The Egyptian (1954) on Netflix
Sinuhe, an orphan raised by a physician in eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, befriends Horemheb and is made court physician to Akhnaton. He becomes infatuated with Nefer, a courtesan from Babylon.
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- IMDb6.5/105,009 votes
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Trailer
Plot summary
As a baby, Sinuhe floats down the Nile in a reed basket and is found by the physician Senmut, who raises him and teaches him medicine. His friend Horemheb trains for the army, and the servant Kaptah stays at his side. While hunting lions in the desert, the two men aid a lone man praying before a carved image of the sun, who is the young Pharaoh Akhnaton. Akhnaton draws Sinuhe into the royal household as a healer and gives Horemheb a command. Horemheb takes Sinuhe to the house of Nefer, a courtesan from Babylon, with whom Sinuhe becomes infatuated. Meanwhile Akhnaton's worship of the Aten, a single god, sets the priests of Egypt's old gods against him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Egyptian (1954)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Marlon Brando quit the film before shooting, saying he was unable to play his part due to mental strain, backed by his psychiatrist; with location filming already started in Egypt, Fox sued him for $2 million.
- Edmund Purdom was borrowed from MGM to play Sinuhe, and MGM took $300,000 for his services even though Purdom himself was paid only $500 a week.
- During filming, Darryl F. Zanuck, who had run the studio lot for 25 years, went to the stills department to see how Bella Darvi looked in her costumes, did not know where it was, flew into a rage, and found it was next door to his private dining room.
- Cecil B. DeMille bought sets, costumes and props from The Egyptian for The Ten Commandments (1956), and because that film's story takes place seventy years later, the re-use creates an unintended sense of continuity.
- Because so little time was left in post-production, the composing duties on The Egyptian's score were divided between two of 20th Century-Fox's best-known composers, Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann.
- John Cassavetes later credited Hedda Hopper with helping to kick-start his Hollywood career, thanks to her public push for him.
- Jean Peters was out and replaced by Jean Simmons in January 1954, a swap that meant only the right half of the film's publicity materials had to be changed.
