Looking for Gold?

January 28, 2007 2:56 PM

Impossible-to-find-movie-filter: I'm looking for a movie called (in translation) "Gold", more under the cut.

I saw it once, playing on the tv in an arab cafe (Abu Ali) off the Edgware Road; the guy in the local video store, on the basis of my description, said it was probably "Gold", made in 1950s, starring as a child the Egyptian actress/singer Fairouz (various spellings exist I think), or, as he called her, Mrs Fairouz. It looked like an interesting movie, the main fascination being this child star doing a kind of Charlie Chaplin impersonation. Although I couldn't understand a word of it, I'd love to get hold of it. No trace of it as far as I can tell in imdb.com, although it was plainly a serious studio production.

posted by londongeezer to media & arts (9 comments total)

Here's a list of her films, but I didn't see your film listed.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 3:03 PM on January 28, 2007

A brief google tells me that she's Lebanese, not Egyptian ... unless we have the wrong Fairouz. That might help with your research?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:07 PM on January 28, 2007

A Google search revealed this:

Dhahab / Gold (1951), starring little Fayruz

in an article about Egyptian cinema on this page (snippet is about halfway down) but I can't find it on imdb.
posted by amyms at 3:07 PM on January 28, 2007

This might be it (on imdb)...

Dhahab (1953)
posted by amyms at 3:13 PM on January 28, 2007

That's got to be it. Nothing is impossible on AskMe!
posted by languagehat at 3:34 PM on January 28, 2007

Could be worth a shot to ask these guys about it.
(I've never used this service, so I can't vouch for it.)
posted by Dr. Wu at 4:52 PM on January 28, 2007

Thank you very much amyms. I didn't get to Dhahab. As languagehat says, it appears nothing is impossible here, and didn't google all possible spellings of her name, apparently. And Dr Wu, I will give dvd blue dot a go. And thanks for the correction, AmbroseChapel, I took the video-shop guy at his word. Any further suggestions on how to source this movie much appreciated.
posted by londongeezer at 5:04 PM on January 28, 2007

Any further suggestions on how to source this movie much appreciated.

Here's what I've found so far...

The movie was part of a film series in 1999 called "Music On The Nile: 50 Years of Egyptian Musical Films." The series was shown at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and at UCLA (and probably other places), but I can't find it available commercially anywhere.

The UCLA Film & Television Archive (who hosted the series in Los Angeles) has the following contact information on their Commercial Services page:

UCLA Film and Television Archive
Commercial Services
1015 N. Cahuenga Boulevard
Hollywood, California 90038

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

They might be able to help you track down a copy.
posted by amyms at 6:51 PM on January 28, 2007

Just for the sake of obsessiveness, there are two "F*r*z" listings on IMDB.

There's Fairuz (born Lebanon, 1935, who didn't do "Gold" according to them) and there's Fayrouz (no biographical details at all, but who did appear in a movie called "Gold").

Are they the same person, do we think? If not, might they have each other's credits? Does someone want to write to IMDB? I'm sure they'd like to hear about it.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 2:10 PM on January 29, 2007