The Glass Sphinx (1967) User Reviews

Some Interesting Bits at the End Make it Almost Worth Seeing.

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 27 April 2004]

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.

Awfully dull despite the subject matter.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 19 August 2020]

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.

Not many chills and thrills

[nova-63 · 5/10 · 18 January 2012]

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.

The Elixir of Life

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 12 March 2012]

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.

Egyptian adventure let down by a tedious first hour

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 22 July 2016]

THE GLASS SPHINX is an Italian-produced, Egyptian-shot adventure that has been heavily influenced by the spy film capers that were so popular all over the globe in the late '60s. James Bond had a lot to answer for; not only did the Italians produce their own knock-off spy genre, complete with dozens of secret agents following in Bond's footsteps, but the whole fighting-and-globe-trotting ethos heavily influenced cinema for years to come. Sadly, this film takes a full hour to finally decide that yes, it wants to be an adventure film, and so the viewer must sit through the insanely tedious first hour of talking, travelogue shots, and half-hearted romance to get anywhere interesting.

The last forty minutes offers up the kind of entertainment we were expecting in the first place: I'm talking grave-robbing criminals, a deadly poison gas, shoot-outs with Arabs, fist-fights atop a moving swing bridge, and a woman forced to dance exotically by some evil desert-dwellers. It's not really as exciting as I've made it sound, but at least stuff is going on and if the whole film had been like this then it would have been far more enjoyable. Sadly, the only good point about the first hour is the genuine Egyptian settings, which add an air of realism usually absent from movies substituting cardboard sets for the real thing (I'm thinking all those mummy movies).

The film is also pretty dumb, with poor cut-away camera-work in the action scenes and one of the stupidest, most unbelievable shoot-outs I've ever witnessed. Said moment occurs when half a dozen heroes decide to tackle an army of mounted Arabs. How do they do this? Toss sticks of dynamite all over the desert and then shoot them when the Arabs ride over them... bearing in mind the good guys are ON LEVEL GROUND with the dynamite, I have no idea how they managed to hit the dynamite and kill the Arabs every time! In reality they would have been decimated by the time one stick blew up, but I guess it was easier to film a scene of explosives blowing up on the ground than having our heroes tossing them at the baddies.

Director Luigi Scattini doesn't seem to have achieved much recognition for the dozen or so films he made in the '60s and '70s; I've never heard of any of them, and I've got a passing knowledge of Italian genre cinema. On the grounds of this film, he's not one of the country's most accomplished directors. Star Robert Taylor, who plays the professor, is one of those ageing US film stars who had a good career in the first part of the century before fading away into nothingness; he actually died of lung cancer a couple of years after this film, and he's not looking too good here. Swedish starlet Anita Ekberg is the most famous of the cast and she's good value for money, still highly attractive even though her career was on a down slide, memorably ending up with KILLER NUN. The other cast members are stock Euro-film regulars, including the likes of Spaniard Angel del Pozo, who made dozens of flicks in the '70s, Gianna Serra who Kirk Morris saved in from death in SAMSON AND THE SEA BEASTS and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (THE BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE) playing the heartthrob hero, a definite Bond imitator.

A sad film

[lsda-80381 · 2/10 · 2 January 2023]

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.

Mediocre but luminous Italian/Spanish co-production spectacularly shot in Egypt

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 5 June 2023]

A spectacular aventure and romance movie shot in Egypt with two big name actors , Robert Taylor and Anita Ekberg . So-so but breathtaking at times, dealing with old Egypt , ancient discoveries , mysterious tombs , Pharaons and anything else . As an expert archeologist called Prof. Karl Nichols : Robert Taylor , is searching for old tomb of Pharaoh Aposis when he hires gorgeous Paulette : Anita Ekberg , as they have to find clues that provide solid evidences of a fabulous legend : The Glass Sphinx , while his theory is rightfully ridiculed by the Egyptians. The film opens with an attempt on Karl's life by people we later find out are working with Alex : Ángel del Pozo , though he does seem a little upset when Karl and Paulette began making goo-goo eyes at each other. Karl is a millionaire who search for the tomb of a pharaoh who was rumored to have a secret elixir of life inspires violence and betrayal. The archeologist would like to prove that this legend is , in fact, true . All of them embark on a risked travel a encounter the valuable treasure.

A Italy/Spain co-production filmed on location in Egypt, as the natural backdrop is riveting and look mighty hot and to add refreshing touches of action to those parched desert sands . This is the standard bare bones pyramid potboiler with plenty of thrills , treason , attacks , double-crosses , and killings . The plot is simply a variation of ¨Valley of Kings¨ (1954) director: Robert Pirosh starred by Robert Taylor himself and Eleanor Parker, adding fantastic elements and cheaper European facilities. It's plotted to maximize confusion, a messy script that takes every opportunity to work in an action sequence , mostly fistfights shot with some shaky camerawork and with a peculiar plot starred by an archeologist called Karl who is after the Glass Sphinx which he believes contains the Elixir of Life which would have allowed the pharaohs to live hundreds of years . It almost feels like one of those James Bond ripoffs or imitations from Italy that were so common at the time, only minus the attractiveness . It turns out to be a workmanlike and sometimes thrilling flick that just lacks the surges of real excitement that might have turned into an adventure classy . An amazing , timely and thrilling story very well set in Egypt about an archaeologist is in danger because of his discoveries. On the whole this Crystal Sphinx results to be an average movie , but enteratining enough . It contains a twisted intrigue about an adventurer archeologist and a mysterious , suspicious woman to find the tomb of a Pharaoh , both of them undertake a dangerous journey through pyramids , deserts , the busy Cairo , and underground vaults plenty of tombs. Two top-boxoffice players , Robert Taylor and Anita Ekberg, the latter proves to be a cool beauty. They are finely accompanied by a nice plethora of secondary actors , as Spanish : Angel del Pozo , José Truchado, as Italian ones : Giacomo Rossi Stuart as Jack Stuart , Gianna Serra and usual master of arms : Remo de Angelis .

Rousing and evocative musical musical score by Roberto Pregadio who scores it all with a repetitive soundtrack that makes every scene feel the same. That's why composer Les Baxter was sent in 1967 to Rome by American International Pictures to score again for the American premiere . It contains a colorful and evocative cinematography in Eastmancolor by Félix Mirón, along with marvelous production design . Shot in Egypt and showing real monuments and pyramids , including wide sightseeing . Other locations include Great pyramids Giza , Keops , Kefren , Mizerinos and pyramid of Zoser , Cairo , Luxor , Canal Suez Egypt . The motion picture was regularly but professionally directed by Luigi Scattini , though it has some flaws , failures and gaps .Scattini was a cftsman who wrote and directed a few films , such as : War Italian style (1965) , Duello nel mondo (1966) , Blue Nude (1978), Solo quando deseo (1977) and Il Corpo(1974).