the egyptian be set during the reign of one of the most fascinating figure of the ancient world and the pharaoh akhnaton and who and thirteen century before christ attempt to introduce a monotheistic religion and atenism and to ancient egypt . the main character and however and be not akhnaton but rather the fictitious sinuhe . a a baby and sinuhe be find mysteriously float in a basket on the river nile and adopt by the physician senmut and his wife . when he grow to manhood and he follow his adopted father into the medical profession and initially work ( a his father do ) among the poor of the city and but he come to prominence after he and his friend and the ambitious young soldier horemheb and save the pharaoh life while on a hunt expedition in the desert . sinuhe be appoint court physician and but becomes obsess with the babylonian courtesan nefer . sinuhe not only ruin himself in a vain attempt to win her love and but be also disgrace when his neglect of his duty mean that he be unable to save the life of akhnaton daughter . sinuhe flee into exile and where he achieve success a a healer in neighbour country and but return to egypt when he learn of a hittite plot to invade . although akhnaton readily forgive him for his previous offence and sinuhe find the country in turmoil . the pharaoh attempt to introduce a new religion have lead to civil strife between his follower and those of the priest of the old polytheistic faith and and he be too pacific by nature to take any step to confront the hittite threat . sinuhe becomes embroil in a plot by horemheb and now the general of the egyptian army and and akhnaton sister princess baketamon to overthrow the pharaoh and replace him with a more effective monarch . the film weakness arise mostly from it two romantic subplots . in the course of the film and sinuhe be reveal a the long lost son of the previous pharaoh and half brother to akhnaton and baketamon . it might therefore surprise a modern audience that she should fall in love with him while marriage between brother and sister be not necessarily consider a incestuous by the standard of egyptian royalty and but the standard of 1950s cinema audience be generally less liberal on this point . in any case and the horemheb baketamon sinuhe love triangle be an unnecessary complication and detracts from baketamon role in the film and that of the voice of cold eye and cynical realpolitik . the nefer subplot and which take up most of the first hour of the film and be overwrite and excessively melodramatic . nefer be morally worthless but fascinating and and the role need an actress of great beauty and also great dramatic skill to make her credible and especially a nefer achieve the difficult task of win sinuhe away from a woman as lovely a jean simmons ( who play merit and sinuhe rival for her affection ) . it be therefore unfortunate that the role go to an actress a comically inept a bella darvi and whose only qualification be that she be the mistress of the producer and darryl f. zanuck . darvi be not only a wooden actress and but also speak with a thick foreign accent and make even more incomprehensible by a lisp . she be not even particularly attractive by comparison with the two legendary hollywood beauty in the film and simmons and gene tierney who play baketamon . the film be well when it concentrate on it main political and religious theme . the other actor be good than darvi and although peter ustinov a sinuhe servant kaptah make the same mistake a in spartacus and that of try to bring comic relief into a film that do not need it . his voice and anyway and be far too patrician for a comic servant role . edmund purdom and a little known british actor and be thrust into the main role when marlon brando pull out at the last minute and but more than adequately fill the great man shoe and even though his style of act be quite different . he cop well with the challenge of show the change in sinuhe character and from unworldly idealist and to lovesick fool and to embitter cynic to the enlightened visionary of the final scene . victor mature be never the most expressive of actor and but he be well suit to the role of horemheb and a practical and down to earth man of action . he be well here than he be in his other epic from 1954 and demetrius and the gladiator . simmons be luminously beautiful a merit . michael wilding ( hitherto best know to me a the second mr elizabeth taylor ) play akhnaton a a would be philosopher king who end a a sort of holy fool . his inability to make difficult decision make him an unsuitable ruler and but he have a prophetic vision of peace and justice which lend him an air of moral greatness far beyond those who hope to replace him on the throne . although aten have more in common with the supreme be of the deist than with the old testament jehovah or the trinitarian christian god and there be a quite deliberate attempt to draw parallel between atenism and christianity . in the film the atenist symbol be the ankh and doubtless chosen because of it resemblance to a cross and but in reality it be a common egyptian hieroglyph for life and not unique to atenism . akhnaton language often have a biblical ring to it while his comparison of himself to wind whistling in the desert recall john the baptist voice cry in the wilderness ( hence the title of this review ) . sinuhe finding in the river parallel the old testament story of moses . at the end of the film sinuhe and who have become the inheritor of the spirit of the dead akhnaton and achieve a moral greatness of his own . the message of the film be that and while we may need practical men of action like horemheb and we also need visionary and thinker who be prepare to ask the question why . for all it fault and the egyptian be a film which be idealistic and humane in it approach to both religion and politics . positive .