Queen of the Nile

one of many historical theme "B" films from "60. not memorable but correct. a dramatic love story, the beauty of Jeanne Crain, the duty, more important than the love, Vincent Price in a role using his skills for bad guys. and decent atmosphere, funny fight scenes, Edmund Purdom in a role who remains sketch for a Charming Prince. Nefertiti has the virtue to be perfect answer to the nostalgia of films "B" fans. large slices of romanticism, lost historical accuracy, seductive - and unrealistic - end. enough for a nice show.

This is an unpretentious Italian Historical Epic film based on the figure of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. The story is acceptable -don't look for historical accuracy- and deals with the romance of the queen to be with a poor sculptor and the dilemma she has to face when forced to choose between her love or duty. Locations, settings, colour and gowns are acceptable too.

Italians were fully dedicated to this kind of "B" epic productions in the early 60's and they often hired well known American or British performers -usually after their best years- in order to raise the level of these films and make them more suitable for international markets (Orson Welles, Broderick Crawford, Victor Mature and Basil Rathbone were among them).

Jeanne Crain was always a just correct actress, but she looks beautiful here as Nefertiti and you prefer to feast your eyes on her than to analyze her performance. Vincent Price -just before his deservedly successful association with Roger Corman in Poe's based horror stories- plays without effort a villainous high priest. The love interest of the queen is Edmund Purdom in his usual dull and wooden acting; I can't recall another actor that was given so many chances to reach stardom with -if not great- rather expensive products and failed ("The Egyptian", "The Prodigal", "The King's Thief" or later "The Yellow Rolls Royce"). He ended up in "B" European films and no more than that.

All in all, this is a movie to see if you like historical Epics but it surely won't make history in the genre.

Nefertiti Queen of the Nile is not without its redeeming qualities. The sets are richly coloured and reasonably lavish, there are a few gems in the script, my favourite being "the Nile itself cannot wash away my sins", and there are three good performances; Jeanne Crain, who is the epitome of radiance; Edmund Perdum while not a great performance still has a likability to it; and Vincent Price who is diabolical personified. On the other hand, the costumes did have a weird and somewhat cheap feel, I never did get the sense that I was being transported to ancient Egypt, and the music has some nice moments but forgettable within minutes after the film ending. Apart from a couple of gems, the dialogue is embarrassingly banal, the story lacks any kind of lustre and bite and was sort of ridiculous too and of the characters only the three main ones were defined well, everyone else was stock and just there for the sake of it. In conclusion, neither good or bad, fairly entertaining if you are in a good mood but at the end of the day little more than that, for me that is. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Altough much liberty is taken with history (in all fairness, there is still a great deal that is not known about this period) an interesting story has been concocted about the mysterious queen. It seems the sculptor who made the famous bust was enamored of her before she became the royal wife and was a mere High Priest's daughter who was cruelly forced to marry Amenophis IV unconvincingly played by Amadeo Nazzari, who is not in the least like Ahkenaton. But the costumes and sets are gorgeous, and Miss Crain is lovely. Vincent Price is credible as the nasty priest of Amon-Ra.

Queen of the Nile is the story of the the making of Queen Nefertiti of ancient Egypt. Its a loose story without details or specifics, but the sets and costumes and overall performances come together to make this slight picture actually kind of entertaining. The script is week and like I said it doesn't really feel in the least bit historical, but visually I find these type of films interesting and uniquely fun. Jeanne Crain and Edmund Purdom both give strong performances, and while Vincent Price is an underutilized secondary character, he is also good and together these three elevate this production to one worth checking out if you're curious.