Belly dancing has appeared on both the big and small screen, done ofttimes by actresses who probably never saw a belly dancer before they were cast in the part. Nonetheless, several movies manage to display dancers in fine form, or at least, in entertaining form. If you can locate these movies, they'll give you a bit of enjoyment, or maybe just a good laugh...Drop me a line (tala571@yahoo.com) if you know of any others, or would like to give a review of the dancing in any of these films.
"Valley of the Kings" (watch in the backgrounds!)
"Salome", or any movie with that name in the title. The Rita Hayworth version (the little thumbnail at the top of the page) has a very swirly seven-veil dance that isn't really belly dance but it oddly fascinating nonetheless.
"Arabian Nights"
"Latcho Drom"
"Wolf in the Fold", an episode of Classic Trek, in which Scotty is accused of murdering a belly dancer (who is actually not too bad a dancer, in cabaret style with a very space-age, shiny costume).
"Son of Ali Baba"
"Kismet", both the 1944 and 1955 productions, tho '44 is better.
Not Egyptian but very cool:
"Kama Sutra". I know, I know. Tell anyone you're watching a movie by that title and you'll get a raised eyebrow and the sort of smirk you often get when you say you're a belly dancer. The dance scene is very short (I wish I could see the outtakes of that!) but worthwhile. The costuming and sets in this movie are absolutely FANTASTIC! Definitely worth a viewing. Just make sure you watch it early enough in the day that you can run to your local CD store and buy the soundtrack: I promise you'll want to.
Other cool films of Hollywood Arabian fantasy: "The Sheik" (swoon!), "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves", "The Thief of Baghdad", "Bagdad"
Chapter 15 of Young Indiana Jones has Catherine Zeta Jones cast as a belly dancing double agent. She wiggles a bit and wears a costume that no dancer in 1917 Turkish Palestine would have dared wear. The costume is interesting, very American quasi-tribal, and approximately 5 seconds of her dance include actual belly dance moves.
