Hind Rostom in Struggle on the Nile (Arabic, 1959)

I just watched an Egyptian movie in full with subtitles and everything, and this movie, Struggle on the Nile, was enjoyable, even though I was not quite as happy about the ending as I think the filmmakers meant us to be. I’m starting to do a fuller writeup of the movie, but I’m not going to pomise that I’ll finish it right away – or ever. (At this point, I think I’ve learned my lesson in that regard.) But for now, I wanted to post a nice clip of the great starring actress/dancer… That’s Hind Rostom, who plays the villainess, Nargis, and she is an excellent actress as well as being a very nice dancer. Her character is fantastic too – in fact, too good compared to all the male characters around her, so that she simply overshadows them. She is far more interesting than the young hero Muhasab (Omar Sharif), who is really an incredible dimwit. And while Omar plays the dimwit pretty well, I think Hind plays her character even better. As a result of this dynamic, it is very difficult to root for the success of the hero and his shipmates if this is going to mean the villainess’s demise. But, of course, she is a bad woman, and there is a good and virtuous woman waiting for Muhasab back home… (Fortunately, there are a few really nasty and ugly male villains in this movie also, and they’re the ones who have put Nargis up to her evil deeds. So, at least we can root for the hero and his shipmates without reservation when they’re fighting those nasty guys.)

The clip below contains excerpts from the two belly dances that she does (and I can’t imagine why they chose to include only two!) as well as a few other scenes. The music is something more modern than this film’s soundtrack (obviously), but it fits all right. Unfortunately, embedding was disabled, but it’s well worth the extra click…

[Note five years later: Oh, of course, the clip has disappeared. If you are reading this note, please come back soon, and you will find it replaced by at least one very nice Hind Rostom belly dance.]