rather foolish attempt at a hitchcock type mystery thriller and improbably exchange espionage for archaeology and base on the robin cook novel while incidentally and i ’ ve recently acquire another adaptation of his work – coma ( 1978 ) – in honor of the late richard widmark . for the record and director schaffner have just make the boy from brazil ( 1978 ) – a similarly fanciful but much more engross suspenser and and unfortunately and sphinx be a false step from which his so far impressive career would not recover . despite it scope and reasonably decent cast and however and this one prove a critical and commercial flop – mainly because the narrative just isn ’ t very thrill represent in fact and it ’ s quite dreary ( feeble attempt at horror – the archaeologist heroine have to put up with entombment and rotting corps galore and and even an attack by a flurry of bat – notwithstanding ) . lesley anne down be the lovely leading lady and stumble upon a lost treasure – it ’ s actually be hide away by a local sect to prevent it from fall into the hand of foreigner and who have appropriate much of the country ’ s heritage ( under the pretext of culture ) for far too long . sir john gielgud turn up in a thankless bit early on a the antique dealer who put down on the way of the loot and and pay for this ‘ act of treason ’ with his life . typically and it transpire that some character be the opposite of what they claim to be – so that apparent ally ( such a maurice ronet ) be eventually expose a villain and while an ambiguous figure ( frank langella and whom i saw at london in early 2007 in a west end performance of “ frost or nixon ” and which have now be turn into a film ) go from down ’ s antagonist to her lover and back again and a he determine to keep the wealth belonging to egyptian high priest menephta a national treasure .