurred almost 2000 years before Christianity is a bit misleading, however. The Hebrews were the founders of that concept that predated the Egyptians by several centuries.The production values are first-rate; as is the acting and direction. British actor, Edmund Purdom, gives a powerful performance; one that is highly underrated, as is this film. Victor Mature as a heavy is unusual in itself; as he was never cast as a heavy before or after this role. He carried it off well. Peter Ustinov, as usual, is a wonderful addition to the cast, and adds moments of lightness to a very heavy concept.Gene Tierney is the weakest entry in the film, but Jean Simmons shows off her immense talents, and is smoking hot, as well as convincing. Purdom falls for a Babylonian whore instead of Simmons; I found that to be a bit unbelievable. Otherwise, this film is a classic from beginning to end. Watch for Tommy Rettig, the owner of Lassie, as the son of Simmons. Highly recommended.

vincentlynch-moonoi I tried watching this film several years ago on television, and the print was so bad I simply turned it off. Thankfully, the print being used on TCM now is quite good, particularly important in this film which is filmed quite beautifully with impressive sets and great natural scenery.Movies about Egypt can be rather fickle. Sometimes they do well, other times not. This film made money, and rightfully so...it's a fairly impressive production.One criticism I have of the film is a need for tighter editing in some scenes. This is one reason the film lasts for 139 minutes! It's a good cast. Edmund Purdom plays the physician, around whom the plot turns. Many of Purdom's films were made overseas, so he is not well known to American audiences, but he seems like quite a good actor, and has the looks for it. Victor Mature is here, and essentially plays Victor Mature; I have never been impressed with him. Jean Simmons is here, at a period that was near peak for her career. Gene Tierney is also here as the pharaoh's sister -- a role that seems odd for her, but it works. Michael Wilding is very interesting as the pharaoh. It is interesting to see Peter Ustinov as an aide to the physician. John Carradine makes an appearance as a grave robber. Tommy Rettig ("Lassie") makes an appearance.There is one aspect of the plot, however, that seems very questionable to me. The physician's love affair that brings him to near ruin. It's just not logical. He supposed to be a man of extreme intelligence, advanced almost beyond his time. That he would sell out his parent's chance to live eternally in the Valley Of The Kings, that he would sell his parent's home, resulting in their suicide, seems totally illogical for the character. And all for a woman who was simply base. I just don't buy it.Aside from that, it's a good story. A young physician treats the pharaoh for seizures (epilepsy?). This is a forward thinking ruler who believes in one god (God?). The physician becomes close with a warrior, who eventually wants to murder the pharaoh. In between, he falls in love with 2 women, one of whom, as I indicated, leads him to ruin. The pharaoh's mother dies when the physician is unavailable, and so the physician is sentenced to death, and flees the country. He wanders around that part of the world with Ustinov for a while, eventually discovering the new iron weapons developed by the Hittites. This brings him back to pharaoh, who has forgiven him. The pharaoh is mentally ill and the physician, the royal sister, and the soldier plot to hill pharaoh with the soldier becoming the new leader of Egypt.And that leads to the one thing that I truly dislike about this film. Just before dying, the pharaoh has a soliloquy that sounds very, very Christian. And then, as if to prove that the film is suggesting Christianity, words appear on the screen that prove it. Shame, shame, shame...and pretty poor history.It's worth watching, despite its transgressions.

SanteeFats I found this movie to be pretty good for a Hollywood supposedly historical drama. It is not historically accurate, Victor Mature's character never took the throne, at least as depicted in the movie. The next Pharaoh appears to have actually been a son of Imhotep IV, his name before he changed it after about five years in to his reign.The rise and fall of a nobody physician of the time is the main focus of the plot. He rises to become Pharaoh's court doctor, falls for a very high priced whore who gets him to give here everything he has plus all of his parents including their burial site. After discovering her whoreness by seeing his best friend making it with her, he becomes very disillusioned, leaves Egypt and pursues a life of accruing wealth from his skills as a doctor. He returns to Egypt when he gets an iron sword for curing the Hittite leader. Turning the sword over to the army gets him reinstated in Egypt. The Hittites are invading and the Pharaoh will not fight them. The doctor ends up poisoning the ruler and Victor assumes the throne. The doctor is exiled because he had put poison in Vic's cup along with the Pharaoh's. So instead of becoming the ruler with his half sister he gets sent to the Dead Sea in exile where he writes his life story.

the_wolf_imdb This movie tries to depict itself as a historical movie based on ancient Egyptian literature. The props are quite bad, they use Roman style dresses (late ones) but it was typical for 50ies. They also depict history in a completely wrong way, it is so bad on so many levels! Basically it is Biblical story based on pure fantasy very vaguely based on ancient Egypt. In fact it is hardcore rape of both ancient Egyptian history and the ancient Egyptian literature.First, story of Sinuhet is from The Old Kingdom. The movie takes place in The New Kingdom during the ruling of Achnaton, who was kinda crazy man who almost destroyed the country because of his forced approach to introduce new religion and abolishing of the old one. In the reality he did not care about the consequences and used terror to achieve his ends. In the movie, however, he is pictured almost as Moses, he is very wise, mild and kind. On the other hand, the general Haremheb who in reality managed to salvage the country from the ruins of the Achnaton's experiment is depicted as murderer and cruel dictator.The country was not invaded by Hittites at the time of Achnaton as the movie depicts. The decay was based solely on the new religion that is not only admired because it was the first monotheist religion, but at the very end of the movie the reality is even more twisted to the incredible conclusion that the Amon was actually the God of the Christians! This is actually very wrong even by Biblical standards, because Aton was the face of the Sun. The ankh is compared to the cross which is completely wrong, because ankh is very ancient symbol of life whereas the cross is the symbol of death / sacrifice. The fact the pharaoh decides to sacrifice himself for some reason is displayed almost like Christ-style. It is blatant and deliberate lie. It is twist of reality comparable to making movie where Hitler is depicted as nice animal loving extrovert who is forced to fight the world in attempt to defend the freedom of people of Europe. It is THAT huge bunch of lies, really! The pictures are nice. The message is sick. I really do not know what is worse there: The incredible preaching style lies or the fact the movie completely abused and destroyed interesting book of ancient literature. There is almost no similarity to the Story of Sinuhet including the ending that is absolutely wrong even in the style of the ending - the ending of original story is positive, Sinuhet is pardoned by pharaoh and he is even given a tomb which was very high honor. In this pseudo evangelic movie it ends "positively" also: Sinuhet is pushed into the exile, dies poor and alone yet almost screams the Christian preachings from his lips. There is zero respect to the Egyptian history. It is completely twisted just to create another pseudo Christian movie. This is so so wrong. So wrong!