To Nefer, shameless temptress of Babylon, he surrendered his parents' hope of immortality!
1954-08-25
$5.0M
139 min
In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe's personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth.
Edmund Purdom plays the title role in this scalpel-and-sandal melodrama that may be loosely based on "The Tale of Sinuhe" from the 12th and 13th dynasties (c. 1900 BC) as a physician and his friend who encounter the Pharaoh (Michael Wilding) in the desert and rescue him from a lion after he has had some sort of fit. "Sinuhe" becomes a wealthy and well patronised doctor to the court and to the rich and famous and the film takes us through his, and the kingdom's, ups and downs. Victor Mature plays his ambitious friend Horemheb; Peter Ustinov is great as the rather morally challenged "Kaptah" and Bella Darvi is super as the enigmatic "Nefer". The writing is a bit long-winded and the acting stilted, but Michael Curtiz keeps it just about moving until a rather flat ending.
