This is an 11" x 14" US lobby card for the 1957 Billy Wilder
film Love in the Afternoon based on the 1920 Claude Anet
novel Ariane, jeune fille russe, screenplay by Billy Wilder and
I.A.L. Diamond and starring Audrey Hepburn as Ariane Chavasse. Plot
summary: Claude Chavasse [Maurice Chevalier] is a detective who has
been hired to follow a woman suspected by her husband of having an
affair with American playboy Frank Flannagan [Gary Cooper]. The
detective's daughter Ariane alerts Flannagan when the suspicious
husband vows to kill him.
Cast and crew: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Claude Anet novel
Ariane, jeune fille russe 1920 first ed., Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn,
Maurice Chevalier, John McGiver, Van Doude, Lise Bourdin, Olga Valéry
This is a 19" x 27" Yugoslavian poster for the 1960 Billy Wilder
film The Apartment based on a screenplay by Billy Wilder and
I.A. L. Diamond and starring Shirley MacLaine as Fran Kubelik. Plot
summary: C.C. Baxter [Jack Lemmon] has been working in a Manhattan
insurance office for almost four years. He often works late to leave
his Upper West Side apartment available for the extramarital affairs
of a few well-placed company executives.
Cast and crew: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Jack Lemmon, Shirley
MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Way Walston, Jack Kruschen, David Lewis,
Hope Holiday, Joan Shawlee, Naomi Stevens, Johnny Seven, Joyce
Jameson, Willard Waterman, David White, Edie Adams
This is a 14" x 36" US insert poster for the 1965 Billy Wilder
film Kiss Me Stupid from a screenplay by Billy Wilder and
I.A.L. Diamond based on a play by Anna Bonacci and starring Dean
Martin as Dino. Plot summary: In an unexpected detour the pop singer
Dino finds himself in Climax Nevada, where he meets a pair of amateur
songwriters Barney Milsap [Cliff Osmond] and Orville J. Spooner [Ray
Walston]. The two invent a reason to keep Dino in town for a night so
they can try to sell him some of their songs. Orville invites Dino to
stay over with him and his wife Zelda [Felicia Farr]. Being
compulsively possessive and jealous, Orville has second thoughts
because he fears Dino will try to seduce Zelda, so he drives her out
for the night and brings in a prostitute from the Belly Button Road
House named Polly the Pistol [Kim Novak] to pose as his wife. In a
bizarre turn of events, that night the fickle Orville tosses Dino out
so he can sleep with Polly, who has also fallen for the idea of being
a married woman even if just for a night. Dino goes to the Belly
Button and meets Zelda, now a temporary occupant of Polly's trailer.
He thinks Zelda is Polly and finds it easy to seduce her because she
is already a fan; she also sells him one of Orville's songs.
Cast and crew: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond, Anna Bonacci, Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston, Felicia Farr, Cliff Osmond, Barbara Pepper, Skip Ward, Doro Merande, Bobo Lewis, Tom Nolan, Alice Pearce, John Fiedler, Arlen Stuart, Howard McNear, Cliff Norton
This is a 23" x 33" German poster made for a 1964 rerelease of the
1955 Billy Wilder film The Seven Year Itch based on a screenplay
by Billy Wilder and George Axelrod and starring Marilyn Monroe. Plot
summary: New Yorker Richard Sherman [Tom Ewell] finds himself alone
for the summer with his family away on vacation. He begins to spend
time with his upstairs neighbor [Marilyn Monroe], but it's all
innocent fun.
Cast and crew: Marilyn Monroe, Billy Wilder, George Axelrod, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Tufts, Robert Straus, Oskar Homolka, Marguerite Chapman, Victor Moore, Dolores Rosedale, Donald MacBride, Carolyn Jones
This film is based on Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce with a story
that begins in 1942 beside the Suez Canal in the city of Ismailia
Egypt. The poster measures 25.5" x 37" and was designed for a 1994
rerelease of Samir Seif's 1984 108-minute color film Streets of
Fire starring Nour El-Sherif based on screenplay and dialogue by
Ibrahim al-Mawgi and Ahmed Saleh with cinematography by Essam Farid.
Plot summary: A policeman named Imam [Nour El-Sherif] was transferred
from Ismailia to Cairo to work in a red light district. He fell in
love with a whore named Nousa [Madiha Kamel] who worked with a local
thug named Galal [Sayed Zayan], but Imam did not know Nousa was a
whore. In an incident defending Nousa, Imam beat up a British soldier
and then lost his job. He returned to the neighborhood looking for
work, became a pimp and got into a fight with Galal. Imam won the
fight, became the district's dominant tough guy and married
Nousa. Later when prostitution was outlawed, Imam took to nightclub
life and then joined revolutionaries fighting the British. A year
earlier the 1983 Nader Galal film Five Doors Bar [khamsa bab]
had also been based on Irma La Douce, set at about the same
time in Cairo's Ezbekia district.
Cast and crew: Nour El-Sherif, Madiha Kamel, Laila Eloui, Sayed Zayan, Mohamed Reda, Samir Seif, Naima Al Soghayar, Negah El-Mogui, Atef Barakat, Zakaria Mouafi, Billy Wilder, Essam Farid, Karima El-Sherif, Hanem Mohamed, Sharifa Zaitoun, Amima Selim, Mohammad Shawky, Zakaria Mouafi, Ahmed Abu Abia, Kassim Al Daly, Fouad Khalil, Reda Al Sayed, Souraya Ezzeddine, Fouad Abdel Aziz, Youssef Fawzi, Wasila Hussein, Hosni Abdel Galil, Hayatem, Youssef Assal, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, Ahmed Farid
Pictured is an Egyptian promotional poster designed by Gasour and
Anise for the 1983 125-minute Nader Galal color musical Five Doors Bar
[khamsa bab] based on the 1963 Billy Wilder film Irma La Douce,
with screenplay and dialogue by Sharif Al-Minbawy and cinematography
by Ibrahim Saleh. Plot summary: In the 1940s Kollu Mashi (Fouad El
Mohandes) owned a bar in the Ezbekia neighborhood where prostitution
was allowed. The singer Taragy (Nadia El Guindy) worked with the pimp
Abbas (Youssef Eid), with whom she divided her daily take. He
protected her and a number of other girls of the night in an area
where the police would take bribes in exchange for ignoring what was
going on. The policeman Mansour (Adel Imam) was transferred to the
neighborhood and all attempts to bribe him, as had been done with his
predecessors, failed. One night he took everyone to the police
station, but Abbas planted drugs in his room and he was fired.
Mansour went back to working as a tough guy and took over the
neighborhood. He fell in love with Tragy, tried to convince her to
repent and tried to get money for her so she could live in better
conditions. He impersonated a wealthy man, then married her after she
repented; Abbas was arrested. This film was initially banned in Egypt.
Cast and crew: Adel Imam, Nadia El Guindy, Nader Galal, Fouad
El-Mohandes, Fouad Ahmed, Ibrahim Saleh, Billy Wilder, Youssef Eid,
Sharif Al-Minbawy, Rashad Othman, Hosny Abdel Galil, Samiha Mohamed,
Youssef El-Assal, Saeed Rostom, Wasil a Hussein, Hindam Mohammad,
Ibrahim Qadry, Sami Khattab, Shukry Mansour, Mutawe Owais, Sayed
Al-Hanawy, Imran Ali, Salah Alam, Mohamed Abo Hashish, Moemen Hassan,
Sami Atia, Gamil Ghali, Aziz Hafez, Luwais Youssef, Mostafa Nohal
Fouad El-Mohandes, Adel Imam and Nadia El Guindy shown in an 11x14 still from Nader Galal's Five Doors Bar.
Plot Summary
This film is an Egyptian adaptation of Billy Wilder's 1963 film Irma La Douce starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. In the 40s Kollu Mashi (Fouad El-Mohandes) owned the Five Doors Bar in Cairo's Ezbekiyyah quarter, where illicit relationships were allowed. The prostitute Taragi (Nadia El Guindy) worked with the pimp Abbas (Fouad Ahmed) who took a share of her daily take and protected her and number of the other girls of the night in the neighborhood. The police officer on duty was in the habit of taking a fee in exchange for not disclosing what was happening.
An upright officer named Mansur (Adel Imam) was transferred to the neighborhood; all the efforts to bribe him, as had been done with his predecessor, failed. One night he even took everybody to the police station. The pimp Abbas contrived a retaliatory scheme, with help from Taragi, to stash some narcotics in Mansur's room, then reported him to the police. Mansur was then fired from the police force.
Mansur began working as a ruffian laborer, dominating the neighborhood. He fell in love with Taragi. He tried to save money for her so she could live a better life and disguised himself as a rich foreigner who appeared occasionally as one of Taragi's customers. This is the plot's weakest element, for the viewer is asked to believe that Taragi is sleeping alternately with Mansur and his foreigner alter ego without realizing they are the same man!
Mansur knew Taragi was supporting an invalid son at a nearby rehabilitation facility and paid the boy's expenses. He married Taragi after she repented and gave up prostitution, and the pimp Abbas was arrested after a dramatic fight scene in which Mansur gave him a good clubbing with some sticks he found in an alley.
***********
This film was skillfully acted with the three lead characters played by some of the real giants of Egyptian cinema, Fouad El-Mohandes, Adel Imam and Nadia El Guindy. It had beautiful sets and high production values from Nader Galal, one of Egypt's great directors. The work provided the most wholesome sort of entertainment: a dramatic love story and a tale of moral restoration and evil vanquished.
Yet the film was banned, in all probability due at least in part to the presence among the bar patrons of a male cross-dresser and dancer. This man, though prominently featured, was just an incidental character in the plot; but in 1983 Egyptian authorities might not have been ready for a public exhibition of gay behavior.
Since Egypt relies heavily on its police to maintain order and state control, it is also possible the film's portrayal of a criminal who outwits a policeman might have been deemed inappropriate as public entertainment.
Egyptian film poster for Nader Galal's The Five Doors Bar [khamsa bab] (1983)
