Valley of the Kings
Year:
1954
Running time:
86 mn
Nationality:
USA
Language:
English
Genre:
Historical, Adventure
Director:
Robert Pirosh
Producer:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Screenwriter/s:
Robert Pirosh, Karl Tunberg
Cast:
Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, Carlos Thompson, Kurt Kasznar, Victor Jory, Leon Askin, and others
Summary of the film
Hard-boiled archeologist Mark Brandon is searching for ancient tombs in Egypt when he is approached by beautiful Ann Mercedes, who convinces him to help her fulfill her deceased father's life's ambition - to provide solid proof of the biblical Joseph's travels in ancient Egypt. As an ex-pupil of Ann's father Mark accepts and the two embark on a search for the tomb of the Pharoah Ra Hotep, said to have had some connection with Joseph. The trail to the tomb is fraught with intrigue, betrayal, murder and the possibility that the tomb itself has been emptied of all its artifacts by ancient looters. (Filmaffinity)
Eleanor Parker and Robert Taylor with the pyramid of Saqqara projected in the background (Screenshot by the author)
The expedition arrives at the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel (Screenshot by the author)
Egyptomania narratives or motifs
MGM's Valley of the Kings is notable for being the first American film to have its world premiere in Egypt, on July 21, 1954 in Alexandria and Cairo. As suggested in the opening credits, the inspiration for the film is derived from some sections in Gods, Graves and Scholars (1949). This popular book on the history of archaeology was written by German author and former Third Reich propagandist Kurt Wilhelm Marek (A.K.A. C. W. Ceram). The film was shot on-location in multiple Egyptian locations (Cairo, Faiyûm, Suez, Mount Sinai, Luxor, and the Libyan Desert). It follows a narrative and visual construction in which colonial adventure fiction is combined with an attention to landscape and heritage, reminiscent of the travelogue genre. The quest of the two main characters, the audacious and spirited Ann Mercedes (Eleanor Parker) and playboy archaeologist Mark Brandon (Robert Taylor), focuses on finding the tomb of the pharaoh Ra-Hotep (a fictional replica of the historical pharaoh Akhenaten, ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty). This mission was intended to culminate the goals of Ann's late father, who firmly believed in a literal reading of the story of Joseph in Egypt contained in the Old Testament. As in other Hollywood productions inspired by ancient Egypt, the ideological discourse of the film seeks to reinforce the Christian moral message based on a fabricated reinterpretation of the monotheism of the heretical pharaoh Akhenaten. This implicit morality is presented throughout the film with a set of plot anecdotes that convey the idea of “high-concept” spectacle and entertainment (sandstorms, grave robbers, intrigues and crimes, duels in impressive archeological complexes, etc.). Due to its successful amalgam of adventure, romance, tourism, and conservative pro-imperialist ideology, Robert Pirosh's Valley of the Kings would serve as inspiration for the cycle of revisionist adventure films of postmodern New Hollywood, such as Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones saga or Lewis Teague's The Jewel of the Nile (1985).
Author: Samuel Fernández-Pichel
Other information
Cromwell, J. 2022. From Pyramids to Obscure Gods. The Creation of an Egyptian World in Persona 5. thersites. Journal for Transcultural Presences & Diachronic Identities from Antiquity to Date 14: 13.
Open access
Rafaelic, D. 2021. Ancient Egypt in Cinema”, in A. Bednarski, A. Dodson, S. Ikram (eds), A History of World Egyptology: 481. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
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