La esfinge de cristal

I am on a campaign to watch every Robert Taylor movie that is available. Overall, this movie is beyond subpar. It is a cheaply made Italian film that is very disjointed. I am not sure there was a professional film editor used. My favorite star of all time, the marvelous Robert Taylor, should have passed on this poor quality opportunity. The man made very, very good films for more than thirty years., so, I can only assume that he just wanted to keep busy. This film was made not long before his death in 1969. He was still very handsome, even, as an older man (around 56 years old) and he still had his wonderful voice; but the romance aspect was not needed in this film. In fact, the movie could have made without any stars as by the later part of the 60s, having a classic Hollywood actor was probably not the way to get an audience. I will further add that seeing a classic Hollywood star out of their historical tine frame of popularity is very jarring. If you are a Taylor fan, I would skip this film. If you decide to watch it, be prepared to feel sad that his time had passed.

I picked up this baby because I was hoping for a spooky expedition story set in Egypt. Robert Taylor plays a millionaire going to Egypt to locate a buried tomb that holds the priceless Glass Sphinx. His assistant in an expert in such matters, played by Angel del Pozo. Also accompanying him are his niece and an exotic beauty he has just met, played by Anita Ekberg. Adding a little suspense is a mystery man (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) who is following the expedition.

This all sounds good to me. Unfortunately the creative team key on the romantic subplots of the film. Taylor is mad for Ekberg and the niece is falling for the mystery man. Alas the most memorable scene is not the unearthing of a vengeful mummy, but a clumsy romantic scene between Taylor and Ekberg. They are both having a morning shower, side by side, in outdoor shower stalls. Ekberg drops her soap and Taylor leans under the stall and hands it back to her. Then they have an intimate moment as the both hold on (far too long) to the soap and each others hand. This might seem romantic to two teenagers, but for two, ahem... mature stars, it plays out quite silly.

Long, tedious, and not really worth a look, The Glass Sphinx tells the story of a group of explorers out to find a great treasure buried with a "glass sphinx" in the desert. There's crosses and double crosses and a good many people die. Buts its not all that interesting, and may very well induce a slumber equal to that of the pharaohs.

There are only two things that are of interest in the movie. The first are some plot twists toward the end that seem mostly unexpected, then again I might have nodded off and missed something. The other good thing is the setting which is Egypt itself where the movie was filmed. So long as the film is out of the desert things are interesting simply because its locations that haven't been used over and over again.

I really can't suggest you see it, but if elephants break into your house, tie you up and make you watch it, you won't have too bad a time.

In the 1960s and 70s, the Italian film industry was known for its so-called 'spaghetti westerns'...gritty western films that were filmed in Spain and often featured American stars while the rest of the cast was made up mostly of Italians. They were dubbed into English and flooded American theaters. However, many don't realize that during this same period, the Italian film industry also made a ton of other sorts of films....adventure, spy, romance pictures and more. "The Golden Sphinx" is one of these other genres of Italian movies.

The film stars Robert Taylor as an Egyptologist/archaeologist, Dr. Karl Nichols as well as the Swedish sex symbol, Anita Ekberg, as Paulette. The rest of the cast are mostly Italians. A major plus is that the film was actually filmed in Egypt..and Egyptians played a lot of the minor roles.

The story is about an archaeological dig in Egypt and folks for some unknown reason are out to stop the Professor and his party. By stopping them, I mean by any means necessary...and there's killing galore during the course of the movie. In addition, Paulette is in love with the Professor....though WHY doesn't make a lot of sense, as he's old enough to be her father. Heck, he even says this in the film!

So is it any good? No. The film is duller than you would expect and is about as far removed from an Indiana Jones flick as you could imagine. A better script certainly would have helped. Overall, a dreary picture and it's sad seeing a fine actor, Taylor, in such a cheap and unappealing film.

By the way, scorpion bites are almost NEVER deadly. And, if you do die, it's NOT within about 10 seconds. Don't take medical advice from bad 1960s films, folks! According to the Mayo Clinic's websites, adults stung do NOT need medical care unless they have a very serious medical condition already. So this scene where the worker is stung and immediately dies is, for want of a better word, crap.

Back when Robert Taylor was with MGM he did another Egypt story with Valley Of The Kings. That one will never be ranked as one of his best films, but it was a well made action/adventure story with Taylor an archaeologist who could have been Indiana Jones's grandfather. But in his last years Taylor did a lot of mediocre stuff for the big screen and his career hit rock bottom with The Glass Sphinx, also set in Egypt and also where he is an archaeologist.

This time Taylor has Gianna Serra as a niece to help him out and he's on a mission to find the tomb of a Pharaoh who is supposed to have lived for 200 years. King Naposis supposedly took the secret which was a magic elixir of life in his tomb, undiscovered like Tutankhamen's. It's encased in a Glass Sphinx that was buried with the Pharaoh.

But others working for Taylor like Anita Ekberg and Angel Del Pozo have a whole different agenda going. Therein lies the tale.

The DVD I saw of The Glass Sphinx shows it's in need of restoration as the color was pretty washed out. But I'm betting the Taylor children aren't thrilled with this film and ain't likely to get behind anything that would show their father in a bad light.

And I have to say Taylor pretty much walked through this one. He got a trip to Egypt and a pay day and that's about it. The rest of the cast pretty much did the same thing.

Some nice aerial shots of Egypt in the Nile valley and the Suez Canal which probably looked good in color when the film first came out is all I can really recommend with The Glass Sphinx.