History for Fun #1

 

I Looked Up "Simoon" --- Means "Hot, Dry, Dust-Laden Wind Blowing in the Desert"

From Fact: Suez (1938) and Khartoum (1966)

Herein a new category where I pretend to be broadly educated. Thanks, You Tube for enriching me in ways school never did. Let search for gross errors on my part commence!

SUEZ ---1938’s Suez set me aboard Egyptalogical bobsled to head Khartoum way, my finish line two versions of Four Feathers to come with History for Fun #2. You Tube's an assist for assembling “broken bits of pottery” as Sir Joseph Whemple would suggest. Ever wonder had you been born in England, would they make you a sir, an earl, a viceroy? I’d expect knighthood at least, as didn’t everybody during colonial epoch? Suez was Fox’s telling of how the canal got built between 1849 and grand opening 1859, as accurate as one expects Hollywood creation to be. The Frenchman who dreamed and dared was Ferdinand DeLessep, already well along when the dig got going (b. 1805) and father of seventeen, so who other than Tyrone Power at age twenty-four to  embody him? Power’s Ferdinand was neither man nor Disney’s bull notion of a Frenchman, OK as I'd be annoyed were he burdened by an accent. He'll finish the epic job, loved by and losing two lead ladies, Loretta Young because she chooses Napoleon III and Annabella for sacrificing herself to a desert sirocco so Power may go down in history. Foregoing not sarcasm as Suez richly satisfies, streams High-Def at Fandango formerly Vudu. The canal continues to floats boats, 120 or so miles long, forever a nerve center for international transport. Pharaohs tried linking the Nile with the Red Sea, came up empty despite thousands of lives spent on the venture. Napoleon centuries later ordered surveys toward his own canal before being chased off sand by Admiral Nelson.

Aftermath of Expected Third Act Crisis to Nearly Wipe Out Work So Far Done

"Color-Glos" Still to Promote Suez in 1938

That was 1798, half-century before the Egyptians got rich off cotton cropping thanks to the Civil War shutting out Southern exports. That seemed ideal time to modernize the country, plus link with France and De Lesseps to realize the ages-old dream. Problem for Khedive Ismail, Pasha of Egypt, was money spent faster than Egypt could earn it, him borrowing first from France, then more unwisely from England, who never knew a nation they couldn’t loan to and eventually dominate. Massive job at ditch digging took 1.5 million conscripts toiling in frightful desert heat, 120,000 said to have died in the doing. This wasn’t (altogether) slave labor, so imagine the costs. Goal was to join the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. Even the ancients never thought so big. “Debt trap” for Egypt was three million pounds initially owed that shot up to two hundred million by 1875, the Canal finished, but creditors largely running the show and scooping up gravy. A thing called “dual control” took effect by 1876 (France and England), the hapless Pasha having sold his 44% interest to Benjamin Disraeli acting on London behalf. 1882 would be anchors aweigh for Brits taking over, Egypt their colonial property which would stay that way for seventy-four years. The movie simplifies such process, Power asking Disraeli and latter saying sure, why not, sit down and let's have supper. England as octopus would not be Hollywood-addressed, not so long as Isles represented the film industry’s most lucrative market beyond domestic screens. Truth was the canal as critical to English interests and no way could they leave it alone. If Brits didn’t snake that waterway away from Egypt, some other imperialist power would.

Picturesque Wear-and-Tear Upon Romantic Pair that are Tyrone Power and Wife-To-Be Annabella

Viper in the Desert Garden Nigel Bruce Acting on Behalf of Would-Be Colonizers

How could any Hollywood treatment, let alone in 104 minutes, summarize events at Suez?  England's expense in lives and treasure toted up through wars, rebellions, massacres, occurring over those 74 years, Egypt trouble spilling into Sudan and eventually Israel, Egyptians restless over inequity of Brits living high on hogs, paying no tax where in residency, crimes they'd commit heard by imported and sympathetic judges rather than Egyptian authority, which had little legal authority what with England pulling strings. Something had to give and did in 1956 when Gamal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal and saw to expulsion of UK overseers. America helped by reading riot act to England, France, and Israel after they got up a scheme to oust Nasser and take total control of the Canal, if not Egypt itself. This was where/when the sun truly set on the Empire. Don’t know how Nasser or countrymen reacted to Fox’s Suez movie, but I doubt they revived it often if at all. Hollywood was for fantasy and using barest bones of historical events to wrest two hours for our amusement, complexity an enemy to comfort and reassurance films were meant to supply. Making Suez accurate would muddy water thick as the Nile, and who in 1938 wanted gloves-off telling, what with the UK mired in crisis Germany had created. Brits too still controlled the canal when Suez was released, so who'd rock boats with a people soon enough to be an ally against far more cosmic threats?

Always Thought It Was Odd for Roadshowers to Refer to Unspool of Film as a "Performance"

KHARTOUM (1966) --- Khartoum showed on a Saturday only at the Liberty combined with a black-and-white chiller, The Vulture, which actually had been shot in color and  did anything but chill. Wonderment at the time was an epic like Khartoum landing, no thudding, in diminished circumstance as this. We were riper to see The Vulture, enduring Khartoum a show of pity perhaps for Roadshows having sunk so far. Little of Khartoum made sense to me at age thirteen, being ignorant of history it depicted and disinclined to learn. I’ve since if belatedly grown into it, helped by a superb Blu-Ray from Twilight Time, Khartoum like much from them out-of-print with second-hand pricing to reflect rarity. Khartoum told of Sudanese uprising the British put down at great expense of time and lives, trouble spreading in Sudan direction from Egypt proper. A self-proclaimed prophet called the “Madhi” had masses of native strength at his command, England dispatching General Charles George Gordon and too little else to protect UK interests in the region (Gordon at above right). Upshot was Gordon being killed by uprisers (per below left being speared) and Brits taking a black eye they’d be determined to avenge. The United Artists film ends with Gordon’s death. Other and previous films took up aftermath which was campaign to take back Khartoum in 1898 and get even for the 1885 massacre. That episode was famously treated by Four Feathers and its varied remakes, General Gordon’s death referenced early in these with characters motivated by need to reassert British authority in Sudan’s desert. For 60’s Khartoum, Charlton Heston played Gordon with Laurence Olivier as the Madhi. Khartoum was a classy venture that hoped to duplicate Lawrence of Arabia’s success. It did not but there were adherents and still are. As to why for wickets letdown, I’d propose Khartoum lack of exotic and charismatic lead that was young Peter O’Toole getting stardom start. Heston and Olivier were terrific, that is were for having been around long enough for us maybe to take them for granted, especially Heston in this sort of role, plus 70mm served to reserved seats having lost much of lure by 1966.

Nigel Green Welcome Always in British Uniform, as Was Also Richard Johnson

To reckon of experts at 70mm.com, Khartoum did not have a roadshow engagement in North Carolina, prints for my state presumably 35mm as opposed to giant gauge. Khartoum had a negative cost of $6.2 million, earned $2.060 million in domestic rentals, with $5.7 foreign. More unfortunate was fact it had only 7,926 stateside bookings, a woefully low number compared with demand for Thunderball (13,325 bookings), Help! (18,423), numerous others. I’m happy to have contributed at least a pittance to Khartoum receipts, my quarter to get in at “Under 12” rate persisting to early 1968 when a local boy whose name lives still in infamy busted me at the Liberty’s boxoffice by making it known I was almost fourteen. From that day on (the picture was Bonnie and Clyde), I’d be obliged to tender sixty cents for Liberty admission. Khartoum action was profuse, safe to say they won’t make them like this again (cue further praise for “practical effects”). Khartoum reveals Empire scheming that kept Gordon behind an eight-ball throughout the mission his superiors, plus his own considerable ego, obliged him to accept. Khartoum came well after England lost strength that was worldwide power and influence, era of Empire lost to memory for many, representing faded nostalgia for increasingly few. Anti-colonial attitude floated in Khartoum would fuller blossom with Charge of the Light Brigade a couple years later, another that landed at the Liberty on a Saturday double feature. Were we presumed to have so little interest in British lore? Colonel Forehand must have figured us for caring less. Why did he even play these things except maybe to accommodate a booker who needed to make a monthly quota?