The Loves of Pharaoh
About The Loves of Pharaoh
King Samlak of Ethiopia offers his daughter Makeda to Pharaoh Amenes (Emil Jannings) to seal a peace. Ramphis (Harry Liedtke), son of the builder Sothis, instead falls in with Makeda's Greek slave Theonis (Dagny Servaes). Theonis blunders toward the treasury, where the penalty is death. Amenes spares Ramphis only if Theonis will be his queen, which insults Samlak into war. Amenes walls Theonis in the treasury and blinds Sothis. Samlak wounds Amenes. Ramphis hides soldiers in the treasury, beats the Ethiopians, and is chosen king. A mob stones Theonis and Ramphis. Amenes climbs back onto the throne and dies.
Cast & crew
More about The Loves of Pharaoh
Norbert Falk and Hanns Kräly wrote it for Lubitsch. Paul Wegener plays Samlak, Albert Bassermann plays Sothis, Lyda Salmonova plays Makeda, and Paul Biensfeldt plays Menon. It opened in New York on 21 February 1922. Lubitsch left for Hollywood the next year. This was his last German feature.
Themes
Making
The Federal Archives in Germany brought Alpha Omega two reels in 2003 that could not be printed. Bakels spent five years on the scan. The 2011 premiere put Künneke's music back with the picture.
Look
Theodor Sparkuhl and Alfred Hansen shot the treasury, the quarry rebellion, and the Ethiopian attack.
Music
Eduard Künneke composed the score used in the 2011 reconstruction. The American release carried a different score by Hugo Riesenfeld.
Preservation
Treated as lost until a digital reconstruction premiered on 17 September 2011. About 600 meters of the original 2,976 remain missing. The restored cut runs about 100 minutes.
Notes
- The German title is Das Weib des Pharao.
- Eduard Künneke wrote the score Lubitsch commissioned. Hugo Riesenfeld scored the American release.
- A complete print was treated as lost for decades. Thomas Bakels at Alpha Omega and the Munich Film Museum premiered a digital reconstruction on 17 September 2011.
- About 600 meters of the original 2,976 meters are still missing. The Los Angeles Times quoted Bakels that roughly 90 percent of the scenes are back, and that a Russian print of 55 minutes had lacked the love scenes.
- The George Eastman Museum screened the restoration at the Dryden Theatre on 22 April 2025.
- An original running time of 110 minutes is listed against 100 minutes for the 2011 restoration.
Scenes
- Theonis agrees to Amenes only when she sees Ramphis about to be crushed.
- Amenes seals her in the treasury and has Sothis blinded so the entrance stays secret.
- Egyptian soldiers hidden in the treasury ambush Samlak's army.
- The crowd stones Theonis and Ramphis while Amenes dies on the throne.
