Sphinx (1981)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

Franklin J. Schaffner

Writers:

John Byrum (screenplay)
Robin Cook (novel)

Release Date:

11 February 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Beyond the sealed door was the last undiscovered treasure in Egypt - And it's all hers - IF SHE CAN GET OUT ALIVE.

Plot:

Egyptologist Erica Baron finds more than she bargained for during her long-planned trip to The Land of the Pharoahs - murder, theft, betrayal, love, and a mummy's curse! |

Plot Keywords:

Mummy | Treasure | Female Archaeologist | Egypt | Archeologist

Cast

Lesley-Anne Down	...	Erica Baron
Frank Langella	...	Akmed Khazzan
Maurice Ronet	...	Yeon
John Gielgud	...	Abdu-Hamdi (as Sir John Gielgud)
Vic Tablian	...	Khalifa
Martin Benson	...	Mohammed
John Rhys-Davies	...	Stephanos Markoulis
Nadim Sawalha	...	Gamal
Tutte Lemkow	...	Tewfik
Saeed Jaffrey	...	Selim
Eileen Way	...	Aida
William Hootkins	...	Don
Mark Kingston	...	Carter
James Cossins	...	Lord Carnaryon
Victoria Tennant	...	Lady Carnaryon
Cengiz Saner	...	Akmed's Servant
Kevork Malikyan	...	Bell Boy
Ismat Rafat
Yashaw Adem	...	Sergeant (as Yashar Adem)
Ahmed Abdel Wareth
Ahmad Hegazi		(as Ahmed Hegazi)
Abdullah Mahmoud
Mohamed Metwalli
Seif Allah Mokhtar
Behrouz Vossoughi	...	Menophite
Abdel Rehiem El Zorkani	...	Iman
Ahmed Salem Mohamed	...	Gamal's Driver

Directed by
Franklin J. Schaffner

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
John Byrum		screenplay
Robin Cook		novel

Produced by
Stanley O'Toole	....	producer
Franklin J. Schaffner	....	executive producer
Ariel Levy	....	line producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Michael J. Lewis

Cinematography by
Ernest Day		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Michael F. Anderson
Robert Swink		(as Robert E. Swink)

Production Design by
Terence Marsh

Art Direction by
Peter Lamont		(supervising art director)
Gil Parrondo

Costume Design by
Judy Moorcroft

Makeup Department
José Luis Pérez	....	key makeup artist
José Antonio Sánchez	....	makeup department head

Production Management
Ariel Levy	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Imre Bodo	....	second assistant director: Hungaria
Gamal El-Damatty	....	second assistant director: Egypt
Atef E-Taieb	....	second assistant director: Egypt (as Atef El-Tayeb)
Enrique Gabriel	....	second assistant director
Michael Hamlyn	....	second assistant director
José López Rodero	....	first assistant director (as Jose Lopez Rodero)
Samir Seif	....	first assistant director: Egypt
Timea Veress	....	first assistant director: Hungarian unit

Art Department
Ernest Archer	....	assistant art director: UK
Tivadar Bertalan	....	art director: Hungary
Peter Howitt	....	set dresser
Antonio Patón	....	assistant art director: Budapest

Sound Department
Don J. Bassman	....	supervising sound mixer (as Don Bassman)
Chris Carpenter	....	sound re-recording mixer
Pat Egan	....	sound re-recording mixer
Michael Harris	....	assistant sound recordist
William Hartman	....	sound effects editor (as Bill Hartman)
David M. Ice	....	sound effects editor
Godfrey Marks	....	dubbing editor
Richard Sperber	....	sound effects editor (as Richard A. Sperber)
Cyril Swern	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Roy Whybrow	....	special effects

Stunts
Menyhért René Balog-Dutombé	....	stunt double
Menyhért René Balog-Dutombé	....	stunts
David Brandon	....	stunt gaffer

Camera and Electrical Department
Robin Browne	....	director of photography: second unit
Alec Mills	....	camera operator

Casting Department
Maude Spector	....	casting: England (as Maud Spector)

Editorial Department
Dennis Wooley	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Michael J. Lewis	....	conductor
Michael J. Lewis	....	orchestrator

Transportation Department
Richard Booz	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Wayne Fitzgerald	....	titles
Peter Lancaster	....	assistant to producers

Production Companies

• S & T

Distributors

• Orion Pictures Corporation (1981) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. Pictures (1981) (USA) (theatrical) (through)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1984) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)

Other Companies

• Cherokee Studios  music recorded at
• Fenton-Feinberg Casting  casting: USA (as Fenton and Feinberg)

Runtime:

Netherlands:117 min | USA:118 min | UK:118 min

Country:

USA | Netherlands

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:12 (f)

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

S & T

not really any relation to the Sphinx itself

OK, so we should all know by now that any westerner who sticks even a hair strand into an Egyptian tomb is forever cursed. So many movies have dealt with this that another one hardly registers. "Sphinx" consists mostly of Lesley-Anne Down shrieking whenever something unpleasant happens (and with how she was dressed - without a veil - the people in Egypt would have taken her for a prostitute). I couldn't tell whether or not Frank Langella's character was supposed to be Arab or white: he had an Arab name but looked and talked like a Euro-American. And then John Gielgud plays an Egyptian man; was it still acceptable to cast white people as non-white people by this point? For the record, the title statue only appears in one or two scenes.

I should say that the movie isn't terrible. I learned some interesting stuff about archeology. But a far cooler movie in this genre is the Charlton Heston movie "The Awakening". This one is the sort of movie that you rent if there's absolutely nothing else to rent. I read that director Franklin J. Schaffner (most famous for "Planet of the Apes", "Patton", "Papillon" and "The Boys from Brazil") ended his career on a down-slide; with this sort of movie, I can see why. Also starring John Rhys-Davies (Sallah in the Indiana Jones movies) and Victoria Tennant (Steve Martin's first wife; she co-starred with him in "All of Me" and "L.A. Story").

Not that this is really related, but I wanted to talk about this movie getting released through Warner Bros. When I was little, I always associated WB with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc. Had I known then that the studio also released this movie - plus horror movies like "The Exorcist", "The Pack", "The Shining" and "The Nesting" - I probably would have asked something like "Why did Bugs Bunny make a bunch of scary movies?" This movie however, is not scary.