Il sepolcro dei re

The beautiful young Sushila (Debra Paget) is forced into a political marriage with young Pharaoh Nemorat in order to consolidate power. However, the young Pharaoh is beset with mental illness and the marriage becomes dangerous, all the while the chief advisor Kefren (a menacing Erno Crisa) and his scheming mistress plot to destroy the unstable pair. The girl is framed for an attempt on the vulnerable king's life and sentenced to death. Meanwhile, her sympathetic would-be lover, the handsome physician Resi (Ettore Manni in one of his best roles)concocts a scheme to save her by drugging her to appear dead and reviving her later when they can escape. However, she is sealed into her former young husband's tomb with the air supply rapidly running out. The action plot proceeds at a brisk pace and holds viewers interest which is increased by well-acted parts with attractive players, great costumes and sets.

Cleopatra, after the civil war that followed the assassination of Caesar, met with Marc Antony in Assyria where they planned the defense of Egypt against the Romans.

Before leaving, Cleopatra entrusted her young daughter, Shila, to the rulers of Assyria to be brought up as their own.

After Marc Antony's defeat and Cleopatra's death, Egypt, for the next twenty years, was torn apart and ruled by a youthful Pharaoh, Nemorat, with his despot Queen Mother, Tegi, who desired to unite both kingdoms and strengthen her son's rule by conquering Assyria and making Shila, now a beautiful woman, his queen.

Sounds intriguing, right?

Not sure what the budget was for this period piece, but it's tedious

After her role as Lilia opposite John Derek in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, roles started getting scarce on the big screen for Debra Paget who as I write this review is the last living of the major players left from that classic. Look at her credits, she did a lot of television after that and like so many of her contemporaries, mostly male though, went to Italy for big screen sand and sandal epics. But Cleopatra's Daughter is in no way like the Elizabeth Taylor classic that came out three years later.

For if you remember in that fairly historically accurate film, Cleopatra had no daughter with Julius Caesar or anyone else. She had a son who disappeared after her overthrow, but no daughter. Assyria as a kingdom was no more by Cleopatra's time and there were no more Pharoahs ruling Egypt. Other than all this, Cleopatra's Daughter is a film of great veracity, NOT.

Cleo's kid played by Paget goes to live with the Assyrian royal house who bring her up like their own, but now the new ruling house of Egypt, presumably the one left there by Augustus has conquered Assyria and to cement their usurping dynasty, the Queen Mother who really runs things wants Debra to marry her idiot Pharoah son who is a real Mama's boy.

Paget's got eyes for the royal physician Ettore Manni, but there's folks with designs on the throne. She's implicated in the poisoning of the Pharoah and sentenced to be put to death and buried in the great tomb of Cheops which he has constructed (another historical anomaly). Manni in a bit lifted from Romeo and Juliet gives Paget a potion that will fake death and his task is to get her out of the tomb once it's sealed up. Breaking in isn't easy and Manni gets some grave robbing professionals to help him do it.

If you think this is all ridiculous enough, it gets even worse, but I won't reveal any more. I think that most Hollywood performers who went to Italy to revive their sagging careers did their worst work there. Only Clint Eastwood made a career from spaghetti westerns, no one did it from gladiator films.

All that was needed was for June Allyson to come on doing a chorus of the Cleopatterer song that she did in Till The Clouds Roll By.

After Julius Caesar's death, Marc Antony and Cleopatra met in Assyria for political purposes. While there, Cleopatra left her daughter Shila with the Assyrians rulers. Shila was raised by and as one of the Assyrian royals. In the years following the death of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Egypt is in turmoil from their evil and mentally ill Pharaoh Nemorat. Nemorat's Queen Mother, Tegi, wanted her son Pharaoh Nemorat and the Princess Shila to marry in order to unite Egypt and Assyria. Shila rejected Nemorat and he took some poison then died. Now the Queen Mother Tegi has Shila imprisoned for the death of her son. The royal physician, Resi, is in love with Shila and wants to help her. Tegi's younger son, Kefren, is now next in line for the throne. Now Resi and Shila must risk all for their love of one another. Resi has a plan to get the Princess Shila out of prison before she is put to death by order of the Egyptian Queen Mother Tegi.

This is a fairly good "B" historical drama. It's not great but it did hold my interest fairly well, I was surprised by how pleasant it was. The first half of the film I did find boring but it picked up about 1/2 through it.

4.5/10

This is one of the most obscure movies I've watched in recent memory, and it deserves to stay obscure. It's not very good.

Cleopatra's Daughter is like historical fan fiction, following - shock horror - the daughter of Cleopatra. It feels a bit like when the monster movies of the 1930s and 40s would do "Son of x" or something. But also, the big Cleopatra movie from around this time came out later, so that doesn't really line up. I've never seen that one, but I maybe would be morbidly curious if it wasn't also four hours long.

At least Cleopatra's Daughter wasn't long. I kind of half-watched it at a point, though. There is something interesting about the star, Debra Paget, but the same can't be said about all her movies. She retired from acting more than 60 years ago, and is apparently still out there somewhere, or maybe not? Who knows - being reclusive is fascinating. Her Wikipedia article is interesting, partly because of how it just stops at about 40 years ago. She's like the Thomas Pynchon of Classic Hollywood actresses.

Anyway, reading the limited information about her is more interesting than the movie; I think that's what I was trying to get at.