I watched this movie as a child and always remembered the terrifying burial scene at the end.
Me too, one Saturday afternoon at my grandmother's house when I was about 10 years old.
I have been a fan of Joan Collins in this role since I was a small boy.
It's the ultimate piece of Hollywood high camp and she was perfect in it.
She still looks great today!
She's worked hard all her life, lived life to the full, and didn't take any crap from anyone!
1:46 As she is watching the tomb close over the sarcophagus, the smirk on her face shows she really believes she will be walking out of there with all the pharaohs treasures for herself!
She was outsmarted by her dying husband/pharaoh, who gave his last instructions to his loyal servants to be buried with him along with his treasures - and also along with the evil queen! Too late, she realized that her life was more precious than all the king's treasures.
This scene was more scary to me than any horror film when I was a child.
Haha, to mee too.. i just remembered this and was looking if i find this scene on YT :P
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It scaries me even today. It is one of the most terrific scenes in the History of Cinema. And it is very well done.
I was highly delighted, when I saw this, because I cultivated a murderous rage during the movie when I was six years old and at last she got, what she deserved, this malicious bitch. Look at her whining. During that days in movies villains where punished extensively. Haha!
I saw this when I was little and it was always in the back of my mind haunting me
I'm the very same - I must've first saw this film when I was about 6/7 (I'm 59 now !) and I STILL get the same feeling of dread/terror at the end-scene !. What a way to go !
Me too! I always remember this scene!
Poetic justice!
This is the first time I saw it again after so many years!
I was maybe 5 or 6 when I saw just this part and I've been wondering what it was ever since.
EXACTLY the same.
Others: quicksand death(s) in Tarzan movies, James Bond almost being cremated alive in Diamonds Are Forever.
It's a wonder I've turned out to be such a well-adjusted 52-year-old adult ... (!)
The movies' tag line should have been: "In a pyramid, nobody can hear you scream".
Like others, this scene has stayed with me ever since I saw it as a boy, years ago. You can't say that for very many movie scenes.
A horror scene without the gore. Story is far more powerful than special effects.
It most likely was a special effects department that created the pseudo mechanism for the closing of the sarcophagus and the boobytrap mechanisms with the axe, stone sliding past the caps that unleash the sand closing the tomb.
@@TheIndependentLens I’m sure you’re right but…I think he’s referring to computer generated animation/effects.
@@JS-fe8sx he’s talking about gore though . . . Computer effects? Everyone knows prosthetics and live makeup effects are the best for that. I was just stating that effects departments do all kinds of stuff from supplying soap bubbles for a bath scene to full on creature effects. Hence building the boobytrap mechanisms for “Land of the Pharaohs.”
I believe this is one of the most underappreciated Howard Hawks movies, but it's a masterpiece... a narrative juggernaut with some great scenes and inspired shots... and this amazing ending which is more related with horror films than anything.
This kind of movies is why Hawks is one of the top 5 directors ever
Uno que desinforma el entierro de los faraones en dónde los pasadizos se cierran automáticamente. Realmente ese sistema no existió en las pirámides, solo eran tapiadas.
@@RZ393 de seguro lo viste en la Película " Tierras de Faraones ", en dónde viste una excelente seguridad, dónde las puertas se cierran por el corte a las digas.
En arqueología lo único que se encontraron es pasadizos sellados peto violentado , ni el sacrofago ni la momia ni las joyas fueron encontradas,ni trampas existían
Such a satisfying ending! Who doesn't love seeing a villain get what they deserve so dramatically!
It took me some time to realize you are talking about the high priest.
@@christosvoskresye It's nice to know the burial of a pharaoh begets a round of mass promotions at the temple.
The look on Hamar's face at 1:23 telling Nellifer to give the order that will bury her alive, perfect revenge for his friend
I remember seeing this years ago, sitting on the floor at my grandparents house, watching it with them. I couldn’t have been more than 8, I’m 37 now, but it has stuck with me ever since. I couldn’t even remember the name of the movie until it happened to come on TCM one day and I was like “that’s it! I’ve been thinking about that movie for years!”
I'll never forget that burial scene. It scared me to death as a little kid. It's a great movie.
Watched this as a young boy (as a re-run on TV, not on the big screen unfortunately) and was amazed and scared by the intricate deathtrap-as-a-tomb mechnism. Spielberg surely learned a thing or two from Howard Hawks when he directed Raiders of the Lost Arc.
The scene has the flavor of a scene from Edgar Allan Poe; being buried alive was a main theme in his stories.
This scared me a lot as a kid (saw it around 1970 or so). The kind of thing that sticks with you. Wouldn't be the same without the SFX and music.
This film is worth watching if only to appreciate this scene of Khufu's final revenge against Nellifer. Joan Collins did a good job in portraying the greedy, manipulative and scheming Princess Nellifer.
Agreed, I mean I love the whole movie (I must have watched it a billion times now LOL) but yes, the ending is just so damn satisfying! :D
It wasn't really revenge. Khufu was simply planning to murder the priests and the architect, as he had murdered so many before. The fact this his murderer was included among them was not his doing.
@@christosvoskresye Look at it as ironic revenge, or karma, against an evil person on behalf of her victim, as he was finally aware of her betrayal at the very end of his life.
One of the most morbidly satisfying endings I've seen in any film, and definitely the most memorable scene in this movie! I love this movie so much, have since I was really little (I saw it when I was about 8, I'm now 26, I was raised on a lot of this stuff). This is like Indiana Jones meets Edgar Allen Poe kind of an ending, like Cask of Amantillado ending. XD
What REALLY makes Nellifer's death so hideous to contemplate is the awareness that she will live on for days after the last torch goes out, and she is plunged into total, absolute darkness, until she starves or suffocates. Mary Queen of Scots' husband Bothwell was chained in a room in absolute darkness; it took him very little time to go completely insane. Even more ghastly, he lived on in that state for five years.
She must have found the exit. If you go into the Great Pyramid today there's no indication she was ever there.
I think suffocation would come first, after she, Hamar and the other priests very quickly used up all the available Oxygen.
Accept it Joan, this is your DYNASTY.
First, she dies in a pyramid...then she dies as Edith Keeler as Jim Kirk watches from a distance.
Watched it every afternoon on "Million Dollar Movie", on WPIX, Channel 11, New York. Memorized the dialog and would act it out to the delight of my big brother, who would laugh in hysterics. Pretty good film for 1955, and I still have fond memories of it today.
I remember this film from when I was a boy, this scene frightened the crap out of me back then.
Richie Jones Not quite the same - it more like haunted me after watching it maybe just once or twice. I didn't rediscover what movie it was until several decades later, a year or two ago. What a great scene indeed.
Ditto !! Must've watched thousands of films as a wee boy but this one - and this particular scene - has always stood out, I was scared witless by it !!
Me too says Chris antoniou george michael's cousin... Egypt scares me
I had forgotten this movie, but what a wonderful refresher of a very chilling ending.
Looks like most of us watched this as kids - and were scarred for life.
I was fascinated by Egypt as a child, and remember receiving a glossy grown-up guide to the Tutankhamen exhibition for my 6th or 7th birthday. Can't have been too much later that I saw this film, and was captivated all the way to the end, when the final scene left me ecstatic at the ingenuity of Peter Ustinov's architect, with his sandy take on hydraulics, and awestruck by the self-sacrifice of the priests, accompanying there Pharaoh on his journey into the hereafter. So many of the comments here remark a memory of this film from childhood. It must be the mesmering appeal of the Pyramids and the mystery of the people who built them.
This scene is well done in my mind because Nellifer pays the price for her greed and lies. And her blood was not spilled in the process. And while she has a meltdown, the priests are just waiting for their gradual demise.
With Nellifer, Hamar and the Priests all using Oxygen it wouldn't take long to die.
The priests believe its better for them to die to maintain the illusion so that she doesn't suspect and Egypt gets an unfit ruler.
This scene really disturbed me as a child about 45 years ago.
A great way to have revenge on someone when your already dead.
That whole stone mechanism to close that Pyramid was well done. Sand was packed between doors to keep them open. When those clay cups were broken sand got out and doors closed slowly but surely.
Agreed.......
Watched a documentary about a more recent small tomb discovery where they used machinery to remove a huge capstone that had similarly been dropped down using sand.
On opening it they discovered the tomb had been looted with no signs of any forced entry meaning the priests had robbed it before it was sealed.
Two more thoughts:
1. The Egyptians portrayed here were a particularly nasty, bloodthirsty lot -- definitely including Khufu.
2. The flaw in this design is it would be too easy for a small mistake to set off the chain reaction and seal the tomb prematurely.
One of the best scenes ever! Great movie!!
thankyou thankyou thankyou! This was haunting me, couldn't remember the movie, was getting no where until BOOM found this and now I can sleep in peace! totally gotta grab this film and watch it again^^
Thanks for sharing this. I saw this scene decades ago and made a big impression on me back then.
Wow this scene gave me nightmares as a kid about being buried alive, still to this day. Amazing I found it after all these years
I was child when I first saw this film. I always loved it especially the closing of the tomb and Joan getting what she deserved and so many others dying in the tomb with the dead King.
Brilliant!! What a clever ending. If only films as entertaining as this could be made today
Saw this scene as a kid 60 yrs ago in the theater and made quite an episodic memory.
What is the most disturbing is how calm everyone else is with this fate
A shockingly spine tingling scene even eight decades later! I thought so at the age of ten on seeing it for the first time and I still do now.
I've never seen this movie, but want to. Why is she the only one who is upset though? All those other guys in there are going to die too.
@@TheIndependentLens The male priests were fully prepared for the outcome, Princess Nellifer was most certainly not. By deliberately neglecting to inform her beforehand about the truth of what she was about to endure, it has to be said they were guilty of criminal deception, regardless of their motives.
@@geoffberesford I’ve seen the movie by now. I know what is happening. No, she got her riches wealth like she always wanted. Karma! And her criminal deception is what got her there too!
@@TheIndependentLens The male priests know what would happen but let's say it like this: They are not really chatty persons...
I’ve always loved this film. Pharaohs and queens of Egypt speaking with precise English diction, great action, intrigue, set pieces, wonderful 50s colour, sets and costumes and this wonderful ending where scheming Joan gets her comeuppance! It’s such a cleverly put together sequence. As a child I was as horrified as she was and couldn’t sleep.
I saw this flick the same week that I got my Aurora Mummy model! Synchronicity, man!
The funeral scenes from that movie had shocked me when I was a small boy...
I always enjoyed these epics. Joan Collins was gorgeous....
my take on this was Heymar couldnt protect his Pharoah from Nellifer and knows the young Pharoah is in mortal danger as long as She is Regent as an earlier scene from this movie is when Heymar and The Pharoah recall something from their youth Heymar says 'You won the Fight and took the ring' and Pharoah replies 'and you tricked me into some wager and had it back by nightfall' Heymar knew Pharoah was Stronger but Pharoah knew Heymar was smarter and wiser than him so Respected him so he outwits Nellifer by tricking her into giving the order that will condemn her to a Fitting Death as He Knows what she did as look at his eyes he is practically saying it as in Ancient Egypt Murderers were often buried alive with their victims to serve them as a slave in the after life why Heymar was trusted by Pharoah he told him what he needed to hear not what he wants to hear as that is a true Trusted Counsel
Next to _Logan's Run_ and _Futureworld_ one of the most memorable movies of my early childhood.
The man that designed that tomb has to be an equal intellect to all the great geniuses of the past.
You'll never look at a sandbox the same way again!!
What a Brilliant Man to design the sealing of the tomb! Truly amazing
I too believe this is the way the Egyptians sealed the tombs, I loved the movie, I was about 8 years old when I first time saw it in my country. Thanks to the producers, director, crew, actors, investors etc all of them. Thanks. Great great movie, lovely music. I wish they show it again on the TV if not in theatres as DVD are no fun !!
Unfortunately they did not seal the Great pyramid this way and it is believed that it was completely looted within weeks of it being sealed.
I saw this many years ago on German tv. Thanks for sharing!
Even then, Joan Collins played the role of the Evil Beast with perfection!
I watched this in the theater when I was 10 in 1955. Oh my was it scary.
Wow. Her acting is so good! Wow.
Una gran y hermosa película ,como kisiera volver a verla desde el comienzo , 😞😞 Joan Collins una gran actriz 😍👏👏👏👏👏
Well, yes, the Egyptians did have brilliantly engineered ways to seal the tombs of the Pharaohs, very like this. I love this crazy movie, with all its flaws....with the exception of Joan Collins, it had wonderful people in it, and it was so dramatic and colorful and just pure fun. I truly love the ending of it...little Princess Nellifer got what was coming to her, after her career specializing in nastiness and murder. Try to not glare at this movie with too scholarly an eye, break out the popcorn and brew, and just enjoy it. That's what it's meant for, dammit!
It would be incredible if they could remake this with todays technology!
Maybe it would be incredible but then again maybe not. I think I’ve bought Star Wars about six times, a couple of VHS tapes and of course DVD’s, each one remastered a little more with a new scene here and there. My favorite version though is the original movie on VHS. The “low tech” version has a lot more “charm” than the high tech versions. I do wish this video had a lot better sound.
After all these years this scene still causes me claustrophobia.
Been looking for this film for AGES. Thanks
Being faithful to the reality of the story is that the tomb of Pharaoh Keops was looted a few years after he died, but despite everything, a great movie
Seeing this again, after many years, i wish Mel Brooks had done a Pyramid/Mummy funny movie.
Archaeologists translated some hieroglyphs and it came out as "Tut Ankh Amun was a mummy's boy".
I was absolutely in love with Joan Collins in this movie
If I was one of them and knew this was going to happen, I definitely would have taken a packed lunch and a urn of beer.
Saw this as a boy and began a period in my life where I built tombs made out of lego blocks while I hummed the tune to Land of the Pharaohs. In retrospect think that could have been a bad sign.
Comment was made about the Pharaoh taking his wives with him to the next life. The Queens had separate entombments in the Valley of the Queens.
The movie is about Pharao Khufu and building the Great Pyramid. The pyramids where already ancient when the egyptians start to bury their kings and queens in the two adjacent valleys 1000 years later. But next to the big pyramids are small pyramids for the wives. At the end of the second dynasty with Pharao Seth-Peribsen the custom to take some people as helpers with them to the after life had been suspended. Khufu was Pharao in the fourth dynasty, around 200 years later.
Although some Pharaos have grown very old, many of them and especially their wives died young. To kill half of the royal household wouldn't have had made sense when the next pharao was still a child. And I'm sure there were other ways to get rid of a to greedy second wife if it was necessary - accidents happens all the time - as to bury her together with the pharao.
But it makes a very good ending in this movie. 🙂
They were not killed. They wanted to go with whom they had loved in life. Life and death had different meanings then.
A cynic would say that Pharaoh might not want some of his wives in the second life.
@@JLee-rt6ve He's on the look-out for other partners in the afterlife, why shouldn't his former wifes not allowed to do this themselves? 🙂
That'll teach you not to mess with Sir Lancelot Spratt.
Hang in there Joan.
I last saw this scene 14 years ago. Just finished primary school and was entering a fine high school - I thought I wouldn't have time to watch TV because of studies etc. so this movie stuck in me. Only now I remembered to look it up. It is as if 2007 was a year ago.
This looks like an amazing movie, but a very dark one! I think that last scene could give me nightmares, and I know it's not the only one.
Interesting as the concept is, I'm also amazed by the extravagent disregard for the actual Great Pyramid.
Just stop! Get off yourself! The “extravagant” disregard . . . Get a freaking life!
The Pharaohs were well-known for their Pharosity.
i can remember the look on her face when she is trapped with the dead Pharaoh and his slaves !
And this is one year before the 10 Commandments came out in 1956. I was really loving the priests costume with the leopard skins very spot on.
another wonderful one :D great job keep it up
I know everyone enjoys seeing Nellifer get her comeuppance, but...remember, she was sent to Khufu as *tribute*, meaning basically a sex slave, not as a wife. Frankly, when you conquer someone's island (She was a princess of Cyprus, if memory serves), slaughter huge numbers of her people, then lay a tribute of grain so heavy that it literally can't be done with the number of people you have left to work the fields (and thereby set up an excuse to oppress the island even more) therefore meaning the princess has to go as alternate tribute, frankly expecting honesty from her is laughable. She's obviously not doing it for any noble motive, but you can't blame her for screwing over the Pharaoh who screwed over her and her kingdom.
I remember being bored with most of this film as a child. My cousin (my mum's age) told me to shut up and watch that incredible scene. I was captivated and appalled, like so many commentators. Never forgotten it.
Me too, this scene freaked me out as a kid and I still recall it vividly 70 years later.
this movie stayed with me so much when i 1st watched it
Been claustrophobic ever since
The end of this movie is delicious for anyone who values revenge served cold.
Amazing - would love to see this film
That is what happens to greedy, wicked, lying, manipulative, murderers. I recall seeing this as a child in the 70's and saying, "Good, serve you right!"
Like a lot of comments I so remember watching this as a kid on tv and being shocked 😳
Actually... this film's denouement is really the best scene in the whole darn film. It's the ultimate revenge! When Nellifer (Collins, who milks it for all its worth) having "plotted and schemed" to murder her consort, the late pharaoh, Khufu (Hawkins) receives her "just desserts" for her treachery only to be sealed up and forever entombed in an airlock till the air runs out. (Not an uncommon practice in ancient Egypt. The belief was that the Pharaoh would cross over with any spoils of war he was rightly entitled to as well as his many wives, living or dead, who would join him in the afterlife.) Go figure?
Incidentally... did anyone notice the solar boats providing safe conduct for the Pharaoh and his loyal courtiers into the second life?
Actually, imurment was not common for Egypt. People were mummified and buried when they died, in adjoining temples. Lots of items were sent in effigy, but not buried alive.
@@mzmadmike Correct. Immuring living servants and animals with the dead ruler was Sumerian, not Egyptian.
What a horrible way to go...love it,..so cruel...imagine 2000 years time finding that lot..just a film though........
If Hamar & Nellifer were playing chess, one could say that the former won by “sacrificing his queen.”😂😂
I once was inside a pyramid (actually the one of Khufu of this very movie clip!) and I must say, it was very eerie. The air was stifling, the darkness was depressing. I got a cramp because the corridor was so low-ceilinged.
Yes it is , but did you notice there was a hole in the floor. On the North east of the central tomb. So they could get out after fitting the stone coffin in place ?
Really love this satisfying ending.
I remembered seeing this ending when i was a kid. I remembered it for so many years but couldnt remember what the film was, just that a woman some some other people were buried alive in a pyramid. I cant believe i have finally found the clip!
Saw this when I was in 6th grade. glad I was able to discover the name of the movie :)
Sublime ⭐ magnifique 👍 ont ne verras plus de films comme ça 🍀 des milliers d'étoiles ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ cela mérite ⭐❤️❤️❤️❤️ merci 💋 j'adore ❤️
Luckily I saw this movie when I was a teen, so I could more appreciate the "sick" way to get a (postomous) revenge on your murderer, don't forget how strong the ancient egyptians believed in afterlife's awards & punishments, so we could only imagine how will be her personal inferno.
One of the best twist endings in any film❤🎥🎞️
awesome movie, the way they used sand is very interesting, they did actually seal tombs that would lock in place, using resin and copper pins I think, the pharaoh though has some of the skinniest arms I've ever seen-haha, I think all these ancient egyptian films are interesting because they didn't use cgi so they'd have to kinda replicate ways that stone was moved and how the cities and clothing looked, and it kinda gives us a glimpse of how it might have looked, that's what the pyramids actually looked like with their smooth limestone casing stones in place..just imagine..while also telling us how much we've learned since and how much there's still left to learn about the ancients, every generation thinks they have it figured out and they never really do
save me, save me, I didnt get a chance to wear all my jewels yet!
yes i agree with you their is many more classics like the robe.richard burton.then again i love all roman films the mid 40s up to the late 60s seem to be the best years for the epics.cast of 1000s have long gone.
Like other comments here, I too remember seeing this on TV as a kid - I continue to wonder how all those priests / embalmers / whoever could remain so calm as they waited for a nasty death, sealed in the pyramid.
The shots of the big stone blocks sliding down the slanted passageways, breaking the cups to release the sand, are still very enjoyable.
+hebneh I think all the priests remained calm because they were not only devoted followers of the Pharaoh but were all mutes who'd had their tongues cut out.
Andreas Hoffer
Plus their spiritual leaders.People like that often handle death differently.
Great scenes !
Years ago I went to a book signing & brought an original still photo of Joan from this film. When I asked if she’d be kind enough to sign it she had me come stand next to her & held it up for the onlookers to see. She said “now here’s a fan!” I told her I’d always liked her in that role as she was at her evil best and gorgeous at only age 20. She then proceeded to reenact her final lines & told me she had a horrible time trying to keep the plastic gemstone glued in her navel. She then laughed & said “gosh, I did look good then didn’t I?” She was around 70 then & although she had on a lot of makeup it was obvious she had not had any work done. Her face had wrinkles & appeared very natural which made her still very striking & beautiful as well as sexy! For anyone who thinks she is fake or overrated I can say she was fun, friendly & the real deal. Classy & appreciative of everyone. I can well imagine the effect she had on men in 1955!
Bruh you just said that a 70 year old woman is sexy
@@Jdjdjdjdjdjdjo bruh compared to your grandma tho 😆
@@Jdjdjdjdjdjdjo She is and was !!!!!!!
annoying ~nyan~ And I’ll say it again! Age has not diminished her incredible magnetism.
That’s a really cool story. She sounds awesome. Thanks for posting.