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Sculptor Tutmosis (Edmund Purdom) is in love with Thanit (Jeanne
Crain), & she is in love with him, howeer, thanks to evil high priest
Benakon (Vincent Price), their love shall not be, & when Tutmosis is
caught with Thanit, he is almost thrown into prison - or worse.
However, Tutmosis can get away, & find refuge with his friend,
Prince Amenophis IV (Amedeo Nazzari), who promises to help Tutmosis get
his girl ... & when his father dies & he is suddenly announced
Pharao, he indeed can, & his first edict makes it legal for Tutmosis
to marry Thanit.
However, high priest Benakon, who now turns out to be Thanit's, father
won't go for it, & he throws Tutmosis into prison, re-baptizes his
daughter Nefertiti & decides to marry her to Amenophis himself, &
by holding Tutmosis prisoner she even forces him to not tell the pharao a
word about her love to the sculptor, who is at the same time the pharao's
best friend.
Then though, Tutmosis escapes & is pronounced dead by Benakon.
Tutmosis is alive however, & before long learns that his one true love
is now the pharao's wife, so he starts drinking & has an affair with
Merith (Liana Orfei), a girl who has long secretly loved him.
Then though, Amenophis orders a sculpture of his wife be made by
Egypt's best sculptor, & is more than pleased that this man turns out
to be his friend Tutmosis - little does he know. Of course, meeting again
triggers the lovers' old feelings for each other, & before long they
decide to elope.
However, for some reason, they meet in Chaldean priest Seper's (Carlo
D'Angelo) temple, who wants to introduce his one true god to the Egyptians
& has won the favour of the pharao ... & subsequently the high
priests men raid the temple, kill Seper & blame it on public furor
against the new god ...
Tutmosis & Nefertiti can get away though through a secret
passageway to the pharao's palace, but from a secret room, Nefertiti
overhears a conversation between Benakon & his men who, footed on
their cleverly staged raid, plan a coup d'état ... & now Nefertiti
knows, for the sake of Egypt she can't leave her basically benign husband
alone, so she returns to him while sending Tutmosis to get the pharao's
troops who are stationed somewhere in the desert.
However, Amenophis, forever torn between his kind heart & his bad
conscience that makes him see the horrors from the battlefields he has
fought at, has given in to madness & ultimately kills himself, so
Nefertiti has to hold the palace on her own, with only her palace guards
to help her ... & ultimately they prove poor defense against the high
priest's forces, & soon enough only she is left standing, & I
wouldn't place a wager on it that her dad won't kill her too.
Then though, Tutmosis arrives with the army, & they soon wipe out
the high priest's forces. Tutmosis & Benakon though engage in mortal
combat, with Benakon apparently winning ... when an arrow kills him, shot
by Merith, exactly the woman whom Tutmosis has left for Nefertiti
...
Even if this peplum (a specifically Italian version of the sword
& sandal movie) relies more than usually on dialogue & the fight
scenes are shoddy, few & far between, this is one of the best of its
ilk, with beautiful Egyptian sets, a more interesting than usual storyline
that features some unusual twists & turns, & of course good
central performances of Vincent Price as the High Priest (a role cut out
for him) & Amedeo Nazzari as the benign but schizophrenic (now that's
a combination) pharao.
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