Tweet Help with Egyptian Themed Films

I'm looking for Egyptian themed shorts, particularly from the 1920s, that hopefully are on DVD. Does anyone have some suggestions? Thanks.

[silentfilm]

Helen Gardner's Cleopatra (1912) has been shown on TCM, but I don't know if it is available from the Warner Archive.

There are two Méliès shorts, The Monster (1903) and The Oracle of Delphi that have ancient Egyptian themes and are available on the Flicker Alley box set.


In Made for Love (1926) with Leatrice Joy, her boyfriend is an archeologist, but he is more interested in digging up Egyptian artifacts than spending time with her. Of course this and Gardner's Cleopatra are features.

I'm looking for Egyptian themed shorts, particularly from the 1920s, that hopefully are on DVD. Does anyone have some suggestions? Thanks.

Tough question, but to clarify, does it make any difference if it's ancient or modern Egypt?

This link lists Egyptian films made during the 1920s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_films_before_1930

It's not a short, not from the 20's, and only fragmentarily extant; but there's the 1914 The Last Egyptian, written by L. Frank Baum and directed by J. Farrell MacDonald. There's a good bit of in in 2002's Decasia.

Don't forget the lost THE QUEEN OF SHEBA (1921). Also MOON OF ISRAEL (1923). And of course Lubitsch THE LOVES OF PHARAOH which just came out on DVD and Blu-ray. All features.

Thanks, everyone. I'm looking more for shorts about ancient Egypt for an Egyptian themed party.

Do you have When Soul Meets Soul (1913) yet?

greta

[Danny Burk]

Technically this isn't what you want....but when you think about it, it rather fits: the flashback sequence in THE MUMMY. It's basically silent, and it's a self-contained "short" within the film.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Well these are talkies rather than silents, but they are shorts: The Three Stooges films WE WANT OUR MUMMY (1939) and MUMMY'S DUMMIES (1948) are on DVD and are moderately amusing. There's also the cartoon PORKY IN EGYPT (1938), which is a lot of fun. And about 10 years ago I made a fun but dumb little short with two of my nieces called MAYMIE AND MOLLY MEET THE MUMMY. Taking up on Danny's suggestion, there are also the Castle Films one-reel abridgements of THE MUMMY and I think there's also one for ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY. There are also a number of Egypt documentaries under an hour (some only one-reelers, some A&E or Discovery Channel material, and some IMAX featurettes) that might fit your requirements.

I've got the Melies set and somewhere there's the 1911 version of SHE available, but I also would like to know of any silent comedies (Sennett, Christie, Roach, or otherwise) with ancient Egypt themes that I could run with features like THE LOVES OF PHARAOH, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, CLEOPATRA, THE EGYPTIAN, et al.

(Would love to attend an Egyptian-themed party someday -- my basement theatre is equipped with a mummy case and various ancient Egyptian statuette replicas, and my car's license plate reads "RAMSES")

Gloria Swanson's THE LOVE OF SUNYA has a brief ancient Egyptian flashback sequence-actually the whole plot of the movie hinges on this flashback.This film as an interesting past lives/mysticism plot.

There's the Vitagraph film The Egyptian Mummy with Constance Talmadge, i think it was on the last Unknown Video nickelodeon set.

There is a clip from The Dust of Egypt (Vitagraph 1915) in one of those 30s Warner Bros. compilations, but i don't know if the whole film exists. There's also a still in the Blum Pictorial History of the Silent Screen.

Do any of the versions of She count?

greta

Lubitsch's DIE AUGEN DER MUMIE MA/EYES OF THE MUMMY (1918) is plenty Egyptian and a shortish feature, plus it has Pola Negri AND Emil Jannings. It is very silly, though.

Howdy Greta,

Not sure if animation is your thing...but off the top of my head, I can think of the following two films my silent animation offerings:

Mutt and Jeff in Mummy O’ Mine (1926) retitled as “Egyptian Daze”...M&J stake out a pyramid to try and steal a valuable mummy.

Red Hot Sands (1927) Don’t recall the plot, but this Aesop’s Fables probably has tons of animals roaming around Egypt.

I should have one or two others that are not on my standard DVDs but I could make them available to you just the same. Feel free to send along a PM or email.

Thanks, everyone. I'm looking more for shorts about ancient Egypt for an Egyptian themed party.

The party has probably already taken place, but I still thought this might be interesting (though far away for most). Museum exhibition about Hollywood's Egypt

Well these are talkies rather than silents, but they are shorts: The Three Stooges films WE WANT OUR MUMMY (1939) and MUMMY'S DUMMIES (1948) are on DVD and are moderately amusing. There's also the cartoon PORKY IN EGYPT (1938), which is a lot of fun.

A very funny sound short set in Egypt is MY MUMMY'S ARMS (1934) - Vitaphone, starring Shemp Howard, Harry Gribbon, Louise Latimer, Russell Hicks and Sheldon Leonard.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0305860/combined

Thanks for the late suggestions, but yes, Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre celebrated its 90th anniversary in October. We showed a couple of Egyptian themed shorts (animation, comedy), along with a tour of Hollywood at the time and Fox Movietone footage of Indians arriving at the theatre on a train engine down the streetcar tracks to perform in THE COVERED WAGON.

Sounds like it was fun. Well, for the next anniversary, there's always stuff like this: