Franklin J. Schaffner directed Sphinx, an adventure starring Lesley-Anne Down and Frank Langella.
The screenplay by John Byrum is based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Robin Cook. Film rights were purchased by Orion Pictures for $1 million.
Egyptologist Erica Baron is researching a paper about the architect to Pharaoh Seti. Arriving in Cairo, she witnesses the brutal murder of unscrupulous art dealer Abdu-Hamdi, meets Yvon Mageot, a French journalist, and is befriended by Akmed Khazzan, who heads the antiquities division of the UN.
When she journeys to Luxor’s Valley of the Kings to search a tomb filled with treasures, she becomes the target of black marketeers determined to keep the riches.
The text’s mixture of mystery, adventure, and romance is uneasy and confusing, and the lousy script made things worse.
The Egyptian locations include the Cairo bazaars, Giza, the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, and Thebes.
Panned by critics, the movies was a bomb at the box-office.
Cast
Lesley-Anne Down as Erica Baron
Frank Langella as Akmed Khazzan
Maurice Ronet as Yvon Mageot
John Gielgud as Abdu-Hamdi
Vic Tablian as Khalifa
Martin Benson as Mohammed
John Rhys-Davies as Stephanos Markoulis
Nadim Sawalha as Gamal
Tutte Lemkow as Tewfik
Saeed Jaffrey as Selim
Eileen Way as Aida
William Hootkins as Don
James Cossins as Lord Carnarvon
Victoria Tennant as Lady Carnarvon
Behrouz Vossoughi as Menephta, The Royal Architect
