Land of the Pharaohs

Hawks was always better with small groups of characters, but this Egyptian epic, concerning intrigue at the Pharaoh's court during the building of a massive pyramid, is far from uninteresting. Although the script (by Faulkner, among others) gets stranded with the usual slightly wooden dialogue considered necessary for ancient times, the story moves along at a stately but never sluggish pace, and is scattered with lovely moments, most notably the grim finale when Collins gets her ironic come-uppance. With sets by Trauner and camerawork by Lee Garmes, it looks great; certainly, alongside those of Nick Ray, one of the best epics.