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$9.98 - Sphinx [VHS]
Product DescriptionAn archaeologist travels to the Egyptian pyramids to search for treasure and finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery.
A sudsy second cousin to exotic-locale thrillers like Charade, Franklin J. Schaffner's Sphinx offers a pleasant popcorn blend of old-school serial excitement and paperback-novel romance. Lesley-Anne Down (looking lovely as always) is top-billed as an archaeologist searching for the lost (and cursed, naturally) tomb of a king in Egypt. After witnessing the murder of a local expert (John Gielgud), Down becomes the target of assassins; Frank Langella is on hand as a handsome stranger who generates sparks with the good doctor as he attempts to help her locate the tomb. The Egyptian locations provide a picturesque backdrop for this film adaptation of the serviceable novel by Robin Cook; the cast (which includes John Rhys-Davies, who returned to the region that same year in Raiders of the Lost Ark) is also attractive and definitely game to navigate the story's pulpy machinery. --Paul Gaita
Most Recent Customer ReviewsDate : 2010-03-09
Summary : SPHINX IS NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD - BEAUTIFUL !!!
Hey everybody...we can finally get Sphinx on DVD. I accidently found it on the Warner Brothers site. I ordered it and just got it. The DVD is fantastic...great video and audio...(widescreen too). If anyone is interested, you have to go directly to the WB Site. It is one of the many new releases that are in their WB Archive series. I wish that Amazon was listing it....but it's not. Enjoy !!! Cost from WB is $19.95.
Date : 2009-12-27
Summary : Sphinx
The Sphinx is a very old movie that I remembered from 30? years ago. Good Egyptian backgrounds and I liked the actors. I had read the book by Robin Cook first and enjoyed the mystery. My husband that it was a mediocre story. Three stars for us. The tape is very scratchy and I hope it holds together to watch it again.
Date : 2009-09-02
Summary : Excellent source for videos
I've been searching for this movie since I first saw it about 12 years ago. I wasn't sure it was the same one but ordered it anyway. It's the same one and I'm so glad that I found an excellent source from whom to purchase it.
The movie is about missing Egyptian artifacts and a woman who goes to Egypt to find them. Very entertaining, though a bit cheesy in parts because it's older. A good romance is tucked into the plot making it even more interesting.
Date : 2009-07-28
Summary : Memorable. In spots, anyway.
Sphinx (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1981)
Ever have one of those movies where you're going along watching it, and then suddenly you see a scene that makes you realize you've seen the movie before? Yeah, that was me last week watching Sphinx, which I now remember seeing on TV back when it came out (given that movies usually showed up on TV a year after release back in the day, I would have been fourteen when I first saw it) thanks to the interrogation scene. I mean, Lesley-Anne Down squashed up against a wall by a dirty, corrupt cop with roaming hands? What fourteen-year-old would remember that?
Down (Nomads) plays Erica Baron, a young Egyptologist looking to make a name for herself. An old friend of her father's (Sir John Gielgud) has a lead on something that might do it, but before he can fully explain what it is, he gets himself offed. Now the guys who killed him are after Erica Baron, who finds herself retreating into the arms of the dashing Akmed Kazzan (Frank Langella). But is he on her side, or is he behind the attempts on her life?
Yeah, it's your basic seventies-style thriller, and there's nothing too surprising here. From what I've seen, it's fallen into the realm of the chick flick over the years, with women watching it because, let's face it, Frank Langella really is dashing. Guys could do the same, however, because Lesley-Anne Down is a fine-looking lady, and both of them are good enough actors to make it at least worth watching. The geek contingent, however, has another reason to check it out: Sci-Fi Channel favorite John Rhys-Davies in a relatively early role. It's not something to go way out of your way for, but if you find it on TV one night, don't change the channel. ***
Date : 2008-04-18
Summary : Just as Good as I Remembered.
Saw this movie when it first came out ages ago and it always stuck in my mind. I confess that a couple of the main resons it stayed with me was because of the stunning images of the Egyptian countryside and monuments, the equally stunningly gorgeous Frank Langella, and finally, it was a good story about black market buying of ancient artifacts. Erica Bane, played by Lesley-Ann Down, comes to Egypt to prove a hypothosis she has regarding Pharoh Seti the First. There she meets a shop owner, played by Sir John Gielgud, and witnesses his murder, but not before he has shown her a golden statue of Seti the First with a curious cartouche inscribed on its base. Soon she too is endanger, as her investigation of the golden statue and the meaning of the mysterious cartouche draw her deeper into discovering a long ago, clever secret of Seti's tomb builder. Frank Langella is an Egyptain authority that assists her and eventually becomes her lover. Erica must deal with asassins, being locked away in a creepy desert catacomb, and trying to figure out what man she can really trust to be who they claim to be. There's much nail-biting action and mystery in this movie. I did manage to find an old VHS of this movie, but wish it would come out DVD so the sound and picture would be purer, but it was still very enjoyable to watch again.
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