Shadia

Fatma Ahmed Kamal Shaker was given the stage- name “Shadia” by director Helmi Rafla. In her heyday during the 1950s and 1960s, she avoided being typecast by working with a number of different directors and in different genres—melo­drama, romance, and comedy. It was, however, her musical talent as a singer that established Shadia as one of the most important Egyptian cinema stars of her era. She starred with actor Kamal E­Shinawy in more than 30 films, and sang opposite Farid al-Atrache and Abdel Halim Hafez —most notably in The People’s Idol (Rafla, 1967). She appeared with Faten Hamama in An Appointment with Life (Ezzedine Zulficar, 1954), while in The Unknown Woman (Mahmoud Zulficar, 1959), she plays the role of Fatma in a heavy melodrama in which she faces a series of tragedies and injustices, commits murder, and is defended in court by her estranged son; she also played the good-hearted seductress who takes in a fugitive in The Thief and the Dogs (Kamal E1-Sheikh, 1962). Shadia likewise performed strongly in comedy roles, most notably in Wife Number 13 (Fatin Abdel-Wahab, 1962) and My Wife the General Manager (Abdel-Wahab, 1966).

Although often cast in cunning and cheeky roles, Shadia’s fea­tures could adopt serious, melodramatic expression. In The Road (Zulficar, 1964), while Souad Hosni played the young, naive desk clerk who falls in love with Saber (Rushdi Abaza), Shadia took on the role of his mistress who sneaks to his room while her elderly husband sleeps. She also played Skina opposite actress Soheir El­Bably in the stage version of Raya and Sakina, based on the true story of two Alexandrian serial killers and directed by Hussein Kama (The 1953 film version directed by Salah Abu Seif is heralded as a classic of Egyptian cinema.) Shadia performed in more than 100 films before she retired from the public eye and joined a number of actresses who took on the veil (hijab) in an act of Islamic resistance and salvation.

Abdel Halim Hafez

For thirty years, Muhammad Abdel Wahab dominated Arabic song. Then suddenly a sickly young man called Abdel Halim Hafez appeared, and earned for himself the name al-Andalib al-Asmar, The Dark Nightingale.

The upstart’s sudden rise to fame took the Singer of Kings and Princes by sur­prise. In an attempt to smother him, he signed him up with his own production company, Sawt al-Fann (The Voice of Art) and paid him a pittance. But there was no stopping the new arrival, and before long he was every girl’s dream and the role model for young men. He had replaced Abdel Wahab in their hearts.

His success was even enough to irritate Umm Kulthum. “Boy, you’re a crooner, not a real singer,” she told him one day, in front of the press.

In his short life, Abdel Halim made more films than Abdel Wahab and Umm Kulthum put together, acting and singing with almost every female star of the 1950s and 1960s. He shared his first film, Lahn al-Wafa’ (The Song of Fidelity, 1955) with Fatin Hamama and singer Shadia. In Banat al-Yawm (Today’s Girls, 1957), he costarred with actress Magda, and in al-Wasada al-Khaliya (The Empty Pillow) with Lubna Abdel Aziz. Mariam Fakhr al-Din played alongside him in Hikayat Hubb (Tale of Love, 1959), followed by Suad Husni in al-Banat wal-Sayf (The Girls and Summer, 1960), and Zubayda Tharwat in Yawm min `Umri (A Day in My Life, 1961). In al-Khataya (The Sins, 1962) he was joined by Nadia Lutfi, who appeared with him once again in 1969 in Abi Fawqa al-Shagara (My Father is up the Tree).

Henry Barakat, who directed him in Ayyam wa-Layali (Days and Nights, 1955), Maw’id Gharam (A Romantic Date, 1956) and Today’s Girls (1957), described Abdel Halim as “sensitive, as much an actor as he was a singer.” Other directors who helped his ascent to stardom were Muhammad Karim in Dalila (1956), the first Egyptian film in cinemascope; Salah Abu Sayf in The Empty Pillow (1957); Hilmi Rafla in Fata Ahlami (Man of My Dreams, 1958) and Ma’budat al-Jamahir (Public Idol, 1967); Fatin Abdel Wahab in The Girls and Summer, Hasan al-Imam in The Sins and Husayn Kamal in My Father is up the Tree.

My Father is up the Tree, Abdel Halim’s last film, was an unprecedented suc­cess in Egyptian cinema, running for thirty-six weeks. Abdel Halim played the lover of a prostitute (Nadia Lutfi) in a tavern on the Alexandria harbor. His rival is his father, played by Emad Hamdi. Young men would return to the theater several times in an effort to count the kisses. The film has never been shown on Egyptian television, for censorship reasons.

Naima Akef

Naima Akef’s father owned the Akef Circus and at the age of four, she began her training as a trapeze artist. Growing into a beautiful young woman, she became an oriental dancer at Casino Badia Masabni. She made a brief dancing appearance in Sit al-Bayt (Lady of the House, 1949) by Ahmed Kamel Morsi.

Soon after, director Abbas Kamel saw her dance at a night club and was so taken by her that he quickly brought his brother, Husayn Fawzi, to the club. As soon as he saw her, Husayn felt he had found what he was looking for, a girl with a talent for dancing, singing, acrobatics, and acting, and with a beautiful face and gorgeous figure. He gave her the lead role in his film al-Eish wal-Malh (Bread and Salt, 1949), opposite singer Saad Abd al-Wahab, Muhammad Abd al-Wahab’s nephew Audiences immediately fell in love with her and fame was instantaneous. Husayn Fawzi quickly monopolized her, signing her up for his coming films.

Their relationship culminated in marriage although Husayn was almost twen­ty-four years older. Naima’s first eleven films were all directed by Husayn Fawzi, who also wrote the script for most of them—that remains unique in Egyptian cin­ema, and perhaps in any cinema in the world.

After starring in Arba’ Banat wa Dhabit (Four Girls and an Officer, 1954) by Anwar Wagdi, Naima took the lead role in Fawzi’s Bahr al-Gharam (Sea of Love, 1955) opposite Rushdi Abaza. Then she made Madraset al-Banat (The Girls’ School, 1955) with Kamel al-Tilmissani. Before their divorce, she made two more films with Husayn Fawzi: Tamr Henna (Tamarind) and Ahebak Ya Hassan (I Love You Hassan), both in 1957.

Altogether Naima Akef and Husayn Fawzi made fourteen successful films, all comedy-musicals revolving around a high spirited, common girl: a showgirl with whom the pasha’s son falls in love in Lahaleebo (The Firebrand, 1949); an alley girl who rejects the pasha’s temptation in Baladi wa Khifa (Common and Light, 1950); a street girl finding work for her family in a theater in Furigat (Relief, 1951); a circus girl with whom an aristocrat falls in love in Fatat al-Sirk (Circus Girl, 1951); a club dancer who discovers the barman is her father in al-Nimr (The Tiger, 1952). Once they divorced, both stars began to wane. Husayn Fawzi died in 1962, and Naima four years later, aged just thirty-seven.