Dr. Farahat is a historic film. Not only is this movie over 80 years old (made in 1935) but it is also the first film that Taheya Carioca ever appeared in. She was still a teen-ager at the time. She is billed in the film's credits as Taheya Mohamed, not yet as Carioca. Although the two leading female roles are played by two famous bellydancers i.e. Taheya Carioca and Amina Mohamed (an Alexandrian dancer) there is no bellydancing in this movie at all. Taheya's role is strictly an acting role. The only "dance" scene in the entire film is this particular clip. Another interesting piece of information about this clip, if you listen to the record that they put on the gramophone, you will notice that the song is actually THE CARIOCA from the 1933 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film called "Flying Down to Rio". Taheya dances to the tune, though not raqs sharqi. At the time this film was made she was still a dancer at Badia Masabni's nightclub where she had become quite adept at performing a fantasy dance choreography based on the Carioca dance from the film. It was for this reason that she became known as Taheya Carioca. The music in this scene seems to be a nod to her dance number at the club and you can actually hear the word Carioca called out several times in the song. Dr. Farahat is a comedy film about a sha'abi guy named Farahat who is out of work, and is hired by an important doctor to pass himself off as the doctor. Amina Mohamed plays the daughter of a wealthy man and Taheya Carioca plays the part of her best friend, named Taheya. They both believe that Farahat is really a doctor albeit a very gullible one and they want to poke some fun at the naive doctor and his "assistant".
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