This construction winds up taking many years and the people are miserable, but they continue on. They make a deal that if Khufu releases his people free at the completion of the building, the tomb will be built. He asks architect Vashtar (James Robertson Justice) to build it with the pharaoh’s platoon of slaves (of which Vashtar is also included).

Pharaoh Khufu (Jack Hawkins) returns from war with more treasure to add to his lot, and he decides he wants a tomb built for himself to be buried in with all that treasure when he dies. It’s half the length of Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra and is actually a fictionalized version of history, yet the trailer seemed interesting and the restoration beautiful, so we checked it out. It actually tanked at the box office back then and was a rare miss for director Howard Hawks, but over the years has grown in stature into somewhat of a cult favorite. One of those films was Land of the Pharaohs, an admittedly little-remembered film.

TCM has been showing all Warner Brothers productions during the month of April to celebrate the studio’s 100th anniversary, and part of that celebration has been the television premieres of 10 films restored and remastered by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation.

Treasure of the Pharaohs 1955