Serpent of the Nile

Serpent of the Nile
Directed by	William Castle
Produced by	Sam Katzman
Written by	Robert E. Kent
Starring	Rhonda Fleming William Lundigan Raymond Burr
Narrated by	Fred F. Sears
Music by	Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Cinematography	Henry Freulich
Edited by	Gene Havlick
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	8 May 1953
Running time	81 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Serpent of the Nile is a 1953 low budget Technicolor historical adventure film produced by Sam Katzman and directed by William Castle. The film starred Rhonda Fleming, Raymond Burr, William Lundigan and Michael Ansara. In an early role, actress Julie Newmar, listed as Julie Newmeyer, appears as an exotic dancer clad only in gold paint.

The film opens in 44 BC, just after the assassination of Julius Caesar, and tells the story of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (Fleming) and her relationship with the Roman general Mark Anthony (Burr) from that time until their mutual suicide in 30 BC. It also stars William Lundigan as Lucilius and Michael Fox as Octavius.

The movie was reportedly based on Cleopatra by H. Rider Haggard.

The film had a very low budget. It was shot on the sets left over from Rita Hayworth's Salome. One sequence depicts a chariot racing through the sands of Egypt towards a sand dune in the distance, behind which looms a pyramid. It is extremely obvious that this composition is a matte shot: the pyramid in the background is a superimposed painting, with the sand dune concealing the join between the live action and the matte. Elsewhere in the film, Rhonda Fleming as Cleopatra is clearly wearing a "bullet bra" of the style that was fashionable in the 1950s.

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