Suez (film)

Suez is an American film released on October 28, 1938 by 20th Century Fox, with Darryl F. Zanuck in charge of production, directed by Allan Dwan and starring Tyrone Power, Loretta Young and Annabella. It is very loosely based on events surrounding the construction, between 1859 and 1869, of the Suez Canal, planned and supervised by French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. The screenplay is so highly fictionalized that, upon the films release in France, de Lesseps descendants sued unsuccessfully for libel.

During a tennis match in Paris between Ferdinand de Lesseps Tyrone Power and his friend Vicomte Rene de Latour Joseph Schildkraut, the enthusiastic admiration of Countess Eugenie de Montijo Loretta Young for de Lesseps attracts the attention of LouisNapolon Bonaparte Leon Ames. Bonaparte sees to it that both she and de Lesseps are invited to his reception. At the party, a fortuneteller predicts that Eugenie will have a troubled life, but also wear a crown, and that de Lesseps will dig a ditch. Entranced by Eugenies beauty, Bonaparte arranges for his romantic rival to be assigned to a diplomatic post in Egypt, joining his father, Count Mathieu de Lesseps Henry Stephenson, the ConsulGeneral. De Lesseps impulsively asks Eugenie to marry him immediately, but she turns him down.In Egypt, de Lesseps befriends two people who will have a great influence on his life Toni Pellerin Annabella, a tomboy being raised by her grandfather, French Sergeant Pellerin Sig Rumann and Prince Said J. Edward Bromberg, the indolent heir of his father, Mohammed Ali Maurice Moskovitch, the Viceroy ruler of Egypt. Toni makes it clear that she has fallen in love with him, but de Lesseps still pines for Eugenie. Count de Lesseps leaves for France, leaving his son to take his place. ........

Source: Wikipedia