A Thousand and One Nights [alf layla wa layla] (Ali Al-Kassar) - (1941) Egyptian stone litho film poster
Pictured is a 25" x 35" Egyptian stone lithograph poster designed to promote the 1941 Togo Mizrahi 94-minute black-and-white film A Thousand and One Nights [alf layla wa layla] starring Ali Al-Kassar based on story and screenplay by Togo Mizrahi, dialogue by Badie Khayri and cinematography by Abdelhalim Nasr. Plot summary: One of the tales told by the legendary Scheherezade becomes the main plot in this film. While fishing one day a fisherman named Othman Abd al-Baset [Ali Al-Kassar] finds a child in a floating basket, raises him and teaches him how to fish. After 20 years or so when the son (named Morgan) has become a man, Othman is arrested and put in prison for fishing in a forbidden area, but the daughter of the prince [Aqila Ratib] intervenes and gets him released. Othman catches a big fish and gives it to his son to give to the princess as a gift. As Morgan approaches the home of the princess he hears some beautiful singing and responds with some beautiful singing of his own. The adviser to the father of the prince wants to marry the princess to a fake prince so he can take her money. While fishing one day Othman finds a box and opens it. This releases a genie (a man dressed in a devil suit with stuffed horns), who rewards Othman with a magic scepter. Later on, the genie appears before him again another day and tells him his son Morgan is in danger. At that moment Morgan is singing as usual under the window of the princess. They arrest him and turn him over to the adviser, who realizes because of a star tatooed on his arm that Morgan is the missing prince, Bahaeddin, [Hamed Morsi] who is also the cousin of this princess. To prevent Morgan's true identity from becoming known, the adviser orders him imprisoned and held for execution. Just as they are about to cut off his head, Othman appears and proves the adviser's treachery. The princess sees the tattoo, realizes who Morgan is and introduces him to his real father and mother. The two cousins marry and Othman is rewarded.
Cast and crew: Ali Al-Kassar, Aqila Ratib, Togo Mizrahi, Hamed Morsi, Mohammad Shukry, Zaki Ibrahim, Zouzou Nabil, Loutfi El Hakim