Customer Reviews

Valley of the Kings [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"VALLEY OF THE KINGS" is another example of classic films whose copy rights are owned by "TIME WARNER INC." that like "Quo Vadis" and "Land of the Pharaohs" are neglected almost to the point of rejection. Still gathering "Star Dust" at their "Warner Bro. Library Vault," awaiting for someone there to released them on Anamorphic Widescreen DVD; or like its the case for "Quo Vadis" released in a format preserving the aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition.

It's a real pity that young film lovers as well as those older ones that have to put up recently with an appalling new "Alexander," can not discover again this terrific picture on DVD. Directed by Robert Piroh, Starring: Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker, it was released on July 23, 1954 as one of the first Cinemascope Movies.

The sceenplay deals with a romantic adventure that centers around the daunting perseverant hunt of an archeologist daughter, searching to find evidence of the Joseph from Biblical times in Egypt, so she can redeem her late father goal on this quest.

Filmed in Egypt it features awesome magnificent scenery of the Great Pyramids as well as other grand archeological sites over there. A terrific movie that needs to be on DVD, specially now that an exibit of King Tutankhamun is touring the USA.

Perhaps by voting on this review, all of you classic film lovers, can remind the mighty "TIME WARNER INC." our desire to see this movie released on a DVD format finally.

THANK YOU ALL!

This movie has it all over Indiana Jones, because it is not pastiche, not tongue-in-cheek. It dares to take its subject seriously and succeeds beautifully.

Robert Taylor is like William Holden but with more muscle and less irony. Another great movie of his is "Rogue Cop".

One of the charms of this film is that it takes the mystical dimension of the story seriously, and has a wonderful payoff at the very end.

The characters are well drawn. The "exotic" local is filmed perfectly, and puts to shame later efforts to recapture this type of motif. "King Solomon's Mines" is also excellent, but there the expedition is approaching through sub-Saharan Africa, so the adventure is African rather than Arab/Egyptian.

The "ordeal-of-truth" sword fight that Hunter has to pass among a tribe of marauding bedouin is something to see -- it is *very* realistic.

All around a *great* Hollywood cinematic experience that transcends Hollywood cliche. 5 stars isn't enough!

Archeologist Robert Taylor and the lovely Elanor Parker, find adventure and romance in Egypt while on a quest to find evidence of Joseph from biblical times. They fall in love an dhav elot sof adventure on their quest. A lot of great scenary of pyramids and scenes from Egypt, a very excting and scenic film. It makes one want to travel to Egypt.

This is a terrific movie, a bit slow in parts, but none the less well worth watching. I have lost count of the number of times I have watched it since it was first released. This is the movie that first gave me a taste of the subject and I have been enthralled by it ever since I was a boy (I am now 56)

this is much more realistic than other egypt films, as it depicts the turn of the 20th century, not ancient egypt. you really get a feel for life in the middle east from the location scenes,the music and work-chants, and evening campfire dancing among the workers. the exterior monestary scenes are obviously authentic too, providing a taste of egypt's midaevil past. and at the "tomb" look carefully at the placement of mirrors at the entrance. this is how it is really done. the story moves right along, with several twists to keep it interesting. and for the 50's it is remarkably frank about the affair between the protagonists. this eleanor parker is quite a gal. she is obviously really riding camels and braving windstorms (albeit from giant fans..) and keeping up with the he-men all the way, (except the fight scenes, but those are stunt men anyway...) robert taylor sheds his pretty-face image to seem as gritty as possible. this was good film-making. BUT WHY NOT ON DVD???????this movie's a visual feast, not just a story. if this tape doesn't sell well, it's because we're all waiting for the disc.

Anyone who has been to Egypt immediately recognizes the authenticity of this movie's location shooting, which uses real places throughout to present a nearly perfect 1954 travelogue of the Nile Valley civilization. Especially interesting are the scenes at Abu Simbel and Philae, both of which were moved after the film was shot to higher ground, at new locations that are less authentic and dramatic. Great landmarks are shown here before they were taken apart and placed in modern settings that spoiled the mystery and wonder of these ancient monuments. The original location of Abu Simbel (before the Aswan Dam required its dismantling and removal to an articifical hill built high above the rising waters of Lake Nasser) reveals how phony the new site looks today, with the statues scarred with slice marks and the new cliff face looking like a ride at Disneyland. The hillside above the statues in the movie (which is featured in a major fight scene) looks magical and ancient, like it must have looked when Burkehardt rediscovered it in 1815, or David Roberts painted it a decade later for his wonderful Egyptian portfolio. It's breathtaking. The movie even goes inside the temple, and shows us the wonderful statues of Ramses there. The shots of Philae near Aswan are also historical records, because they show the temples half-covered by water in the lake above the old Aswan dam, a romantic and beautiful scene that was forever changed when the monuments were moved to another island in the river. Most Hollywood movies use Egyptian sites as backdrops, and edit their stories so that characaters walk out of one ruin and into another 50 miles away without explanation (see Death on the Nile). Valley of the Kings not only films on site, but moves the story around the monuments in a realistic way that looks just like the real place. The scene shot in Luxor Temple is a prime example, showing the characters walking around the columns beside the river in the moonlight that reminds me of my visit there. The fighting scene filmed at Abu Simbel uses few special effects, and provides camera angles of the statues that tourists could never see at the site. It reminds me of the famous scene with Cary Grant on Mt. Rushmore in North by Northwest, filmed five years later in 1959. Did Hitchcock get his inspiration from this 1954 scene on Abu Simbel? Finally, seeing this great film on VHS is a crime, because the full frame presentation chops off the corners of the wonderful location shooting, and reduces an early Cinemanscope masterpeice to a costume drama with much of the scenary off frame. Message to the filmmakers: please issue this marvelous movie on DVD in widescreen format and restore the sound so we can appreciate the historical views of Egyptian locations that no longer exist, and Hollywood at its best. And while you're at it, give us some special features that show how the story was cleverly adapted from chapter 12 of C. W. Ceram's classic work on archeaology, "Gods, Graves and Scholars," and how Eleanor Parker kept her hat on during the sandstorm.

In this unknown film, Taylor was an arqueologist searching the tomb of a ancient jewish leader. The movie was shooting in Egypt and that is the more remarcable thing about the picture. The story is not very solid but is pleasant to see during a long weekend.Eleanor Parker looks to beatiful in the desert, but it's only a movie.

Having already owned this title, I bought this dvd, big mistake, very poor quality, much worse than the vhs I already had, which actually looks quite good in comparison.

"Valley of the Kings" shapes up as an exciting but familiar story, lacking imagination, about archaeologists and pharaoh's tombs...

Desert people, sand storms, caravans of giant camels, typical Faiyum oasis, chase of carriages in the crowded streets of Al-Qahirah (The Victorious) known as Cairo, old markets and antique shops, the Nile, Saint Catherine's Greek Orthodox monastery (situated on the inspiring Mount Sinai), the Pharaonic Temple of Luxor, the grandeur of the Great Sphinx and the 3 great pyramids of Giza (Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure), give a proper ambiance to a mysterious tale...

Robert Pirosh's direction is strong and well-developed, and the thrilling natural settings steal the picture...

Taylor--an attractive masculine grace against wide vistas and bright skies, shortly finds himself forced to prove his courage with fists and even swords, climaxing in a murderous struggle with Carlos Thompson on the highest peak of one of the four gigantic statues of the great pharaoh Ramesses II, at the Great Temple of Abu Simbel... But Eleonor Parker's acting had more fire in it... She emits, on the screen, a source of radiant energy of a young woman who knows exactly where, and with whom, she wants to be...

Thompson, suitably menacing and malicious, provides the excitement as it seems he is in association with dangerous vicious Egyptian grave robbers who sell tomb treasures on the black markets...

Kurt Kasznar is evil and trouble as his sinister ally... Leon Askin plays both sides as a coward dealer in antiques, and Victor Jory is a frightening attraction as he tries to win Taylor in desert swordplay... One of the great Egyptian belly dancers of the 50's, the talented Samia Gamal, gives to the atmosphere a graceful touch in proportions and techniques, style and attitude...

If you like to take a tour of this beautiful country and see wonderful sites of an ancient land, temples, tombs, treasures and secrets forever cherished within your mind, and you love to see the legendary Robert Taylor singing in Arabic in a relaxing moment aboard a Nile sailing boat, don't hesitate to watch this film--thin as drama with little action and suspense but loaded with splendid locations...

A true rating of this film, for me, would be 4 and 1/2
stars...a film for one's youth...to be inspired by...
to sense the wonder and mystery and power of the Past...
its dreams, hopes, ambitions, achievements...all entombed
in dust...awaiting release...by some heroic adventurer...
some intelligent, questing, skeptical -- yet earnest,
inquiring, disciplined seeker who will not be denied...
who wills "to strive, to seek, to find...and not to yield"...
until he has penetrated into the sanctum of wisdom
and discovered the Knowledge of life and himself...
*********
The opening credits establish the "mise en scene"...
the story is based on materials from C.W. Ceram's *Gods,
Graves, and Scholars*... it concerns a married lady,
daughter of elderly archaeologist who has died...her
father had spent his entire life of seeking to find some
evidence in Egypt that verified the stay of Joseph,
the patriarch, told about in *Genesis* 37-50 in the
Old Testament...
This married daughter seeks to venerate and validate
her father's past life by carrying on the quest which had
meant so much to him...she has in her possession a golden
statuette of the Pharaoh Ra-ho-tep (whom her father had
believed was the Pharaoh who had elevated Joseph to
the position as his vizier, after Joseph had interpreted
his dreams)...the daughter seeks the help of an American
archaeologist, who also happens to be reasonably handsome
(if a bit weathered...) -- played by Robert Taylor, but
after "Quo Vadis?" and after "Ivanhoe"...the archaeologist
is skeptical, but attracted to the woman...even after he
finds out she is married, he is still intrigued enough to
continue to help her in her quest...here in Egypt...
around the year 1900...
The path is long...covers much sand...visits many
interesting, wondrous sites...there is a rope climb
down the face of the colossal temple of Ramses II
at Abu Simbel...into a hole in the temple face...
wondrous, entrancing things to a youthful mind
enchanted and inspired with archaeology...and Egypt...
mystery...and glory...and discovery...and secret
knowledge...
The path also leads to a Greek Orthodox monastery at
the base of Mount Sinai...and a basket ride up into the
monastery...discoveries in the dark interior of the
monastery...and finally there is the exciting discovery
which leads to the Valley of the Kings...and the possible
discovery of the tomb of the Pharaoh Ra-ho-tep...and

confirmation of the story of Joseph...and validation of
her father's commitment, and seeking, and belief...
The archaeologist discovers things about himself
as well...what it means to be be committed to a belief
in something more than just oneself...more than just
skeptical cynicism or libertine living...to seek answers
to questions that trouble the mind and the spirit with
restlessness and dissatisfaction because one is not
headed in the direction of psychic fulfillment which
one's intelligence, and desire for knowing, and earnest
spirit find fulfilling...
There is wisdom here...in the sands...certainly
wisdom that Thoth or Hermes could well affirm...but
it takes the seeking... Horus meets Elektra...conquers
Set...discovers Joseph...myth and meaning...and
"Remembrance of Things Past"...
* * * * * * * * *