The Five Doors Bar [khamsa bab] (1983, Egypt)

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.

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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 probabability 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.

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Clips showing the cross-dresser (he's in the background at the beginning)

Egyptian film poster for Nader Galal's The Five Doors Bar [khamsa bab] (1983)

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Contract to Print a Poster

Most of us who collect film posters are interested in them because they are nice to display and perhaps also because they are investments. We usually realize those collecting ideas are transmutations. Most film posters were not made for collectors. They were made to perform a business function--to help sell theater tickets--and were considered part of a film's marketing cost. After being used in that capacity they were usually thrown out, at least in the old days. There is a greater tendency to hang on to posters now, but most of them are still practically worthless and probably deserve to be thrown out.

It is interesting, to add background and depth to the hobby, to look whenever possible at information about the transactions that led to a poster's design and production. I have here a rare pairing of an 33-year-old Egyptian poster and a contract for its production:

I Am Neither Rational nor Insane [ana la 'aqela wa la magnuna] (1976) - (Mahmoud Yassine)

Contract dated 10/4/1975 between Arabic Cinema Printers and Ibrahim Shusha Films to print the above poster

The film was done by Houssam El-Din Mustafa, one of Egypt's greatest directors, and stars Mahmoud Yassine, then a major leading actor in Egypt. It is based on a story by Ihsan Abd al-Qudus (1919-1990), renowned Egyptian novelist and journalist who edited the Cairo newspapers Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram.

The contract is the only one of its kind I've seen so far, done by Gasour, the most famous movie poster printer and artist in Egypt. A contract signed by him is itself something special to have for a poster collector! The director of Arabic Cinema Printers is named in the contract as Hassan Mazhar Gasour, but the printer company logo on the poster itself has the name H.H. Gasour. I suspect it is the same person because I've been told the "H.H." are the initials of Mr. Gasour's daughters, Hala and Hebba.

The contract provides that Arabic Cinema Printers will design and print 7,000 one-sheet posters, 400 24-sheet posters and 1,000 lobby cards at a cost of 1,208 Egyptian pounds, which includes a fee of 100 pounds (about $250 at that time) for designing the posters and lobby cards. The contract also says the task of designing and printing the posters and lobby cards will be completed 25 days after the contract is signed, and gives a schedule of installment payments to be made to the printer. It is signed by Hassan Mazhar Gasour (with the Arabic Cinema Printers official rubber stamp) and Ibrahim Shusha.

Omar Sharif's Egyptian Films

Omar Sharif was born in Alexandria Egypt in 1932. He is one of tne
of world's most famous actors, with more than a half century of
prolific cinematic production and success. His first film was
Mortal Revenge [siraa fil-wadi] made in 1954 in Egypt by the
late Youssef Chahine. His costar was the legendary Egyptian actress Faten Hamama, whom he married soon after the shooting. Sharif is the only Egyptian actor who has had a significant career both in and out of Egypt, but his Egyptian films are not as well known to
non-Egyptians. Here are some posters for Egyptian films that featured Omar Sharif (known in Egypt as Omar al-Sharif):

Struggle in the Valley aka Mortal Revenge [siraa fil-wadi] (1954) - (Faten Hamama)

Our Best Days [ayyamna al-helwa] (1955)

Dark Waters [siraa fil-mina] (1956) - (dir: Youssef Chahine)

My Love's Fault [ghaltet habibi] (1958)

Sleepless [la anam] (1958) - (dir: Salah Abouseif)

Lady of the Palace [sayedat al-qasr] (1959)

Scandal in Zamalek [fadiha fil-zamalek] (1959)

Struggle on the Nile [seraa fil-nil] (1959)

The Agony of Love [lawet al-hob] (1960)

Dead among the Living [bedaya wa nehaya] (1960)

My Only Love [hobi al-wahid] (1960)

Rumor of Love [esha'a hob] (1960) - (Omar Sharif, Soad Hosny)

There Is a Man in Our House [fi baitina ragul] (1961) Style A

There Is a Man in Our House [fi baitina ragul] (1961) Style B

There Is a Man in Our House [fi baitina ragul] (1961) Style C

There Is a Man in Our House [fi baitina ragul] (1961) Style D

The Mamelukes [al-mamalik] (1965)

Ayoub (1983) - (Omar Sharif)

The Puppeteer [al-aragoz] (1989) Style A

The Puppeteer [al-aragoz] (1989) Style B

War in the Land of Egypt [mowaten: masri] (1991)

Laughter, Games,
Seriousness and Love [dehk, we leab we gad we hob] (1993)

Hassan and Morcos [hassan wa morqos] (2008) - (Adel Imam, Omar Sharif)

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Egyptian posters for films directed by Inas Al Degheidy

Inas Al Degheidy was born in Cairo in 1954. She is Egypt's most successful woman film director, and also one of its most controversial public figures. She believes Egypt is a closed society that needs change and among other things has called for the legalization of prostitution in Egypt. Her films depict her social issues and also carry powerful dramatic impact. I have collected posters for most of her 14 feature films.

Excuse Me Law! Style A (1985)

Excuse Me Law! Style B (1985)

The Challenge (1988)

Forbidden Times (1988)

One Woman Is Not Enough (1990)

The Murderess (1992)

Lace (1993)

Disco Disco (1994)

Cheap Flesh (1995)

Lobster (1996)

Night Whispers [kalam al-layl[ (1999)

The Red Rose (2000)

Diary of a Teenager (2001)

Seekers of Freedom (2004)

Let's Dance (2006)

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Hands of Steel Release in Egypt 1986

Egyptian poster for the 1986 Sergio Martino film Vendetta del futuro, aka Hands of Steel.

This film, like all films shown in Egypt, had to get an official exhibition release permit from the Supreme Culture Assembly Office of Foreign Films Supervision under the General Office of Technical Works Supervision.

This is what the release permit looked like:

The form measures 6.5" x 8.5" inches and has lots of technical information about the film, including the weight (16.3 kg) of the 5 reels holding the acetate. On the back of the form, the supervisor of the Foreign Films Supervision Office (Madiha al-Garia) wrote a synopsis of the content of the film's fourth and fifth reels:

I think her synopsis was there to facilitate or justify a judgment that the film was ethically and morally fit for release, but this is only a guess. You don't find a synopsis on the back of every Egyptian film release permit.

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Work Incentive (Motivational) Posters Appraised

From a 30 March 2009 Antiques Road Show; appraisal by Nicholas Lowry

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Dean Martin Echoed in Egypt

Poster for 1985 Mohamed Abaza film "Watch Out for the Gang of Women" starring Sameer Ghanem

Poster for 1969 Phil Karlson film "The Wrecking Crew" starring Dean Martin

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