Sphinx | |
---|---|
Directed by | Franklin J. Schaffner |
Screenplay by | John Byrum |
Based on | Sphinx 1979 novel by Robin Cook |
Produced by | Stanley O'Toole |
Starring | Lesley-Anne Down Frank Langella |
Cinematography | Ernest Day |
Edited by | Robert Swink Michael F. Anderson |
Music by | Michael J. Lewis |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 118 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $10.2 million [1] [2] |
Box office | $2 million |
Sphinx is a 1981 American adventure film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Lesley-Anne Down and Frank Langella. The screenplay by John Byrum is based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Robin Cook.
Dedicated Egyptologist Erica Baron is researching a paper about the chief architect to Pharaoh Seti. Soon after her arrival in Cairo, she witnesses the brutal murder of unscrupulous art dealer Abdu-Hamdi, meets Yvon Mageot, a French journalist, and is befriended by Akmed Khazzan, who heads the antiquities division of the United Nations. When she journeys to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor to search a tomb reportedly filled with treasures, she finds herself the target of black marketeers determined to keep the riches for themselves.
Film rights were purchased by Orion Pictures for $1 million. [3]
Schaffner said in 1981, "I've never done this kind of film before, this mixture of mystery and adventure and romance. Two years ago, when I considered taking on the project, it seemed to me that audiences would look for this kind of escapist entertainment when it was released. I sincerely hope I'm right." [4]
Interiors were filmed in Budapest. Egypt locations include the Cairo bazaars, Giza, the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, and Thebes. The tomb set cost $1 million. [5]
Lesley-Anne Down got married during the filming. [6]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times said the film "never stops talking and never does it make a bit of sense. It's unhinged. If it were a person, and you were trying to be nice, you might say it wasn't itself." He continued, "Mr. Schaffner and Mr. Byrum have effectively demolished what could have possibly been a decently absurd archeological-adventure film. The locations ... are so badly and tackily used that the movie could have been shot more economically in Queens ... The performers are terrible, none more so than Mr. Langella, who is supposed to be mysterious and romantic but behaves with all of the charm of a room clerk at the Nile Hilton." In conclusion, he called the film "total, absolute, utter confusion". [7]
Variety described the film as a contemporary version of The Perils of Pauline and called it "an embarrassment", adding "Franklin J. Schaffner's steady and sober style is helpless in the face of the mounting implausibilities." [8]
Time Out New York thought the film made "striking use of locations" but criticized the "lousy script, uneasy heroine, and weak material". It called it a "clear case of a lame project that only a best selling (ie. heavily pre-sold) novel could have financed" and warned audiences to "avoid" it. [9]
Franklin James Schaffner was an American film, television, and stage director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for Patton (1970), and is known for the films Planet of the Apes (1968), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Papillon (1973), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). He served as president of the Directors Guild of America between 1987 and 1989.
Howard Carter was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings.
Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he was likely a son of Akhenaten, thought to be the KV55 mummy. His mother was identified through DNA testing as The Younger Lady buried in KV35; she was a full sister of her husband.
George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon,, styled Lord Porchester until 1890, was an English peer and aristocrat best known as the financial backer of the search for and excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Zahi Abass Hawass is an Egyptian archaeologist, Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, serving twice. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Western Desert and the Upper Nile Valley.
Luxor Las Vegas is a casino hotel on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The resort is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. The Luxor features an ancient Egyptian theme, and includes a 65,214-square-foot (6,058.6 m2) casino and 4,407 hotel rooms. The resort's pyramid is 30 stories and contains the world's largest atrium by volume, measuring 29 million cu ft (0.82 million m3). The tip of the pyramid features a light beam, which shines into the night sky and is the most powerful man-made light in the world.
Lesley-Anne Down is a British actress, singer and former model. She made her motion picture debut in the 1969 drama film The Smashing Bird I Used to Know and later appeared in films Assault (1971), Countess Dracula (1971) and Pope Joan (1972). She achieved fame as Georgina Worsley in the ITV period drama series, Upstairs, Downstairs (1973–75).
Sphinx is a 1979 novel by Robin Cook. It follows a young American Egyptologist named Erica Baron, on a working vacation in Egypt, who stumbles into a dangerous vortex of intrigue after seeing an ancient Egyptian statue of Seti I in a Cairo market. Cook's third novel, it is one of the few not centered on medicine.
Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall was an English Egyptologist, stage designer, journalist and author whose works span the whole range from histories of Ancient Egypt through historical biographies, guide-books, popular novels, screenplays and lyrics.
The Twelve Chairs is a 1970 American comedy film directed and written by Mel Brooks, and starring Frank Langella, Ron Moody and Dom DeLuise. The film is one of at least eighteen film adaptations of the Soviet 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov.
Faith Brook was an English actress who appeared on stage, in films and on television, generally in upper-class roles. She was the daughter of actor Clive Brook.
Tutenstein is an American animated television series, produced by Porchlight Entertainment for Discovery Kids based on the comics by Jay Stephens. The series was first premiered on Discovery Kids' Saturday morning block on NBC on November 1, 2003. It ended on October 11, 2008. The series features young mummy Tutankhensetamun who is awakened about 3,000 years after his accidental death and now must face the fact that his kingdom is gone. The name is a portmanteau of Tutankhamun and Frankenstein.
John Byrum is an American film director and writer known for The Razor's Edge, Heart Beat, Duets and Inserts.
Rough Cut is a 1980 American heist film written by Larry Gelbart, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Burt Reynolds, Lesley-Anne Down and David Niven. It was based on the novel Touch the Lion's Paw (1975) by Derek Lambert.
Valley of the Kings is a 1954 American Eastmancolor adventure film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was written and directed by Robert Pirosh from a screenplay by Robert Pirosh and Karl Tunberg, "suggested by historical data" in the 1949 book Gods, Graves and Scholars by C. W. Ceram. The music was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography by Robert Surtees.
Harry and Walter Go to New York is a 1976 American period comedy film written by John Byrum and Robert Kaufman, directed by Mark Rydell, and starring James Caan, Elliott Gould, Michael Caine, Diane Keaton, Charles Durning and Lesley Ann Warren. In the film, two dimwitted con-men try to pull off the biggest heist ever seen in late nineteenth-century New York City. They are opposed by the greatest bank robber of the day, and aided by a crusading newspaper editor.
John Guillermin was a French-British film director, writer and producer who was most active in big-budget, action-adventure films throughout his lengthy career.
Green Ice is a 1981 British adventure film starring Ryan O'Neal. It was also released under the name Operation Green Ice.
Michael John Lewis is a Welsh-born composer of film, theatre, television, and choral music. He studied harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a brief teaching career in North London he became a full time composer at the age of 24.
Lady Evelyn Leonora Almina Beauchamp, always known to her family as Eve, was the daughter of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon. In November 1922, she, her father, and the archaeologist Howard Carter were the first people in modern times to enter the tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun. She later married Sir Brograve Beauchamp and had a daughter. Lady Evelyn died in 1980, at the age of 78.