This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster designed by Ahmed Fouad for the
1946 Wali Eddine Sameh film The Lady's Puppet starring Naguib
Al Rihani based on the 1898 Pierre Louys novel The Devil Is a
Woman AKA La Femme et le pantin, story by Naguib Al Rihani
and Badei Khayri and starring Naguib Al Rihani as Hassan. Plot
summary: In Cairo during the World War II a poor boy named Hassan
marries a runaway named Laaba, [Taheya Cariocca] who later becomes a
cinema performer; she leaves Hassan for another man, then agrees to
marry the other man while in Lebanon without telling him of her
existing marriage to Hassan.
Cast and crew: Wali Eddine Sameh, Naguib Al Rihani, Badei Khayri,
Pierre Louys, Taheya Cariocca, Suleiman Naguib, Aziz Osman, Bechara
Wakim, Hassan Fayek, Marie Munib, Abdel Fatah Al Kasri, Badei Khayri,
Mustafa Hassan
This is a 27" x 39" Egyptian poster by an unknown artist for an
undated rerelease of the 1952 Mohammed Karim film Zeinab based
on story, screenplay and dialogue by Mohammad Hussein Heikal and
starring Raqiya Ibrahim as Zeinab. Plot summary: Zeinab, a country
girl who lived at the beginning of the 20th century, was in love with
Ibrahim, [Yehia Chahine] who worked on the basha's estate. Her father
was opposed to her love for Ibrahim and decided she had to marry a
rich boy named Hassan [Farid Shawqi]. Ibrahim left the village, Zeinab got
tuberculosis and Hassan's family refused to treat her. When Ibrahim
returned he was concerned about her and tried to help.
Cast and crew: Mohammed Karim, Muhammad Hussein Heikal, Yehia
Chahine, Raqiya Ibrahim, Farid Shawqi, Shahrzad, Sami Brail, Suleiman
Naguib, Abdel Waress Assar, Ferdoos Mohammed, Hussein Assar, Sanaa
Gamil, Naima Wasfy, Wedad Hamdy
This is a 27" x 39" undated rerelease Egyptian poster designed by an
unknown artist to promote the 1945 103-minute Anwar Wagdi
black-and-white musical Leila Daughter of the Poor [leila bint
al-foqara] starring Laila Mourad as Leila based on a story by Anwar
Wagdi with screenplay by Kamal Salim and dialogue by Badei Khayri.
Cinematography was by Mohamed Abdel Azim. Plot summary: Leila was a
poor girl living in the Seyyeda Zeinab district of Cairo. A lady
invited her to her mansion and introduced her to Officer Wahid Mokhtar
[Anwar Wagdi]. Leila was impressed by the mansion and its ceremonies
and soon became outgoing and cheerful. Wahid was drawn to Leila and
asked her alleged father Darwish Basha [Bechara Wakim] for her hand in
marriage. Then he learned Darwish Basha was not really her father.
Wahid thought Leila had deceived him; he went to see her in Seyyeda
Zeinab and cancelled the marriage offer. After that Wahid, who still
loved Leila, met Darwish Basha and told him what had happened. Darwish
Basha advised Wahid to apologize to Leila, which he did. Darwish
Basha then pledged he would leave his wealth to Leila and asked
Wahid's father to arrange for Wahid to marry her. The reason the Basha
had left his wealth to Leila became clear to all those who had been
invited to the wedding when her origins became known. Leila left the
wedding in despair, but Wahid persuaded his father to move the wedding
party to Seyyeda Zeinab, where the proceedings were completed.
Cast and crew: Laila Mourad, Anwar Wagdi, Suleiman Naguib, Bechara
Wakim, Marie Munib, Mohammed Al-Bakkar, Mohamed Abdel Azim, Mokhtar
Osman, Adel Adham, Zouzou Hamdy El-Hakim, Souraya Fakhry, Abdel Alim
Khattab, Shafik Noureddin, Badie Khayri, Fouad Shafik, Mohamed
Al-Bakar
This is a 27" x 39" Moroccan poster by an unknown artist made to
promote the 1942 Ahmad Badrakhan film Aida based on story,
screenplay and dialogue by Abbas Younes and Fathy Neshati and starring
Om Kolsum as Aida. Plot summary: Aida was a village girl and her
father Mohammad Effendi [Abdel Waress Assar] was a poor man who worked
the fields owned by Amin Basha [Abbas Fares]. Amin had a son named
Sami [Ibrahim Hammooda] working on a bachelor's degree, but he did not
complete his studies. The Basha had a daughter Aida's age named
Soraya. Mohammad Effendi was murdered on the estate when he was on
his way to work. Aida got her bachelor's degree the same day. She and
the Basha's son fell in love, but this angered the Basha. However she
encouraged Sami to complete his studies; when the Basha saw Aida's
importance in the life of his son he allowed them to marry.
Cast and crew: Ahmed Badrakhan, Abbas Younes, Fathy Neshati, Om
Kolsum, Suleiman Naguib, Abbas Fares, Abdel Waress Assar, Ibrahim
Hammooda, Marie Munib, Samia Fahmi, Mahmoud Reda, Hassan Kamel, Reyad
El Kasabgy, Mahmoud Ismail, Negma Ibra\ him, Amal Zayed, Nabawiyya
Mostafa, Mohamed Abdel Azim
This is an 8" x 11" 22-page film program for the 1940 Ahmed Badrakhan
film Dananir based on a story by Ahmad Rami and starring Om
Kolsum as Dananir. The program has the lyrics to all songs in both
Arabic and French along with information about the director, the
technical personnel and the production studio. The film tells the
story of the singer Dananir, who became famous in Iraq during the
Abbassid period (750-1258).
Cast and crew: Om Kolsum, Ahmed Badrakhan, Suleiman Naguib, Ahmad Rami
This is a 35" x 45" two-piece Egyptian poster made to promote the 1953
Ezzel Dine Zulficar 92-minute black-and-white film Night Train
[qattar al-leil] starring Samia Gamal based on a story by Stephan
Rosti with screenplay by Zaki Saleh, Stephan Rostam and Ezzel Dine
Zulficar with cinematography by Wahid Farid. Plot summary: The father
of Samia [Samia Gamal] was in a severe financial crisis and decided to
sell his house to get out of it. Samia's boyfried Adel [Imad Hamdi]
tried to prevent this by paying off her father's debt, but was unable
to do so before the house was sold, and to make matters more
complicated, Samia also told him she no longer wanted to be in a
relationship with him.
Cast and crew: Ezzel Dine Zulficar, Stephan Rosti, Wahid Farid, Zaki Saleh, Samia Gamal, Imad Hamdi, Seraj Munir, Suleiman Naguib, Fakher Fakher, Salah Nazmi, Reyad El Kasabgy, Abdel Moneim Ismail, Hussein Isa, Hussein Eisa, Zaki Ibrahim, Aida Kamal, Abdel Alim Khattab
These are two original-year Egyptian promotional posters designed by
Anwari for the 125-minute 1947 black-and-white Ahmed Badrakhan
film Fatmah starring Om Kolsum based on a story by Mustafa Amin
with cinematography by Abdelhalim Nasr. Plot summary: Fatmah (Om
Kolsum), a polite young nurse, was given the task of overseeing a
pasha's treatment. When the pasha's brother Fathy (Anwar Wagdy) saw
her he was taken by her beauty and the sweetness of her voice when she
sang. He fell in love with her and tried to attract her in various
ways but failed to arouse any interest. While he had a fierce desire
for her, he did not find any way other than marriage, so he actually
took her under marriage contract as a common law wife and had a
honeymoon with her in Alexandria. He returned with her, but they had
to live together in her humble home in one of the neighborhoods in
view of his father's anger about what had happened. Fathy could not
tolerate living there or interacting with the people of that
neighborhood, and he left after he was fed up with it. Chance led him
to the villa of Mervat (Mimi Shakeeb), an aristocratic girl. He made
preparations to marry her also because he had already promised her he
would do that. Fathy found that this was the way to please his father
the pasha, and he returned to his father's mansion forgetting his wife
the nurse. His father asked him to get the marriage paper from this
nurse, which he did but only after Fatmah had made a photocopy of it.
Fathy abandoned Fatmah but she had become pregnant by him and had his
child, although he denied it. The people in the neighborhood met and
decided to raise the issue of Fathy. In the midst of these events
Fathy told his wife Mervat about the situation and then went to
Fatmah's house to ask her forgiveness. He was struck by an automobile
on the way, just when he had come to his senses and decided to return
to Fatmah with regret for what he had done and acknowledge that he was
the father of her son.
Cast and crew: Mustafa Amin, Om Kolsum, Suleiman Naguib, Zuzu Shakeeb, Anwar Wagdi, Saneya Shawky, Ahmed Badrakhan, Abdelhalim Nasr< Mimi Shakeeb, Hassan Fayek, Ferdoos Mohammad
Pictured is a 27" x 39" undated rerelease Egyptian poster designed by
Wahib Fahmy to promote the 1950 117-minute Helmy Rafla black-and-white
musical The Unmarried Mother [al-anisa mama] starring Sabah
based on story, screenplay and dialogue by Abu Seoud El-Ibiary with
cinematography by Bruno Salvi. Plot summary: A girl named Nimra who
loved to sing [Sabah] fell in love with a famous musician named Monir
Yousri [Muhammad Fawzi]. When Monir began preparing an operetta Nimra
competed to be in it and won a place for herself. Monir's father
[Suleiman Naguib] liked her and began courting her but at the same
time he sensed her feelings for his son. To make Monir jealous Nimra
made an agreement with his father that he would claim they had agreed
to marry. This shocked Monir. At first Monir's father doted on Nimra
but he ultimately had no alternative but to acknowledge their feelings
for each other and support their marriage.
Cast and crew: Sabah, Muhammad Fawzi, Ismail Yasseen, Helmy Rafla, Bruno Salvi, Hagar Hamdi, Zeinat Sedki, Salah Mansour, Abu Seoud El-Ibiary, Suleiman Naguib, Mohamed Kamal al-Masri, Hussein Ibrahim, Soad Ahmed, Fahmy Aman, Saleha Qasin
Pictured is a 27" x 39" undated rerelease Egyptian film poster
designed by Hassan Mazhar Gasour to promote the 1935 120-minute
Mohammad Karim black-and-white -film Love's Tears [demou'
al-hob] starring Mohamed Abdel Wahab based on a screenplay by Mohamed
Karim from the 1832 Alphonse Karr novel Sous les tilleuls
[Under the Lime Trees] with dialogue by Abdel Waress Assar and Mustafa
Lutfi al-Manfaluti and cinematography by Georges Benoit. Plot summary:
Mohammad Fakri [Mohamed Abdel Wahab] was a talented artist who met
Nawal [Negat Ali] while he was working on his Uncle Desouqi's farm.
They fell in love. He was transferred to Cairo to work as a music
teacher and they exchanged letters while he lived at the home of Uncle
Desouqi [Abdel Waress Assar]. He told his friend Helmy [Soleiman
Naguib], who was traveling to the farm to see her, everything that had
happened between him and Nawal. Uncle Desouqi died and left 20
feddans of land. Mohammad went to the farm to marry Nawal and was
surprised to find that Helmy had proposed to her. Nawal refused
Mohammad, married Helmy and went to Paris with him. Mohammad became a
famous musician while things got worse for Helmy because he was a
gambler, and he died in an accident. Nawal tried to go back to
Mohammad but he refused her and she decided to drown herself.
Mohammad had a change of heart and sang to Nawal the song "O You Who
Are Sleeping Beneath the Ground."
Cast and crew: Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Nagat Ali, Muhammad Karim, Abdel Waress Assar, Alphonse Karr, Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti, Georges Benoit, Mohammad Abdel Qodus, Soad Fakhri, Ferdoos Mohammed, Suleiman Naguib, Abdel Qader al-Masiri
Pictured is a 27" x 39" poster designed by Marcel to promote the 1954
Mohammed Karim 120-minute black-and-white film Love's Madness [gonoun
al-hob] starrring Raqiya Ibrahim as Nadia and Soheir with screenplay and dialogue by Abdel
Waress Assar and cinematography by Abdelhalim Nasr. Plot summary:
Nadia and Soheir were living a carefree life with their parents, but
an imbalance developed when the parents began showing more affection
for Nadia than Soheir, to the point where Soheir suspected her parents
hated her and began hating society and her sister. This feeling grew
for Soheir and she even came to believe people loved her sister and
hated her. The young men who liked her did not hesitate to leave her
when they saw Nadia. Even the ones who had made her marriage offers
withdrew them. A conflict raged between the two sisters in this atmosphere
charged with anger; one of them had the innocence of angels and the
other was in a wretched state unable to find her way to
happiness. Soheir looked for the misery of others. Her mother
died, then her father. Soheir dominated Nadia like a tyrant and
exploited her sensitivities and weaknesses. Nadia became her sister's
victim. She was afraid of the dark and terrified of cats; she was
also sure she was the one who had killed her mother and father and was
the cause of her sister's misery. In this state of affairs, in a
thrilling finale Soheir attempted to murder Nadia, fought off Nadia's
rescuers in a gunfight, then paid the price for her crimes. Nadia got
married to the man who loved her.
Cast and Crew: Raqiya Ebrahim, Mohammed Karim, Anwar Wagdi, Imad Hamdi, Suleiman Naguib, Abdel Waress Assar, Ferdoos Mohammed, Marcel, Abdelhalim Nasr, Anwar Mohammad, Mohammad Shorubi, Ruhia Gamal, Ahmed Talaat, Farouq Nasir, Hussein Assar, Ahmed Said
Naima Akef (7 October 1929 - 23 April 1966) was
considered one of Egypt's greatest dancers; some
people still think she was better than any other
Egypt has produced. This is a poster for the
1949 Hussein Fawzi film Woman of Fire designed by Ahmed Fouad
and printed by Anwar printers of Cairo. Cinematography
was by Mahmoud Nasr; story and
screenplay were by the film's director, Hussein
Fawzi; distribution was by Badi' Sobhi Films. The
film tells the story of an Egyptian performer named Elham (AKA Lahalibo) who,
much like Naima Akef herself, is part of a
circus troupe that works the poor neighborhoods of
Cairo. The story revolves around some familiar Egyptian
social and family conflicts, always intensified in
cases such as this one where the subjects are also coping
with the additional social stigmas that go with being
public entertainers.
Cast and Crew: Hussein Fawzi, Naima Akef, Hassan Fayek, Abdel Aziz Mahmoud, Suleiman Naguib, Shukry Sarhan, Mohamed Kamal al-Masri, Mokhtar Hussein, Hassan Kamel, Kamal Hussein, Afaf Shaker, Soad Ahmed, Mohammad Ali Mohammad, Ismail Naguib, Abdel Moneim Ismail
Directed by Ahmed Badrakhan. Cast and crew: Ahmed Badrakhan, Om Kolsum, Suleiman Naguib, Abbas Fares, Abdel Waress Assar, Ibrahim Hammooda, Marie Munib, Samia Fahmi, Mahmoud Reda, Hassan Kamel, Reyad El Kasabgy, Mahmoud Ismail, Negma Ibrahim, Amal Zayed, Nabawiyya Mostafa, Mohamed Abdel Azim
This is an undated rerelease promotional poster designed by Abdul
Ghani for the 1949 100-minute Anwar Wagdi black-and-white film The
Flirtation of Girls starring Naguib Al Rihani with screenplay by Anwar
Wagdi, dialogue by Naguib Al Rihani and Badi Kheiri and cinematography
by Abdelhalim Nasr. Plot summary: Hamam (Naguib Al Rihani) was an
Arabic language teacher suffering from persistent and almost laughable
bad luck and misfortune. Hamam got the opportunity to give lessons to
Laila (Laila Mourad), the daughter of a rich pasha who had failed
Arabic, and he fell in love with her. He knew she was the victim of a
playboy (Mahmoud El-Meliguy). Hamam went out with her one night, not
realizing she was going to meet the boy at a cabaret. The girl went
inside and Hamam became worred about her and asked a dashing pilot
(Anwar Wagdi) to help him get her out. The officer was dazzled by
Laila's beauty and stayed with them, although Hamam and Laila tried to
get rid of him. They hid in the home of the famous artist Youssef
Wahby (as himself). The artist spoke warmly to the girl and while
speaking with Hamam he realized he was in love with Laila while she
had no feelings for him and advised him to let her go if he loved her.
When they left the home of Youssef Wahby they found the officer
waiting for them. Love glowed between the girl and the pilot, but
there were tears of sadness and joy in the eyes of Hamam. This film
is analyzed in considerable depth in "The Golden Age before the Golden
Age: Commercial Egyptian Cinema before the 1960s" by Walter Armbrust
in Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle
East and Beyond ed. Walter Armbrust, University of California
Press, 2000. It is on film critic Ahmad Al-Hadari's 2007 list of the
100 most important Egyptian films.
Cast and crew: Naguib Al Rihani, Anwar Wagdi, Laila Mourad, Mahmoud El-Meliguy, Suleiman Naguib, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Abdel Waress Assar, Youssef Wahby, Stephan Rosti, Zeinat Sedki, Farid Shawqi, Said Abu Bakr, Ferdoos Mohammed, Abdelhalim Nasr, Abdel Hamid Zaki, Abdel Moneim Ismail, Mohamed Kamel, Badi Kheiri, Fouad Al-Rashidi, Abdel Magid Shukry
This is an Egyptian rerelease promotional poster designed by Wahib
Fahmy for the 125-minute 1947 black-and-white Ahmed Badrakhan film
Fatmah starring Om Kolsum based on a story by Mustafa Amin with
cinematography by Abdelhalim Nasr. Plot summary: Fatmah (Om Kolsum), a
polite young nurse, was given the task of overseeing a pasha's
treatment. When the pasha's brother Fathy (Anwar Wagdy) saw her he
was taken by her beauty and the sweetness of her voice when she sang.
He fell in love with her and tried to attract her in various ways but
failed to arouse any interest. While he had a fierce desire for her,
he did not find any way other than marriage, so he actually took her
under marriage contract as a common law wife and had a honeymoon with
her in Alexandria. He returned with her, but they had to live together
in her humble home in one of the neighborhoods in view of his father's
anger about what had happened. Fathy could not tolerate living there
or interacting with the people of that neighborhood, and he left after
he was fed up with it. Chance led him to the villa of Mervat (Zuzu
Shakeeb), an aristocratic girl. He made preparations to marry her
also because he had already promised her he would do that. Fathy
found that this was the way to please his father the pasha, and he
returned to his father's mansion forgetting his wife the nurse. His
father asked him to get the marriage paper from this nurse and he
finally succeeded in doing so, but only after Fatmah had made a
photocopy of it. Fathy abandoned Fatmah but she had become pregnant
by him and had his child, although he denied it. The people in the
neighborhood met and decided to raise the issue of Fathy. In the
midst of these events Fathy adjusted his wife Mervat to the situation
and hurried to Fatmah's house to ask her forgiveness. He was struck
by an automobile on the way, just when he had awakened to return to
Fatmah with regret for what he had done and acknowledge his
relationship to her son.
Cast and crew: Mustafa Amin, Om Kolsum, Suleiman Naguib, Zuzu Shakeeb, Anwar Wagdi, Saneya Shawky, Ahmed Badrakhan, Abdelhalim Nasr, Mimi Shakeeb, Hassan Fayek, Ferdoos Mohammad
