* Atea * Alexandra King * Mara *
* Hilary Thacker * Other Instructors *
* Veena & Neena * Dolphina *
* East Indian Dance *

* Veena & Neena * Dolphina * Rania *
* Other Instructors * Pilates *
* Other Dance Workouts *

* Middle Eastern Dance Performance *
* Other Dance Forms *

* Culture *

* History *

* Makeup *

* Costuming *

* Cooking *

* Cleopatra * Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves *
* Kismet * The Sheik * Thief of Bagdad *
* Arabian Nights * Salome * Biblical Dramas *
* Other Films *

This classic silent film stars silver screen legend Rudolph Valentino. Despite her countrymen's warning against travelling into the desert alone, Lady Diana rides out onto the sandy plain with only one guide to protect her. Miles into the desert, she's captured by Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan. Bewitched by her beauty, the Sheik keeps the British aristocrat locked away in a love nest hoping to make her his concubine. He tries to win her affections, but Lady Diana protects her virtue. When a distinguished Frenchman who befriended the Sheik in Paris comes to visit, Diana realizes her captor's not the uncivilized brute she mistook him for. Suddenly a tragic accident leaves Sheik Hassan seriously wounded. Will this tragedy help Diana recognize her true feelings for him?

Another Hollywood extravaganza - all the wonder, excitement, triumph and treachery of the Arabian nights come to life in this classic adventure and passionate love story.

This rousing film centers on the evildoings of a greedy caliph who wants to steal Ali Baba's vast treasure. His clever, dastardly plan, which involves kidnapping the Shah's fiancee, seems destined to work -- until Ali Baba's son Kashma becomes an unwitting pawn in the proceedings. Kashma and his army then set out to thwart the callous caliph, using their swords, wits and gallant courage. Dance performed by Milada Mladova (Zaza).

Ali Baba accidentally discovers the magic cave where Abdul and his band of 40 thieves hide their ill-gotten treasure. He takes enough to buy the beautiful slave girl Morgiane from his master, Cassim, so that he may take her as his wife. However, Kassim and Abdul have plans for Ali on his wedding night...

The chemistry between Leonor Varela, who stars as the bewitching queen Cleopatra, and Billy Zane, as the steadfast Marc Antony, is undeniable. Their lovescene is one of the steamiest to hit network television. However, once you move beyond this couple's sexual energy, the movie tends to droop, leaning toward the lackluster.The tale of Cleopatra has hit the screen in many guises, but none have succeeded as well as Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 film. Here, director Franc Roddam tries once again to tell the story of the exotic queen who won the hearts of both Julius Caesar (Timothy Dalton) and Antony, while reigning over a troubled country. But how do you tell such an epic in a mere 140 minutes? Obviously, much is left out, making this film more worthwhile as a pleasant diversion than a real history lesson. The sets are quite remarkable for a TV movie,

This 1963 extravaganza, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, is certainly an epic historical drama with all the elements: elaborate sets, intricate costuming, name actors, a factual basis, and an overlong script (just over four hours). But the acting is well performed and the backdrops are lush, making this a film worth seeing. Elizabeth Taylor is Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen who seduces Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) in a political move to hold onto her empire. When Caesar is killed in the Roman Senate, Cleopatra looks to Marc Antony (Richard Burton) for his support, practically enslaving him with her wiles. Don't confuse this Cleopatra with the 1934 version directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Claudette Colbert. --Jenny Brown

Claudette Colbert stars as the captivating and powerful Queen of Egypt in this classic Hollywood film. When Julius Caesar, the leader of the Roman Empire, succumbs to the charms of the sultry Cleopatra, he creates a scandal big enough to shake the marble pillars of Rome. The ruler pays dearly for his romance, for the outraged Roman Senate repudiates him -- and the fickle Cleopatra decides to protect her interests by bestowing her affections on her former lover's rival, Marc Antony.

Colman tries a change of pace playing the "king of beggars,'' a wily magician whose daughter is wooed by the handsome young Caliph in this plot-heavy Arabian Nights-type tale. Passably entertaining but nothing special, despite opulent MGM production. Best of all is Dietrich, with tongue in cheek and body painted gold for one famous dance scene.

This lavish adaptation of the popular musical play tells the tale of a poor street poet who manages to outwit the powerful caliph and win mates for himself and his daughter.

More flying carpet and genie-in-the-magic-lamp fantasy in this fourth filming of the Arabian Nights adventure that's handsome enough but nowhere near the definitive 1940 version

Mili Avatal, Alan Bates, James Frain, beautiful film, well acted, beautiful sets, very nice special effects. Some short dancing clips.

Colorful, corny escapist stuff--beautifully mounted in Technicolor--about a dashing hero, an enslaved Sheherazade, and an evil caliph.

Several Thousand and One Nights tales are framed by the story of slave-girl Pellegrini, who becomes "king'' of a great city. Dreamlike, exotic; the last and best of Pasolini's medieval trilogy.

Great cast struggles with unintentionally funny script in biblical drama of illustrious dancer who offers herself to spare John the Baptist.

Ludicrous film provides some laughs while trying to spin tale of exotic dancer becoming Mata Hari-type spy. Nevertheless, this boosted De Carlo to stardom.

How do you recreate the effect this salacious opera had on its audience when it debuted more than 90 years ago on today's audiences jaded by MTV, X- and R-rated movies? By playing it to the hilt, which is exactly what Malfitano and Terfel do. THIS is what Salome should be like. Not a concert of beautiful music but a raw experience. The singing and the music under von Dohnanyi are spectacular enough, but it's the drama that comes through.

Behaving as if it hadn't already been immortalized in Judges, chapters 13-16, Cecil B. DeMille immortalized history's most famous haircut all over again in this 1949 classic of the Epic Saga genre. Victor Mature is a trifle bovine as Samson--which perhaps isn't so inappropriate--but Hedy Lamarr's Delilah is a magnet on fire. Impossibly perfect and sexy, she sashays through the movie in a whole wardrobe of revealing halter tops, bending the men like blades of grass.

A Hollywood spectacular about the famed reign of King Solomon over ancient Israel. The voluptuous Queen of Sheba plots his overthrow. Splashy spectacle with alluring Gina and stoic Brynner frolicking in biblical days. Tyrone Power died during filming in Spain, was replaced by Brynner who refilmed his early scenes. Some long shots still show Power, not Brynner. Vidor's final film as director. Restored to 139m. on laserdisc. Super Technirama 70. Copyright© Leonard Maltin, 1998, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.

Biblical epic about Lot, who leads the Hebrews to the Valley of Jordan. There, they become entangled with the Helamites, who are reveling in the sin, sex, scandal and unsanctity of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Eventually however, the vice-loving Helamites experience the wrath of God...

A better-than-average Biblical tale with a an all-too-modern moral. King David's infatuation with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers, nearly causes the destruction of his kingdom when he brings the wrath of God upon his land. Peck has just the right mix of gravity and matinee-idol appeal.

Talky, fruity spectacle about building of the Great Pyramid, filmed on an epic scale. Hawks claimed neither he nor his writers (including William Faulkner and Harry Kurnitz) "knew how a pharaoh talked''... and it shows. Still worth catching for great revenge ending and now-campy villainy by Collins. CinemaScope.

Ponderous, often unintentionally funny biblical-era soaper with Purdom cast as the sensitive, truth-seeking title character, a physician in ancient Egypt. Darvi's performance as a femme fatale is hilariously awful; see how much of her dialogue you can understand.

Incredible yet enjoyable escapism set in WW2 Europe has Milland joining gypsy Dietrich for espionage work; Dietrich most convincing. Gypsy Vye sings the title song.

Hollywood Arabian Nights Costume Extravaganza, beautiful costumes, lush sets. One really bad dance scene...

His code name: "The Sphinx." His mission: to send Rommel's advancing army the secrets that would unlock the doors to Cairo...and the ultimate Nazi triumph in the war. And in all of Cairo, only two people could stop this brilliant and ruthless Nazi master agent. One was a down-on-his-luck English officer no one would listen to. The other was a young Jewish girl...

An Arabian princess returns from her British boarding school to learn that her father had been murdered and their fortune plundered. She then embarks on a quest to discover the truth and gain vengeance on the perpetrators.

(1951, short number 129 in the Columbia series) offers a fairly rare element of the supernatural. While the boys are working on a shipment of mostly breakable (and therefore broken) goods from the East for a client (Vernon Dent), Shemp runs across a magic lamp with a real "genius" that grants him his wish of flashy clothing, a gift immediately unwished by a jealous Larry. A good deal of the footage is concerned with two angry Arabs trying to decapitate the infidels. For once, all ends well with the boys getting their wishes fulfilled and Dent (who had given away the lamp) being given a rare chance to stooge an ending all by himself.

Lamarr, in one of her best-known roles, is the seductive Tondelayo who entrances all at British plantation post in Africa, with Pidgeon the expeditionist who really falls for her. Exotic love scenes, corny plot. Previously filmed in 1929.