Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile (1961)

the audience applauded

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

one of many historical theme "B" films from "60. not memorable but correct. a dramatic love story, the beauty of Jeanne Crain, the duty, more important than the love, Vincent Price in a role using his skills for bad guys. and decent atmosphere, funny fight scenes, Edmund Purdom in a role who remains sketch for a Charming Prince. Nefertiti has the virtue to be perfect answer to the nostalgia of films "B" fans. large slices of romanticism, lost historical accuracy, seductive - and unrealistic - end. enough for a nice show.

After "Samson and Delilah" in 1949, Hollywood began a love affair with biblical epics which ultimately lead into other stories of ancient times. Whether "sword and sandal" or tales of real-life Greeks or Egyptians, this genre has never gone away, and it never fails to amaze me how unintentionally camp many of these films turn out to be some fifty years later.With Elizabeth Taylor's "Cleopatra" on the way out from 20th Century Fox (and covering pretty much every day of film-making it had in the press), movie makers turned to rip-offs to get into the mix. Jeanne Crain, the darling of 20th Century Fox in the 1940's and 50's, was still attractive by the time this was made, but probably still a bit long in the tooth to be believable as an innocent young Egyptian maiden who ends up becoming Pharaoh's wife and ultimately one of Egypt's most powerful women outside the late B.C. queen who really found a pain in the asp.Where there's sand, togas and barges, there's bound to be camp, and in "Queen of the Nile", that comes with the presence of Vincent Price as the High Priest who forces his daughter Nefretiti into the court of the pharaoh at the threat of the life of her real love. Price over-chews his dialog and wears so much make-up and beads that I can only compare him with Judith Anderson's Herodias from "Salome". Both characters had desire for power they couldn't have on their own so they utilized others to have it, much to the chagrin of the unfortunate people around them. In retrospect, Price actually seems to be in drag, making me wonder who the real Queen of the Nile was.While the English speaking actors are obviously speaking their native tongue, the Italian actors mouths seem to be speaking English too but the voices are obviously not their own. Amedeo Nazzari is Pharaoh Amenophis IV, an absolute weakling totally dominated by Price's Benakon who would have been home committing evil along side Sian Phillips' Livia from "I Claudius". Livia was much more subtle in her evil, but Price chews every line as if he was still quoting Edgar Allan Poe in those fun-filled horror films he was doing over at American International. Edmund Purdom, not yet recovered from playing "The Egyptian" years ago, does his best with the part of Nefretiti's lover, while Crain doesn't really get much of a chance to chew the scenery up. Yet, she still looks great in period costumes, and for that, this is worth giving a chance. There will be no doubt in the viewer's minds after seeing this that the violet-eyed Taylor was much more in command as Queen than the aging Crain was here.

This one, I guess, constitutes what passes for a star-studded peplum, what with 3 Hollywood names (Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price and Edmund Purdom – though, by this point, the latter was already well into his European phase) and a local one (Amedeo Nazzari, whom I recently-viewed in L'ATLANTIDE from the same year); incidentally, I opted to start my tribute to Price's centennial with his two epic Italian efforts (the other being RAGE OF THE BUCCANEERS, also from 1961) so as to segue from April's month-long marathon of such fare.To be honest, I was not expecting much from it, being more or less a low-brow mix of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956), in which the titular royal had also featured (as did Price himself in a smallish role!), and Purdom's own earlier vehicle THE Egyptian (1954); however, the result is not only eminently watchable but surprisingly decent (so that Price's reputation is none the worse for its being on his resume'!). Crain, of course, is the protagonist – with Price as the High Priest (and, it is later revealed, Nefertite's father!), Purdom a sculptor in love with her when she had not yet ascended the throne and even boasted a different name (later, he is forced to make a statue of the new Queen and chastises her for what he believes to be her opportunism!), while Nazzari is the heir to the realm who intends helping his pal Purdom when Price tries to keep the latter and Crain apart but then, unbeknownst of her true identity, is persuaded by the High Priest to take Nefertite for a wife! Also involved in the proceedings are lovely Liana Orfei (who would have a similar, albeit even more central, role in RAGE OF THE BUCCANEERS itself) as Purdom's devoted assistant/lover (at one point, her sultry dancing in the desert distracts the guards at the hero's prison-tent so as to enable him to escape) and Umberto Raho (complementing Price's position in the temple as well as the film's villainous stakes). Incidentally, Nazzari's character is interestingly developed: he not only befriends a holy man and supports his reverence for one god over Egypt's several (which does not sit well with the tradition-bound Price) but he eventually goes mad and, finding himself besieged by his own soldiers (under the High Priest's command), commits suicide just instances before Purdom (sent by Crain to mobilize the loyal desert troops to their defence) arrives on the scene! In the end, the film's rich look manages to transcend budgetary limitations…even if the audio levels fluctuated intermittently throughout the copy I acquired, at one time even lapsing (very briefly) into Spanish!

Mickael Curtiz did in 1954 an overlooked underrated adaptation of Mika Waltari's mammoth novel "the Egyptian".It already dealt with a monotheism close to Christianity which we find again here.The star was also Edmund Purdom but with a more celebrated supporting cast (Victor Mature,Jean Simmons,Gene Tierney).The slaughter of the new faith followers was much more impressive in "the Egyptian"and its screenplay more complex with a lot of subplots .Here it treads a rather tenuous line:Nefertiti -before she was called so- was in love with a sculptor (the one who made the famous bust ?)but alas her ambitious father,a priest, is busy making other plans for her.So she will go down in history ,but what price glory?It's fairly entertaining,but I would rather recommend Curtiz's work which was ,before "ten commandments" and " land of the pharaohs" the renaissance of the Egyptian sword and sandal.