Special Features:
Audio Commentary with Film Historians Alain Silver and James Ursini / Isolated Score Track / Original Theatrical Trailer
Language: English
Audio: Stereo (5.1 Surround for Blu-ray)
16 x 9
1954 / Color
139 MINUTES
REGION FREE
Widescreen Aspect Ratio: 2.55.1
Limited Edition of 3,000 Units for both DVD and Blu-ray release
Audio is 5.1 DTS Master Audio, the score is 2.0 DTS Master Audio, and the commentary is 2.0 DTS @ 255kbps.
DVD booklet excerpts by Julie Kirgo:
Following the enormous success of CinemaScope’s spectacular début, The Robe (1953), Twentieth Century Fox production chief Darryl F. Zanuck, with typical terrier intensity, set about capitalizing on his studio’s blockbuster. A swift follow-up, also in luscious widescreen splendor, was required, and Zanuck had just the thing: The Egyptian, a massive historical novel by Finnish writer Mika Waltari set during the reign of the Pharaoh Akhnaton, some 1300 years before Christ. First published in English in 1949, it had been languishing in leisurely pre-production at Fox. Now, thanks to The Robe, The Egyptian was fast-tracked, assigned a then-enormous budget nearing $5 million, and—with gimlet-eyed Egyptologists supervising—some 67 sets constructed, 5000 extras costumed, and more than a million objects catalogued for the film. With exhibitors clamoring for epic ‘Scope material, the picture was slated for release in late summer of 1954—and there were those who thought it would never come to pass.
The official “continuation” of The Robe would be Demetrius and the Gladiators, also rushed into release in 1954. But for all intents and purposes, The Egyptian was itself a de facto sequel, making use of two of The Robe’s stars (Jean Simmons and Victor Mature), its writer (Philip Dunne, here collaborating with Casey Robinson), composer (Alfred Newman, in a far more unusual collaboration, with Bernard Herrmann), cinematographer (Leon Shamroy), and editor (Barbara McLean), not to mention the dazzling combined forces of the Fox art, costume, prop, and other production departments. Beyond personnel, the two films shared a theme: the development of spirituality in their cynical, alienated protagonists, with The Robe’s Richard Burton giving way to The Egyptian’s little-known Fox contract player, Edmund Purdom.
Poor Purdom—a James Franco type before the fact—was not the first, second, or even third choice for the film’s title role. Zanuck initially wanted that incandescent poster boy for alienation, Marlon Brando, to play the moody Sinuhe (“he who is alone”)—and he got him, if only briefly. Brando signed a contract and turned up for a first rehearsal, then fled to New York, pleading a pressing need to see his psychiatrist. According to several reports, the real reason for his flight wasn’t so crazy: he apparently loathed co-star Bella Darvi on sight, a reaction that the all-seeing, all-knowing Zanuck, under ordinary circumstances, might have been able to predict. But none of the circumstances surrounding The Egyptian were ordinary, in large part because Zanuck, normally the most astute of executives, was distracted by personal torments that would ultimately drive him to leave both his marriage and his beloved studio.
Exhibit A was the casting of Darvi in the much sought-after role of Nefer, a seductive but treacherous Babylonian whore who sucks Sinuhe dry emotionally, spiritually, and financially (no wonder every actress in town—including Marilyn Monroe, who waged an active campaign for the part—was dying to play her). Zanuck could have had his pick of the best, and yet it was Darvi—exotic-looking but, putting it kindly, not much of an actress—who plucked the plum. Hollywood’s wagging tongues couldn’t resist pointing out the parallels between Nefer and Darvi: Polish-born as Bayla Wegier, the “actress” was in fact best-known as a European playgirl and inveterate gambler, addicted to the high life (although gentler souls would acknowledge, also, her life as a teenage World War II refugee pursued by the Nazis).
For the complete notes see the DVD booklet!
