Best box-office attraction in the Near East is tall, sleepy-eyed, sickly Mohammed Abdul-Wahab, Egypt's premier crooner and actor. Once an unlettered tailor's assistant in Cairo, Crooner Abdul-Wahab has since amassed a fortune by composing tunes which were a hybrid of Oriental and Western music. He put the songs in screen romances and, with himself in the leading role, soon became the matinee idol of Cairo, Bagdad, Damascus, Jerusalem and outposts.
Typical Abdul-Wahab screen plot: a poor fellah (peasant), desperately in love with a rich man's daughter, realizes the futility of his situation, sings a few tragic songs, commits suicide.
Sample Abdul-Wahab lyric:...
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