Queen of the Nile
I watched "Queen of the Nile" the other night and it was a hoot! Completely preposterous. Utter nonsense. This film bears little or no resemblance to anything in ancient Egypt.
The filmmakers got only one thing right in the entire movie, and that was the replica of the famous bust of Nefertiti, (by sculptor Thutmose) with Jeanne Crain's likeness on it. Otherwise, the movie was a total flop. What a bomb!
Only the three principal characters were well defined, all the others, including 'Amenophis' were cardboard cutouts. The only bright spots in this otherwise dull and tedious melodrama were whenever Edmund Purdom, at his glorious best in spite of being trapped in trite material, and the radiantly lovely Jeanne Crain, beautiful beyond words. And of course, Vincent Price is at his diabolical best chewing up the scenery as the sinister, evil High Priest of Amen.
I suppose the three characters had to be for the three stars Jeanne Crain, Edmund Purdom, and Vincent Price to act in this formula potboiler without cracking up. I don't see how they kept a straight face in it! It is so ridiculous it's pathetic. Edmund Purdom was excellent as usual, what a bringdown to see him in this pretentious crap after starring in THE EGYPTIAN and THE PRODIGAL.
I couldn't believe how badly this movie was done. Everything was wrong. The costumes were silly looking, the story was unbelievable, the script was bad, the music forgettable, and the props and sets were all crappy and cheaply done. Nothing looked like Egypt in this movie. Horrible.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 1.
Purdom only did it because he was living in Rome and acted in those Italian sword-and-sandal epics to make a living. He didn't like working in Hollywood in the 1950s, he didn't like the studio politics, and moved to Rome in 1959 where he lived the rest of his life. In 1962, he became a production executive with RCA Italiana Records, the Italian division of RCA Victor Records, and produced the soundtrack of the movie "The BIBLE" in 1966.
Dejael