His real breakthrough came in the early 1950s, was the films; The Two Orphans (1949), followed by; Calumnied by the People (1950), I am Well Born (1951), Time of Miracles (1952), and I will never Cry (1957).

[6] In the 1960s, he directed the films; The Sins (1962), Alley of the Pestle (1963), and the Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy adaptation: Between Al-Qasrayn (1963), Qasr Al-Shawq (1967) and Al-Sukkariyyah (1973).

[7] He also presented: Love and Adoration (1960), I Accuse (1960), and Money and Women (1960), The Dumb (1961), The Student (1961), The Miracle (1962), Shafiqa the Copt-girl (1963), The Nun (1965) among others.

[8][9] After the tremendous success of Watch Out for Zouzou (1972) and its continuation in theaters for over a year,[10][11][12] his films were dominated by a lyrical and showy character during that period.

[13] El-Imam was married to Naemat Al-Hadidi, a housewife together they had two sons and a daughter, Hussein (1951–2014), music composer, arranger, singer, film producer, actor and tv presenter, Moody, writer and composer of film soundtracks and Zainab, a journalist in Al-Ahram.