PHOTO CREDIT: Above photo by John Rickman Photography, San Jose, California.

Taheya Carioca made her silver screen debut in Dr. Farhat, which was released in 1935. In that film, the credits identified her as Taheya Mohamed. The poster below was used to promote the film. Here's some background about it.

Click on the image below to see the poster in more detail.

Dr. Farhat is a historic film. Not only is it over 80 years old (released 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 of this movie were both cast using dancers (Taheya Carioca and Amina Mohamed from Alexandria) there is no belly dancing in this film at all. Both roles are strictly acting roles.

The only "dance" scene in the entire film is a segment showing Taheya's character dancing around to the song "The Carioca" from the 1933 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film called Flying Down to Rio. Taheya's dance to it is not raqs sharqi. Click this link to view the scene:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ifytd

At the time this film was made, Taheya Carioca was still a dancer at Badia Masabni's nightclub. She had become quite adept at performing a fantasy dance choreography based on the Carioca dance from Flying Down to Rio. 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. 

This film is a comedy movie about a sha'abi man named Farahat who is out of work. He 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 think that Farahat is a doctor, albeit a very gullible one, and they want to poke some fun at the naive doctor and his "assistant".

Here are two more video clips showing scenes from the movie:

Lunch scene: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7fgob6

Beach scene: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7fgpne

Priscilla is a dancer of Lebanese heritage who enjoys researching the Golden Era of Egyptian dance. She owns a collection of more than one hundred classic black and white Egyptian films which is continually expanding.

Priscilla has also gathered a large library of dance related articles and clippings from Middle Eastern magazines and newspapers, many of which she has translated from the original Arabic to both English and Spanish.

Priscilla currently resides in Central America where she is a dance instructor.