Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
comedy drama film directed by
Frederick de Cordova
Frederick Timmins de Cordova (October 27, 1910 – September 15, 2001) was an American stage, motion picture and television director and producer. He is best known for his work on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''.
Early life
De Cordova ...
Rhonda Fleming
Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamoro ...
. It is a highly fictionalised biography of the dancer Little Egypt in the 1890s.
Plot
Looking to bring back authentic Egyptians for his exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair, Cyrus Graydon goes to
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, where he is joined by a
pasha
Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, gener ...
and by an American
con artist
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...
named Wayne Cravat.
A look or two at the exotic dancer Izora and the pasha's in love. Graydon tries to discourage her, but she manages to make her way to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, where she promptly identifies herself, to Cravat's delight, as a genuine Egyptian princess.
Cravat pretends to be romantically interested in Graydon's daughter, Sylvia, to score points with her father. A jealous Izora retaliates by trying to seduce the man Sylvia is engaged to, Oliver Doane.
When she dances a scandalous "hootchy-kootchy" dance in public, the police place Izora under arrest. She insists in court that as a princess she's entitled to dance any way she pleases. Trouble is, the prosecution has discovered that Izora is actually Betty Randolph of
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Mark Stevens as Wayne Cravat
*
Rhonda Fleming
Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamoro ...
as Izora
*
Nancy Guild
Nancy Joan Guild (October 11, 1925 – August 16, 1999) was an American film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in '' Somewhere in the Night'' (1946), ''The Brasher Doubloon'' (1947), and the comedy '' Abbott and Costello Meet the ...
Tom D'Andrea
Thomas J. D'Andrea (May 15, 1909 – May 14, 1998) was an American actor in films and on television.
Early years
D'Andrea was born May 15, 1909, in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from high school with honors and excelled in basketball.
Ca ...
as Max
*
Minor Watson
Minor Watson (December 22, 1889 – July 28, 1965) was a prominent character actor. He appeared in 111 movies made between 1913 and 1956. His credits included '' Boys Town'' (1938), ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942), ''Kings Row'' (1942), '' Guada ...
as Cyrus Graydon
*
Steven Geray
Steven Geray (born István Gyergyai, 10 November 190426 December 1973) was a Hungarian-born American film actor who appeared in over 100 films and dozens of television programs. Geray appeared in numerous famed A-pictures, including Alfred H ...
as Pasha
*
Verna Felton
Verna Arline Felton (July 20, 1890December 14, 1966) was an American actress, best known for providing many voices in numerous Disney animated films.
She also provided the voice for Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law, Pearl Slaghoople in Hanna-Bar ...
as Mrs. Samantha Doane
*
John Litel
John Beach Litel (December 30, 1892 – February 3, 1972) was an American film and television actor.
Early life
Litel was born in Albany, Wisconsin. During World War I, he enlisted in the French Army and was twice decorated for bravery. Ba ...
as Shuster
*
Kathryn Givney
Kathryn Givney (October 27, 1896 – March 16, 1978) was an American actress on stage and in films.
Biography
In 1928, Givney was a member of the S. E. Cochran Repertory Company. In 1930, she appeared in ''Stepping Sisters'' at the Hollywood Pl ...
as Cynthia Graydon
*
Fritz Feld
Fritz Feld (October 15, 1900 – November 18, 1993) was a German-American film character actor who appeared in over 140 films in 72 years, both silent and sound. His trademark was to slap his mouth with the palm of his hand to create a "pop" s ...
as Professor
* Dan Riss as Prosecutor
*
Jack George
John Edwin George, Jr. (November 13, 1928 – January 30, 1989) was an American professional basketball player. He was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Swissvale, Pennsylvania.
George attended St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C ...
as Meheddi
* Edward Clark as Judge (as Ed Clark)
*
John Gallaudet
John Beury Gallaudet (August 23, 1903 – November 5, 1983) was an American film and television actor.
Career
Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia and attended Williams College. His Broadway credits included ''Good Men and True'' (1935), ''Lost ...
as O'Reilly
* Freeman Lusk as Spinelli
*
Leon Belasco
Leon Belasco (born Leonid Simeonovich Berladsky; 11 October 1902 – 1 June 1988) was a Russian-American actor and musician who had a 60-year career in film and television from the 1920s to the 1980s, appearing in more than 100 films.
Musi ...
as Moulai
Production
The film was announced in October 1950. Filming started late November 1950.
De Cordova later said he only enjoyed making the film "a modicum. At least the picture got me back in the musical area where I had worked in New York. Mark Stevens was an attractive, competent actor and Rhonda Fleming was a very pretty girl. We tested a lot of women for that part. Whoever played it had to be voluptuous and able to move sexily. The picture was kind of a pot boiler but we got paid for it. The results weren't terrible although I don't think I heightened Fleming's career or that the picture heightened mine."