"The Agony Of Love," also known as "The Rumor Of Love," made a nice homage for me to watch after the news of Omar Sharif's passing. While we recall him as a romantic idol from his later films, it's interesting that in at least this one of his Egyptian entries he played the more offbeat role of a shy, awkward, romantically clumsy nerd. The source material is actually a 1925 three act American play by John Emerson and Anita Loos, "The Whole Town's Talking,"which was made into a Hollywood movie in 1926 starring Edward Everett Horton.The main plot device that's shared is that the hero's family try to make him more appealing to women- specifically to his visiting cousin who he secretly pines for- by stirring up a rumor that he has had a past fling with a famous actress. The story opens, after a pre-credit scene of women gossiping, with the wife, Bahiga, of businessman Abd-El-Kader trying to find out what he's up to. The businessman's male secretary Mahrous, who we later learn is his nephew, is expert at making up voices and fools the wife by pretending her husband is at work while we later find he has been out partying, we see him return home at night, tipsy. Abd El Kader also gets his second nephew, Hussien (Omar Sharif) to cover for him as well. Sharif appears at their breakfast with a mustache and thick glasses, his aunt also criticizes the out of style striped suit he's wearing. We see from the way Hussien looks at a photo of their daughter, his cousin Samiha, on the wall, that he has an unrequited love for her. As the three men go back to work in the office, Hussien's uncle tells him he is too honest and blunt about things,and that he needs to learn to be more dishonest.The wife finds out about her husband's trickery when Mahrous pretends once again that El Kader is at work, while we have seen him actually flirting with another woman by the beach. Their daughter arrives from Cairo to Port Said, where the story is set, accompanied by a mod-looking young man with long hair and a flashy shirt, who goes by the strange name of Lucy. The father thinks he is a girl and makes nothing but derogatory comments about him (at one point the father, meaning to be sarcastic, compares him to James Dean.) But Lucy appeals to Samiha, he has been around, in addition to throwing out the bits of French that we hear these upper class Egyptians do, he shows he can sing(and dance) in both Italian and Turkish! He is also Samiha's cousin. Her parents argue over who she should marry, which gets El Kader started on a plan to make Hussien more attractive. He asks Mahrous to get Hussien a new suit and then practice, as if he were a woman, flirting with him. In a night club scene Samiha and Lucy dance. This is Hussien's opportunity, shaved and better looking without glasses, to try out his new moves on some of the young ladies, though he has no idea how to dance. El Kader then fakes that other women have been after Hussien, by leaving forged evidence, in a place where their maid will discover it,that he was involved with a famous Egyptian movie actress, Hind Rostom. Mahrous uses his vocal skills to pretend to be her on the phone. The father overplays, but enjoyably so, his role of outrage at Hussien's supposedly scandalous behavior. The girls spread gossip along the beach, and instead of her previous simplicity Samiha dolls herself up to be more like an actress. But in a late plot development Hind Rostom herself (played by the real life Hind Rostom) shows up, accompanied by her tall football player fiancé Adel, who jealously knocks down any rival, Lucy who's been around knows him and brings both the fiancé and the actress to the house to stir up trouble. To get back at her overly suspicious fiancé, the actress pretends she actually does know Hussien and what's more brings along a little boy actor, who we have seen on stage with her as part of their touring act, to pretend he is their love child! In the climax Adel and Hussein keep running across the stage during the play that the actress is trying to perform, as the football player chases the so-called lover. Finally they all take bows, as the curtain repeatedly opens and closes, in a testament to the theatricality of all of this piece. While I only laughed out loud a few times during this farce, I was intrigued by the casting of Sharif in this comic role and eager to see more of his talented Egyptian co-stars. And I am really curious to see the Edward Everett Horton version, if it still survives. (In that version the actress was played by Dolores Del Rio.)
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