Little Egypt
Cast & Crew
Frederick De Cordova
Mark Stevens
Rhonda Fleming
Nancy Guild
Charles Drake
Tom D'andrea
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Cyrus Graydon, a tobacco tycoon, visits Egypt in the hopes of bringing to America real Egyptians to populate his Cairo street exhibit, which is scheduled to be unveiled at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Assisting him are a pasha and an American con man, Wayne Cravat, who are trying to swindle Graydon into financing the phony "Nile Reclamation Project," a plan that they claim will give Graydon more access to the Egyptian tobacco that he has made such a success. After Cravat selects the Egyptian natives who will be transported to Chicago, he and the pasha go to the Café Fez, where they watch the performance of Izora, a beautiful Egyptian dancer with a mysterious past. The pasha, in love, announces his intent to bring Izora with him to Chicago, but Cravat, worried that the scheme will be ruined if the pasha shows up with a café dancer, visits her after the show and convinces her to stay in Cairo, telling her that he is in love with her and will return. The ambitious Izora agrees to stay behind, but then shows up on the freighter bound for America with her troop of beautiful veiled dance attendants. Once in Chicago, Cravat learns that the pasha is still in Cairo because he had been reported to the Egyptian authorities, and he deduces that the ambitious Izora maneuvered the pasha's seizure. Izora tells the assembled press as well as the Graydons that she is an Egyptian princess who has come to Chicago in the pasha's stead, and she is greeted enthusiastically by Graydon's high-class friends and family. At first, Cravat tries to send her away, but then realizes that together they may be able to pull off the scheme. Later, at a party thrown to welcome Izora, Cravat, wishing to secure his position with Graydon, tries to woo Sylvia, the tycoon's daughter, and the fake princess becomes annoyed. To get back at him, Izora flirts with Oliver Doane, Sylvia's fiancé. At the World's Fair, Izora strolls through Little Cairo with Doane and is recognized by the street people, and Moulai, a fortune-teller, threatens her with blackmail. Later, while socializing with the Doanes and the Graydons at the Café Fez, Izora receives a note from Cravat saying that the Nile Reclamation Project is on hold and that Izora must return to Cairo due to important business. When a disgusted Izora lights up a cigarette, Mrs. Doane, Oliver's mother and an advocate for women's rights, is thrilled at this display of freedom and joins her. Izora is convinced that Cravat desires Sylvia, but at a private party thrown in her honor, he explains that his relations with the young heiress are strictly business. Cravat continues to court Sylvia and the newspapers announce their engagement, much to Izora's fury. Izora refuses to accept Cravat's apologies, and meanwhile, the shareholders at the Fair are worried about the lack of public interest in the Cairo street exhibit. Mrs. Doane suggests that Izora perform traditional ceremonial dances at the Café Fez, and Izora, thrilled at the idea, agrees, despite Cravat's disapproval. Before her performance of the "hootchy-kootchy," which she will dance in a revealing costume, Izora explains her intentions to Max, Cravat's sidekick. She plans to embarrass Cravat and expose both their impersonations, hoping that it will bring Cravat, the man she loves, back to his senses. When Izora appears onstage in her "hootchy-kootchy" outfit, the Doanes and Graydons are shocked, and women leave the club in droves. After Izora deliberately provokes a brawl among some sailors, the police arrive and haul Izora to jail for indecent exposure and inciting a riot. Cravat arrives at the jail, intending to send Izora to New York so that he can talk his way out of the fiasco, but Mrs. Doane shows up with her lawyers, claiming that all the city's women's rights clubs support Izora's right to dance. Graydon then tells Cravat that the fair is doing marvellously thanks to Izora, and that he is going to put a picture of the dancing princess in each of his cigarette packages. Although aware that she is not a princess, Graydon dubs her "Little Egypt" and hands Cravat a $100,000 advance check. Izora again performs her sexy dance, but Mrs. Doane, who was only pretending to support the "hootchy-kootchy girl," alerts the police, who again arrest her. In court, Cravat stands by Izora, defending her himself by virtue of an archaic law which allows friends to defend the accused. The prosecution shows a film of the performance as evidence, and Cravat brings in an alleged professor of Egyptology, who testifies that Izora's dances are authentic. The prosecution, however, reveals that the witness is merely a professor at the Antioch Barber College. After Cravat takes the stand and his cover is blown, the pasha arrives as a witness for the prosecution. However, just as he is about to ruin Izora and Cravat's credibility, Izora pretends to faint and a recess is called. During the break, now in-love couple gives the pasha Graydon's check, thus convincing him to support them. When the pasha takes the stand, he claims that Izora is indeed his cousin and an honorary princess, not Betty Randolph from Jersey City, as the prosecution has discovered. Just as the judge calls the case closed, the Egyptian calif arrives, calls the pasha an impostor, and seizes Graydon's check for the Egyptian government. Izora's charges are dismissed, and back at the Café Fez, Izora dances before an overflow crowd, while Cravat watches admiringly from backstage.
Director
Frederick De Cordova
Cast
Mark Stevens
Rhonda Fleming
Nancy Guild
Charles Drake
Tom D'andrea
Minor Watson
Steven Geray
Verna Felton
Kathryn Givney
John Litel
Dan Riss
Leon Belasco
Ed Clark
John Gallaudet
Freeman Lusk
Karen Varga
Bridget Carr
Midge Ware
Jack George
Bernie Gozier
Henry Escalante
Ed Loredo
Fritz Feld
Thomas Brown Henry
Ed Gargan
Milton Kibbee
John Morgan
Joey Ray
Alex Sharp
Parke Macgregor
Barney Phillips
Barry Brooks
Art Dupuis
Howard Banks
Ethyl May Halls
Gilbert Fallman
Douglas Evans
Douglas Mcfachin
Peggy Leon
Dorthea Wolbert
Jack Chefe
Perc Launders
Ted Jordan
Russell Dennis
Steve Wayne
Don Brodie
Madge Blake
Charles Woolf
Norman Ollestad
Jack Gargan
Alice Richey
Dorothy Shearer
Edward Colebrook
Fred Fisher
Bhogwan Singh
Joann Arnold
Wally Walkers
Ruth Godfrey
Bert May
Joseph Kamaryt
Bess Flowers
Roy Thomas
Harold Miller
Earl Spainard
Kid Wagner
John Roy
Bob Milton
Earl Brown
Crew
Harold Belfer
Lou Breslow
Oscar Brodney
Oscar Brodney
Leslie I. Carey
Robert Clatworthy
Al Cline
Olga Collins
Jack Corrigan
Don Cunliffe
Edward Curtiss
Jack Daniels
Fred Frank
William Fritzsche
George Gall
Russell A. Gausman
Joseph Gershenson
Jack Gertsman
Doris Gilbert
Ray Gockel
Jack Gross
Ledger Haddow
Bert Hendrickson
Bernard Herzbrun
Corson Jowett
Joe Kish
Phil Lathrop
Carl Lawrence
Ann Locker
Nazih Massaad
Russell Metty
Harry Moran
Jack Muchmore
Nevada Penn
Wanda Ramsey
Julius Rosenkrantz
Tom Shaw
Joan St. Oegger
Bill Thomas
Lonnie Vandenecker
Bud Westmore
Frank Westmore
Monte Westmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a October 11, 1950 news item in the Los Angeles Herald Express, Shelley Winters was scheduled to star in the film. In a memo dated September 11, 1950 contained in the file on the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, PCA director Joseph I. Breen advised Universal to gather "proper technical advice with respect to all scenes laid in Egypt, as well as to the various Egyptian characters in the story" in order to be certain that nothing in the film would be "offensive to Egyptians." In another memo dated November 22, 1950, Breen also questioned the advisability of retaining a reference to the Egyptian government.
It is unclear from the film whether "Izora" is actually Egyptian, or is in fact "Betty Randolph from Jersey City," as argued by the prosecution in the film's court sequence. According to Harrrison's Reports, the film's story is fictional, but was based on a real-life personality, Fahreda Mahzar, an Egyptian dancer who brought the hootchy-kootchy dance to the Streets of Cairo exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The November 24, 1950 Hollywood Reporter production chart includes Jerome Cowan in the cast, but his appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. A December 1950 Hollywood Reporter news item states that Screenwriters Guild credit arbitrators decided Doris Gilbert would receive joint credit with Oscar Brodney for the film's screenplay. The nature of this dispute, however, has not been determined.
