Sphinx

Badly written adaptation of a bad novel and a badly directed film that relies on exotic locations and glitzy set decoration, featuring a beautiful "Egyptologist" who has never before been to Egypt, who takes a taxi from the Nile Hilton to the Cairo Museum (next door to each other), and goes into the tomb of Tutankhamun with a Polaroid camera to "do research". (If the public does not understand why this is laughable, they deserve this film). The title "Sphinx" has nothing to do with the plot, which is loosely about the discovery of a lost tomb. Not exactly PC because all the "good" Egyptians are played by Europeans and the "bad" Egyptians are played by Egyptians. In the opening credits the cast names are spelled out in hieroglyphs, which seems to be the extent of the research wasted on this turkey.

Erica Baron travels to Egypt to search for the lost treasure of Tutencamin. Once there she finds treachery and secrets are very common as she searches for the treasure. Who can she trust to help her?

This is a very dull archaeology movie, made before Indiana Jones made it all very much more lively. However this has a reasonable plot involving several twists and double crosses - some of which you'll see coming and some you won't, though don't get your hopes up, the twists are earth shattering but merely double crosses and the like. However it's delivered with so little life or excitement that I started to get bored and only really noticed the plot whenever a new character came in or something like that. When you think about the story afterwards you realise that the plot was actually quite interesting but that the delivery seemed to suck all life out of it.

Another problem is the actors. First of all the two leads are terrible. Lesley-Anne Down is a ridiculous archaeologist! And she is a terrible lead - here all she does is run around in a jump suit with groomed hair screaming and running, running and screaming, finding a statute, running, screaming etc. Also it is very irritating the way that she looks down at Arabs as savages. In fact almost all the Arab characters in this film are portrayed as bad men or savages when compared to the white, angelic Down - the few trustworthy Arabs being played by white or western actors, such as Sir John Gielguld. Frank Langella gives a drab, uninteresting performance as Khazzan. He manages to show almost no emotion and only one facial expression throughout the film - as a mysterious romantic character he totally fails.

Overall an interesting story is delivered with all the excitement of a traffic jam and is spoilt by a bad performance by an actress better suited to TV movies, an actor that is almost totally without character and a support cast that are portrayed as savages. Go watch Indiana Jones instead.

Lesley-Ann Down is an Egyptologist making her first trip to Egypt, fascinated by the Carter Expedition. A statue vanishes, and she goes on a search for it, with lots of locals, like Frank Langella, John Gielgud, and John Rhy-Davies showing up as she heads down to Luxor.

It's a very slow-moving film, with the magnificent camerawork of Ernest Day and Claude Renoir up and down the Nile valley keeping things visually interesting, if not always in terms of plot. There are vistas of scree, with a single magnificent building on it around Luxor, apparently, with the green of the river's shore a distant promise. Director Franklin Schaffner may have been the cat;'s pajamas as the 1960s ended and the 1970s began, but he was in a slide here; his next movie would be YES, GIORGIO.

Lesley Anne Down plays Egyptologist Erica Baron who gets more than she bargained for when she becomes involved with the plundering of Egyptian artifacts on the black market, thrown in to this mix is murder, betrayal, love, and a mummy's curse! 'Sphinx' is one of those enjoyable films which is pure hokum which makes for a passable rainy day film.

Frank Langella plays Down's mysterious love interest. John Gielgud who is credited as 'Sir' has a small role as an antique dealer, it's interesting to see John Rhys Davies in this production before he appeared in the similarly themes 'Raiders' the Egyptian locations look great as photographed by Ernest Day it's great to see this film in it's original aspect ratio, as i've seen this on television in dreadful 'pan and scan''Sphinx' would make a great 'drinking game' for instance take a drink every time Lesley Anne Down screams!

This could have been Erica Baron: Tomb Raider, 20 years before Lara grabbed the headlines. It's got great locations as anyone who's been to Egypt will know, and a half decent story to go with it. Unfortunately instead of being Lara Croft confident and kick-ass, Erica Baron will scream at almost anything and trip over and bump into everyone and everything in her path (and then scream again for good measure). She'll even scream when a sticking plaster is ripped off someone else's face for Christ's sake! She'll then stop, panic and then run (while flailing her arms around) when things get dangerous. Things definitely moved on in the 20 years after this was made until Lara arrived.

Even as a Dr of Egyptology she's sub-standard. Despite being able to read hieroglyphics, she's clearly never been to Egypt before as she has absolutely no idea about the culture, and even when arriving at the great pyramid, she goes for a camel ride before seeing any Egyptian history! Deary me. When speaking to he locals she'll only attempt to speak English and give up on them before they've had time to gesture or try and communicate. Actually, speaking English to them just makes their faces completely blank as if they've not heard her at all!

Despite this the story moves along to its relatively good ending, despite a shoot out at the end where every bullet hits a nearby jug or vase and never the target!!

All in all, highly recommended!!!