Egypt By Three

1953, Movie, NR, 76 mins

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Three separate tales of life on the Nile linked by narration spoken by Joseph Cotten. The first story deals with an affair between Stanville and her knife-thrower lover, Campbell. When Campbell's wife, Craven, discovers her husband's infidelity, she refuses to clear him of a murder charge unless he vows never to see Stanville again. He agrees, but the viewer is left with the distinct impression that, during an upcoming performance, Campbell may "accidentally" throw his knife at her. The second tale deals with a cholera epidemic that threatens to end a caravan's trip to Mecca. The caravan's leader, Fares, releases a carrier pigeon in order to decide whether to continue. The pigeon flies west, homeward, rather than east to Mecca, allowing the troupe to stay in quarantine, while saving face. The third segment has two American confidence men, Mendick and Constantine, trying to put one over on the locals by selling holy bread baked by the priests of the Church of Abu Sefen. Constantine sees no problem with selling the bread, but Mendick wants to use the loaves to smuggle stolen diamonds out of the country. In the end, the con men outwit themselves, and their good deeds outweigh their bad ones. All three stories are done well enough, but the material is nothing out of the ordinary, and producer/director Stoloff's hope that the exotic locale might generate some excitement just doesn't pay off. Shortly after the film was released, Egypt's playboy king Farouk was deposed by a military coup, leading to Egypt's emergence as a democracy. The resulting public interest in the locale didn't appear to help at the box office. leave a comment
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Egypt By Three
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