One of the longest films in this collection, Izzuddin Dhulfeqar’s El rajul el thani (US: The Second Man) is no masterpiece but it’s a hugely entertaining production made by a cast and crew who clearly adore cinema. Ostensibly a crime film, in nearly three hours it also packs in high melodrama, romance, comic relief, musical numbers, and even a magic act. Rushdie Abaza stars as Esbat, a Cairo cabaret owner who smuggles goods to and from Lebanon and whose most recent trip resulted in the murder of his Lebanese contact. When the police recruit the victim’s sister Lamia (Sabah) to help find the killer, she re-connects with Esbat, who happens to be her old flame, and begins performing at his cabaret while accompanied by a cop undercover as her brother. Twists and revelations keep the pace moving, but the charismatic performances alone are often enough to hold viewers’ attention, especially that of Sabah, known as Al-Shahroura (“the singing bird”), who at the time was one of the Arab world’s most famous singers (she had released 50 albums and starred in 100 films). The musical numbers will be exotic to Western viewers but quickly become catchy and even mesmerizing, while the orchestral score at times feels comic as it punctuates every single moment of tension with a crash of violins.