The pharaoh realizes what has been done, but accepts his fate. In his grief, Sinuhe blames Akhnaton for the whole mess and administers poison to him at their next meeting. Kaptah manages to smuggle Thoth out of the country, but Merit is killed while seeking refuge at the new god's altar. Sinuhe is still reluctant to perform this evil deed until the Egyptian army mounts a full attack on worshipers of the Aten. The princess now suggests that Sinuhe could poison both Akhnaton and Horemheb and rule Egypt himself (with her at his side). The physician is privately given extra inducement by the princess Baketamun ( Gene Tierney) she reveals that he is actually the son of the previous pharaoh by a concubine, discarded at birth because of the jealousy of the old queen and raised by foster parents. Meanwhile, the priests of the old gods have been fomenting hate crimes against the Aten's devotees, and now urge Sinuhe to help them kill Akhnaton and put Horemheb on the throne instead. He finds that she bore him a son named Thoth ( Tommy Rettig), a result of their night together many years ago, who shares his father's interest in medicine. These qualities have made Aten-worship extremely popular amid the common people, including Merit, with whom Sinuhe is reunited. Sinuhe finally saves enough money from his fees to return home he buys his way back into the favor of the court with a precious piece of military intelligence he learned abroad, informing Horemheb (now commander of the Egyptian army) that the barbarian Hittites plan to attack the country with superior iron weapons.Īkhnaton is in any case ready to forgive Sinuhe, according to his religion's doctrine of mercy and pacifism. Olympic discus thrower Fortune Gordien and Jean Simmons on set.įor the next ten years, Sinuhe and Kaptah wander the known world, where Sinuhe's superior Egyptian medical training gives him an excellent reputation as a healer. Merit urges Sinuhe to flee Egypt and rebuild his career elsewhere, and the two of them share one night of passion before he takes ship out of the country. Merit finds him there and warns him that Akhnaton has condemned him to death one of the pharaoh's daughters fell ill and died while Sinuhe was working as an embalmer, and the tragedy is being blamed on his desertion of the court. Lacking a tomb in which to put his parents' mummies, Sinuhe buries them in the sand amid the lavish funerary complexes of the Valley of the Kings. He has their bodies embalmed so that they can pass on to the afterlife, and, having no way to pay for the service, works off his debts in the embalming house. Returning dejectedly home, Sinuhe learns that his parents have committed suicide over his shameful behavior. He squanders all of his and his parents' property in order to buy her gifts, only to have her reject him nonetheless. Life in court does not prove to be good for Sinuhe it drags him away from his previous ambition of helping the poor while falling obsessively in love with a Babylonian courtesan named Nefer ( Bella Darvi). Akhnaton intends to promote Atenism throughout Egypt, which earns him the hatred of the country's corrupt and politically active traditional priesthood. This faith rejects Egypt's traditional gods in favor of monolatristic worship of the sun, referred to as Aten. His new eminence gives Sinuhe an inside look at Akhnaton's reign, which is made extraordinary by the ruler's devotion to a new religion that he feels has been divinely revealed to him. ![]() ![]() The grateful Akhnaton makes his savior court physician and gives Horemheb a post in the Royal Guard, a career previously denied to him by low birth. While praying, the ruler is stricken with an epileptic seizure, with which Sinuhe is able to help him. While out lion hunting with his sturdy friend Horemheb ( Victor Mature), Sinuhe discovers Egypt's newly ascendant pharaoh Akhnaton, who has sought the solitude of the desert in the midst of a religious epiphany. His companions throughout are his lover, a shy tavern maid named Merit ( Jean Simmons) and his corrupt but likable servant, Kaptah ( Peter Ustinov). He rises to and falls from great prosperity, wanders the world, and becomes increasingly drawn towards a new religion spreading throughout Egypt. Sinuhe ( Edmund Purdom), a struggling physician in 18th dynasty Egypt (14th century BC), is thrown by chance into contact with the pharaoh Akhnaton ( Michael Wilding).
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