B-B-B-Bellydance!

Hi.

First I'd like to apologize, or if you're Arthur, apologise for the compression quality of this clip. I found it on YouTube, and embedding was disabled, so I said "What? Does the guy who uploaded it think he OWNS it?!?!?!? That's like antiyoutubeish!!"

So, I downloaded it and uploaded it. Ha!

This movie is written by William Peter Blatty who wrote The Exorcist and was directed by J. Lee Thompson, who directed Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear, Taras Bulba and What a Way to Go!

But it's not out on DVD and as far as I can tell, TCM has forgotten about it. Maybe they'll air it when Shirley croaks..(she's 74, so it could be another decade easy and, for the record, I don't wish it on her)...

But as regards Shirley, this film taught me that a woman who wasn't classically beautiful could be even more so; she was rockin' that whole Giulietta Masina vibe, and I had been told by adults that she as an actress should be appreciated because she was "cute" so I watched her films quasi-appreciatively, until I saw this one which made my head explode, like a young Borgnine.

It's schticky dreck, and very apt for the zeitgest, with Saudis n'all (Ustinov!) Every character actor in the universe is in it too, Jim Backus, Fred Clark, Wilfred Hyde-White, Harry Morgan, Richard Deacon, and the ubiquitous and recently passed away (always include the away - OK?) Charles Lane.

So I want it, damn it - that's all...