Marie Munib (1905-1969) (center)

The other queen of Egyptian comediennes, the inimitable Marie Munib. Less sprightly than Sidqi, she had that slow, deliberate way of speaking that accented every word and hinted at whatever plot she was hatching. I’ll always remember her as the nightmare mother-in-law, in that scene with Lubna Abdel Aziz in I forget which film, when she has the prospective daughter-in-law break a walnut with her teeth to see if they’re real and tugs at her hair to make sure it’s not a wig. My favorite is when she feigns crying, peering from behind her “tears” to see the effect she’s having.