''Valley of the Kings'' is a 1954 American

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

adventure film made by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

. It was written and directed by

Robert Pirosh Robert Pirosh (April 1, 1910 – December 25, 1989) was an American motion picture and television screenwriter and director. In 1951, he was nominated for another Academy Award for the screenplay '' Go for Broke!''. This was his directoria ...

from a screenplay by Robert Pirosh and

Karl Tunberg Karl Tunberg (March 11, 1907 − April 3, 1992) was an American screenwriter and occasional film producer. His screenplays for ''Tall, Dark and Handsome'' (1941) and '' Ben-Hur'' (1959) were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original ...

, "suggested by historical data" in the book '' Gods, Graves and Scholars'' by

C. W. Ceram upright=.85, Original German cover of ''Gods, Graves and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology'' (1949)C. W. Ceram (20 January 1915 – 12 April 1972) was the pseudonym of German journalist, editor at Rowohlt Verlag, and author Kurt Wilhelm Marek ...

. The music was by

Miklós Rózsa Miklós Rózsa (; April 18, 1907 – July 27, 1995) was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany (1925–1931) and active in France (1931–1935), the United Kingdom (1935–1940), and the United States (1940–1995), with extensi ...

and the cinematography by Robert Surtees.

Plot

In 1900, Ann Mercedes (Eleanor Parker) travels to Cairo with her husband Philip (Carlos Thompson) and Mark Brandon (Robert Taylor). She is interested in visiting and studying the tomb of Pharaoh Rahotep. After many adventures, she seeks to prove its link with the tomb of Joseph.

Cast

* Robert Taylor as Mark Brandon *

Eleanor Parker Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013) was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards for her roles in the films ''Caged'' (1950), ''Detective Story'' (1951), and ''Interrupted Melody'' (1955), the first ...

as Ann Barclay Mercedes *

Carlos Thompson Juan Carlos Mundin-Schaffter, known as Carlos Thompson, (7 June 1923 – 10 October 1990) was an Argentine actor. Career Of German and Swiss descent, he played leading roles on stage and in films in Argentina. He went to Hollywood in the 1950s ...

as Philip Mercedes *

Kurt Kasznar Kurt Kasznar (born Kurt Servischer; August 13, 1913 – August 6, 1979) was an Austrian-American stage, film and television actor who played roles on Broadway, appearing in the original Broadway productions of '' Waiting for Godot'', ''The ...

as Hamed Backhour *

Victor Jory Victor Jory (November 23, 1902 – February 12, 1982) was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, such as Oberon in ''A Midsummer N ...

as Tuareg Chief *

Leon Askin Leon Askin (; born Leon Aschkenasy, 18 September 1907 – 3 June 2005) was an Austrian Jewish actor best known in North America for portraying the character General Burkhalter on the TV situation comedy ''Hogan's Heroes''. Life and career ...

as Valentine Arko *

Aldo Silvani Aldo Silvani (21 January 1891 – 12 November 1964) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1934 and 1964. He was born in Turin, Italy and died in Milan, Italy. Selected filmography * '' Cardinal Lambertini'' ...

as Father Anthimos *

Samia Gamal Samia Gamal ( ar, سامية جمال, born as Zaynab Khalil Ibrahim Mahfuz, 5 March 1924 – 1 December 1994) was an Egyptian belly dancer and film actress. Biography Born in the small Egyptian town of Wana in March 1924, Samia's family move ...

as Dancer * Rushdy Abaza as Robed Man - Singer (uncredited) * Leora Dana as Lovely Girl (uncredited) *

Frank de Kova Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV. Biography De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He ...

as Akmed Salah - Nomad Guide (uncredited) *

Laurette Luez Laurette Luez (born Loretta Mary Luiz; August 19, 1928 – September 12, 1999) was an American supporting actress and successful commercial model who appeared in films and on television during a 20-year career. She was a widely known Hollywood ce ...

as Native Girl (uncredited) *

Paul Maxey Paul Regan Maxey (March 15, 1907 – June 3, 1963) was an American actor. Born in Wheaton, Illinois, the rotund Maxey played character roles in films from 1937, notably as the composer Victor Herbert in ''Till the Clouds Roll By'' (1946) ...

as Prior (uncredited)

Background

The title of the film refers to the valley on the west bank of the Nile River in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, where the tombs of the Ancient Egyptian kings are located. The film was based on an original story by Robert Pirosh. It was bought by MGM who were attracted by a project similar to their highly successful adaptation of ''

King Solomon's Mines ''King Solomon's Mines'' (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the ...

'' (1950). They announced it in 1952 with Eleanor Parker attached from the beginning. There were a number of Egyptian themed projects in development in Hollywood at the time, others being ''

The Egyptian ''The Egyptian'' (''Sinuhe egyptiläinen'', Sinuhe the Egyptian) is a historical novel by Mika Waltari. It was first published in Finnish in 1945, and in an abridged English translation by Naomi Walford in 1949, from Swedish rather than Finni ...

'' and ''

Serpent of the Nile ''Serpent of the Nile'' is a 1953 Technicolor historical adventure film produced by Sam Katzman and directed by William Castle. The film starred Rhonda Fleming, Raymond Burr, William Lundigan and Michael Ansara. In an early role, actress Julie Ne ...

''.

Sam Zimbalist Sam Zimbalist (March 31, 1901 – November 4, 1958) was a Russian Empire born American film producer and film editor. Early life Born to a Ukrainian Jewish family, he arrived to the US in August 1914. He began his career at 16 as an office b ...

was meant to produce and Vittorio Gassmann was to co-star with Parker. Filming ended up being postponed a number of months. Gassman dropped out;

Howard Keel Harold Clifford Keel (April 13, 1919November 7, 2004), known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer, known for his rich bass-baritone singing voice. He starred in a number of MGM musicals in the 1950s and in the CBS te ...

was named as a possible replacement. Eventually the male lead was given to Robert Taylor, who had successfully teamed with Parker in '' Above and Beyond''. Carlos Thompson played the second male lead.

Charles Schnee Charles Schnee (6 August 1916 Bridgeport, Connecticut - 29 November 1963 Beverly Hills, California) was a screenwriter and film producer. He wrote the scripts for the Westerns '' Red River'' (1948) and '' The Furies'' (1950), the social melodrama ...

was the supervising producer. MGM bought the rights to the archaeology text ''Gods, Graves and Scholars'' for "protection purposes", as it contained a chapter titled "Robbers in the Valley of the Kings", which might have been seen as having influenced the film's script. They paid a reported $25,000. Filming started in November 1953. The film was shot on location in Egypt over six weeks in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

Faiyum Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

, the Western Desert and at the

Pyramids of Giza The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Men ...

. Additional filming took place over the next five weeks in El Segundo, California and at MGM's studios. Eleanor Parker recalled the film as the most difficult experience she ever had making a movie:

twas simply a dreadful nightmare. We had a terrible producer who made no accommodations for the company or crew on location. We were in Egypt, out in the desert filming, with no sanitary facilities, no dressing rooms to speak of, it was unbelievable. Robert Taylor and I had to use the bathrooms with the locals, hiding behind coats. Additionally, the director (Robert Pirosh) had no idea what he was doing; the head cameraman (Robert Surtees) was directing the film. Then the crew wasn't getting paid and our great cameraman told them that we were all going out on strike until everyone got paid. Believe me, the money showed up.

The film's world premiere took place simultaneously on 21 July 1954 in Cairo and

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

(as well as New York City). It marked the first time an American film had a world premiere in Egypt. The film shows the Abu Simbel temples as they had existed for 3000 years, before they were relocated due to the construction of the

Aswan High Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan L ...

Reception

Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned $1,591,000 in the US and Canada and $1,714,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $204,000.

References

External links

* * * * * {{AFI film, id=51395, title=Valley of the Kings 1954 films 1950s adventure drama films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films set in 1900 Films set in Egypt Films based on non-fiction books Films directed by Robert Pirosh American adventure drama films Films scored by Miklós Rózsa 1954 drama films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films