To begin with a record was created inasmuch as the American principal artistes travelled over 20,000 miles in order to make this picture.
Mr. Terriss says: Location work was perhaps more interesting than the actual filming of the picture, giving me the chance to explore and view more intimately the wonders of Egypt. One of our first moves was to proceed to Luxor, where I had the pleasure of filming the tomb of Tutankhamen and becoming acquainted with the late Lord Carnarvon and his indefatigable partner. The finds and relics therein have been pretty generally described in the newspapers, but amongst those not mentioned one little thing impressed me more than all else, and that was the remains of a small bouquet of flowers tied round with what had once perhaps been a lady's ribbon with a little fancy knot. It lay in a corner untouched and unnoticed, and I could not help thinking perhaps some loving hand laid it to rest there, many thousands of years ago. It was a striking note for one's imagination to visualise.
In Cairo, for the first time in their lives the natives witnessed a real movie camera in operation. Mostly they were sympathetic. After this we took scenes in what is known as the Mukattam Hills. Here are to be found the famous quarries from which the Pharaohs took the stones with which the Pyramids were built and also many of the most famous obelisks and temples of the Egyptian Dynasties. On the rocks are still to be seen the marks of the tools of Pharoah's slaves.
We took some scenes at the Pyramids and the Sphinx, and it is only on gazing at these wonderful monuments of the past that one realizes how in the centuries past no consideration or mercy was shown toward the humble Fellaheen. We hear of the great Pharoahs of the past, but never of the countless millions who slaved their wretched lives away in building these vast monuments to the memories of their hard rulers. For instance, to build the Pyramids it took 100,000 men working day and night 30 years.
Arriving eventually at Luxor, we found it perhaps the most beautiful place in the whole of Egypt and as Norma Lorimer so aptly describes it- truly "The Garden of the Gods." There is nothing in the world, I believe, to compare with a sunset at Luxor. This vast plain, which lies on both sides of the Nile, is the site of the ancient city of Thebes. Here lay a city larger even than that of London, Paris and New York put together, and now all that is left of this huge City are two colossal statues standing about fifty feet high, known as the Colossi of Mennon.
The next day we took scenes at the Temple of Karnak, perhaps the most representative ruins in the whole of Egypt. I can vividly remember one very dramatic incident at Karnak. It was in the little Temple of Ptah, where once was worshipped the great God, Cat. Every dynasty in its day had their different idols. There were the Snake, the Cat, the Crocodile, the Bull, the Cow, and so forth. But the Cat dynasty was perhaps the cruellest and most savage of all. Here, upon entering a small temple, I found myself plunged suddenly into a most terrifying gloom. As I was alone with a great big husky black-bearded Arab, I had quite a thrill of misapprehension, when I discovered it was due to the closing of the outer doors, but soon found my fears were premature and that it was all done for effect. Turning to the right, I groped my way into a small chamber and, with startling effect, from out of the darkness there slowly loomed a weird and impressive-looking figure. It was a huge statue of perhaps seven feet high standing upon a small pedestal, and was that of a naked woman holding in front of her a long broad two-handed sword. The body was that of a woman but the head was that of a cat. I could see it was a most perfect piece of architecture, the nails and fingers of the hands and feet especially being extremely realistic, but the uncanny part of all was the light. The figure seemed (like a moving picture) to fade in upon me. Looking up to discover the light- I saw above its head in the roof a small circular hole of perhaps a foot in diameter, and the light thrown down in this manner being barely enough to illumine the figure beneath. It is a fact that at full moon the light strikes straight down upon the figure beneath. It was only then that the natives were allowed to look upon their dread goddess, and only at such time that sacrifices were accepted upon the sacrificial stone which still stands within the temple. It was altogether a very wonderful and startling experience and one which I shall never cease to remember.
Taking scenes at most of these places around Luxor had its disadvantages though. There were millions and millions of flies and in any particularly dramatic scenes it was necessary to have several men with fly-whisks carefully fanning the area just outside the picture. It was indeed difficult for Miss Wanda Hawley and Mr. Nigel Barrie to make love with flies crawling up their noses, ears and mouths, and it was only after much patience and ingenuity that we succeeded in obtaining the scenes we required.
In the Libyan desert we became acquainted with some fanatical dancing Dervishes and were able to depict some of their extraordinary and weird evolutions upon the screen. As they whirled themselves to and fro to the music of their weird instruments, many of them pierced their cheeks with long, wicked looking skewers until the blood poured, some bit live scorpions in half and ate them, others tore the skins from live snakes doing likewise, whilst still others broke glasses with their teeth, swallowing the bits in their delirium. Whilst these horrible things were taking place there were others who, whilst wildly droning their monotonous incantations, were dancing upon spikes and sharp nails with their naked feet, the while others were beating one another over their heads with long wooden heavy poles. The whole was a sickening sight and I was thoroughly relieved when the end came. One of our artistes, Miss Wanda Hawley, became so affected that she was carried from the place in a fainting condition. I am afraid many of these scenes will never be shown to the public, being too horrible in their realism.
Near the place we were working was a very historical spot known as the Village of Abarawash, it being presumed to be the very spot in which Joseph and Mary, the parents of Christ, lived just previous to their flight from Egypt. Alas! Now it is but a collection of perhaps twenty or thirty mud huts.
Tom Terriss, "Tom Terriss' Experiences in Egypt Making Fires of Fate," Film Yearbook 1924, pages 13-15.
© 1997, David Pierce, on editing and revisions (if any)
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