This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster for the 1961 Hassan Al Imam
film My Life is the Price AKA Life is Like That based
on a story by Hassan Al Imam, screenplay and dialogue by Mohammad
Osman and starring Hoda Soltan. Plot summary: A rich man named Gaber
[Hussein Riad] met a young woman named Soad [Hoda Soltan] towards whom
he could not express his feelings because her husband Dr. Hussein
[Ahmed Mazhar] kept getting in the way. The woman did not seem as if
she would be easy to seduce so Gaber sent her husband abroad on a
mission to distract him. He then tried to get close to her but she
would not allow it; he sent the couple a will leaving a large sum of
money to a son from another woman. When Dr. Hussein heard about this
he separated from his wife. Soad decided to avenge the damage that
had been done to her reputation. She went to court and presented
medical evidence her husband was impotent.
Cast and crew: Hassan Al Imam, Hoda Soltan, Ahmad Mazhar, Hussein
Riad, Tewfik El Dekn, Zouzou Nabil, Nagwa Fouad, Abdel Aziz Fahmy,
Nahed Samir, Hamed Morsi, Ragaa Hussein
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
This is a picture of a 27" x 39" undated Egyptian rerelease poster
designed by an unknown artist to promote the 1963 Hassan Al Imam
108-minute color film Shafiqa the Copt [shafi'a al-'ebtia]
starring Hind Rostom as Shafiqa based on a story by Galil Al-Badrawy
with screenplay and dialogue by Mohamed Mustafa Samy and
cinematography by Abdelhalim Nasr. Plot summary: This biographical
film portrays the life of Shafiqa the Copt, the most famous Egyptian
dancer of the early 20th century, with Hind Rostom in the role of
Shafiqa. Plot summary: Shafiqa was obliged to leave her only son in
the care of her mother, who had banished Shafiqa from the home in
deference to the demands of Shafiqa's conservative father. Although
Shafiqa had a vast fortune and some of her best friends were important
men in the government, the father did not permit her to see her son.
Aziz grew up, came into his prime and fell in love with Soad, the
daughter of Prime Minister Asad Pasha, who at the time was himself
Known as the greatest lover in his government. Shafiqa formed a
relationship with her son later. She invited him many times to her
home without telling him she was his mother or that she was a famous
dancer. In the presence of his daughter, Asad Pasha was indifferent
to Aziz when he asked for her hand, but in turn the minister was
indifferent to his wife because of Shafiqa's influence. He then
ordered Aziz imprisoned and abandoned the dancer. Shafiqa's maid
Bahia became the minister's consort after the theft of the assets of
her mistress. Soad abandoned the life of the world, entered a convent
and refused to marry Aziz after his escape from prison. Finally as
she was dying in his arms, Aziz realized Shafiqa was his mother.
Cast and crew: Hind Rostom, Zizi El-Badrawy, Hassan Youssef, Fouad El-Mohandes, Hassan Al Imam, Amina Rizk, Hussein Riad, Fakher Fakher, Hamed Morsi, Gamal Ismail, Ibrahim Heshmat, Abdelhalim Nasr, Mohamed Mustafa Samy, Galil Al-Badrawy, Salwa Mahmoud, Abbas Rahmy, Mohammed Abaza, Sayed Darwish
This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by Studio Adly and Abdel
Rahman to promote the 1964 81-minute Nour El-Demerdash black-and-white
film The Price of Freedom starring Mahmoud Moursy adapted for
cinema by Naguib Mahfouz from the 1948 play Montserrat by
Emmanuel Robles based on an Arabic translation done in Lebanon by
Sohail Idris. The screenplay was done by Lutfy El-Kholy and Tulba
Radwan and cinematography was by Masud Isa. The components of the
story are taken directly from the original play with changes of name
and locale to suit the Egyptian environment. Plot summary: During the
British occupation of Egypt (1882-1956) there was a secret
organization led by a young fighter named Ahmed Abdel Hafiz. The
organization was opposed to the occupying forces. The British
governor ordered an Egyptian officer to find the chief of the
organization quickly. If this could not be done it would be necessary
to arrest the first six people to pass on the street in front of the
office and kill them by firing squad. The officer was not able to
find the fighter so six people were arrested, including a cart driver,
a merchant who had left a dinner party for his wedding, a student
whose brother had died as a martyr during his resistance to the
occupation, a mother who was returning to her small children who had
no one but her and were waiting for her return at the time, and a
pretty girl who was singing a Sayed Darwish patriotic tune. The
randomly arrested bystanders were left alone with the Egyptian officer
and told they had one hour to persuade him to divulge the location of
Ahmed Abdel Hafiz. When this did not produce the desired results, the
British officer prepared to shoot the innocents, but before doing that
he shot and killed the Egyptian officer. The multiple venues where
this play has appeared in film and on stage were traced by Nehad
Selaiha for Al-Ahram Weekly on 20 February 2013.
Cast and crew: Naguib Mahfouz, Nour El-Demerdash, Masud Isa, Mahmoud Moursy, Abdallah Gheith, Karima Mokhtar, Salah Mansour, Ahmed Al-Gezeiry, Nahed Samir, Ahmed Abaza, Hamed Morsi, Masud Isa, Faiza Fouad, Kamal Yasseen, Mohammed Tawfik, Hamed Moursy, Mahmoud al-Hadini, Sabri Abdel Aziz, Mohammed Abaza, Sayed al-Rais, Gamil Ezzedine, Mohamed Yahya Soleyman, Emmanuel Robles, Lutfy El-Kholy, Tulba Radwan, Sohail Idris, Ahmed al-Hamaqi
