Taglines: More beautiful and desirable than Cleopatra herself!.
Cleopatra’s Daughter movie storyline. Shila (Debra Paget), Cleopatra’s daughter was left in Assyria for safety, in care of the King and Queen of Assyria during the war with Rome but now 20 years later, unknown to her, her mother and father are dead. The young hypochondriatic Pharoah Nemorat, has been ruling Egypt with his mother queen Tigi, but now she feels it is time he should be married. Nemorat wanted to conquer Assyria but Tegi thought it would be a better idea if he married Shila because she thought it was about time he married.
It would also legitimize his claim to the throne because of Shila’s lineage and the combination of Egypt and Assyria would make a stronger united country. Shila finally agrees to marry Nemorat only if her people who are imprisoned by the Egyptians can go free. But she reacts in horror when told of her parents and brother’s deaths. Resi, the Pharaoh’s court doctor, gently consoles her. Over time Shila eventually falls in love with Resi and when Nemorat dies, in his dying breath he accuses Shila of killing him and tells her he wants her to be buried alive with him in his newly completed pyramid. But Resi is already making plans to help her.
Cleopatra’s Daughter (Italian: Il Sepolcro dei Re) is a 1960 historical drama film set in Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh Khufu (r. 2589-2566 BC). The film stars Debra Paget and was directed by Fernando Cerchio. For some reason, the English version was translated very differently from the original Italian script, setting the film in the 1st century BC, rather than the early Bronze Age.
About the Story
After the death of Antony and Cleopatra, Egypt is ruled by the young tyrant Pharaoh Nemorat and his mother Tegi. Cleopatra has left a surviving daughter, Shila, raised by the king and queen of Assyria. When Nemorat conquers Assyria, Shila is brought to the Egyptian court; and, at the instigation of Nemorat’s mother, marries the pharaoh.
The pharaoh, who is a mentally disturbed hypochondriac, has a good and wise physician, Resi, who falls in love with Shila, and encourages her to go on living despite the killing of her Assyrian surrogate parents by Tegi. When Shila spurns an amorous Nemorat one evening, he goes into a violent rage causing him to faint. He is then poisoned by his ambitious chief overseer Kefren and his mistress. Shila is convicted of the murder and is sentenced to be buried alive with Nemorat.
Resi comes up with a plan to save Shila by having her take a drug, which causes her to lapse into a temporary coma, while he bribes the chief of the “house of death” to allow him to take Shila away in the dead of night. The chief of the house of death proves treacherous by not allowing Resi to rescue Shila, but in a struggle with Resi he is killed. Resi, though, is seriously wounded and is rescued and tended by his faithful servant, but he does not recover before Shila is entombed with Pharaoh Nemorat.
The common people, who have benefited from Resi’s kind care of them, aid him in capturing the royal architect, who helps Resi and his associates, greedy tomb robbers, to break into Nemorat’s tomb and save Shila. Shila and Resi ride off in freedom while Kefren gets his just deserts when Tegi finds out that he really poisoned Nemorat: he is killed by the palace guards.
Cleopatra’s Daughter (1960)
Directed by: Fernando Cerchio
Starring: Debra Paget, Ettore Manni, Erno Crisa, Corrado Pani, Yvette Lebon, Robert Alda, Rosalba Neri, Nando Tamberlani, Angelo Dessy, Ivano Staccioli, Renato Mambor, Pietro Ceccarelli
Screenplay by: Damiano Damiani, Fernando Cerchio
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Anchise Brizzi
Film Editing by: Antonietta Zita
Costume Design by: Giancarlo Bartolini Salimbeni
Art Direction by: Arrigo Equini
Music by: Giovanni Fusco[
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Medallion Pictures (USA)
Release Date: December 7, 1960 (Italy)
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