Eine zuviel im Harem

This movie was newly released, showing in a newly completed "rocking chair" theatre in Orlando FL. Only 15 then, had gone to FL by bus from NC, to visit a friend dying of cancer. We bought bright surfer shirts-a new rage, and went to see this movie at the new theatre. I obviously have a good time youthful impression connected with seeing his movie. The movie itself is a vague memory of a humorous football game, cute harem girls including the young Shirley McLaine, a neat railroad running around a palace, etc. While the acting quality etc. may not have sunk in at that time and age, it was a neat comedy I would love to see again. Wish it would be released on video. Even wish it might appear on TV sometime. Perhaps one day someone may have taped a televised showing and a copy may be available that way. Anyway, I think it was a pleasant comedy, in good taste, that anyone would enjoy.......Except for them celibate types at Notre Dame!!!

Watching this movie mad me laugh when I was 9 and memories of it still make me laugh today! Not many movies have that ability. It is nonsensical at times. But that was what made it a great movie! I wish they would come out with it on DVD. America needs a good old fashioned laugh movie... Bright colors and funny gags and all. For all of the advances they have made in the movie industry, movies like John Goldfarb stand out as clear, bright and yes maybe a bit unreal. The harem dancing was so funny. I can remember my sisters trying to dance like them. It was a movie the whole family could watch and not worry about certain words...... Virtual Reality comes to mind. haha We lose ourselves enough in the cyber world as it is. John Goldfarb brings us home... Even if he had to get lost to do it.

Richard Crenna plays a U-2 spy plane pilot too stupid to find Russia and who runs out of fuel and crashes in what must be Saudi Arabia.(This is vaguely reminiscent of the Francis Gary Powers story of several years earlier, although he ended up in Moskow). Shirley Maclaine ends up in a harem. Although frenetic and wild, this movie is filled with smarmy sex jokes, comedy on the level of a burlesque house, and offensive ethnic stereotypes; the Arabs are the only group that can still be insulted publicly. Peter Ustinov, always marvelous, was admittedly funny as the Arab king. I suppose this vulgar movie, ripped without mercy by critics at the time, will appeal to the same thirteen year-old boys who like the slob humor of Adam Sandler or Michael Myers, but for adults it's "no sale"! John Goldfarb DON'T come home!

"John Goldfarb, Please Come Home" just might be my all-time favorite movie. I first saw it when I was about 10 and made sure to check it out whenever it ran in those pre-cable days. As a middle-ager who picked up a MAD magazine/Stan Freberg-style sense of humor at age 6 and never outgrew it, "John Goldfarb" covered all the bases- whoops, this was a football movie! The great Peter Ustinov truly carried it as the goofy, model-train-obsessed sheik, and the closing football game was Marx Bros. quality. This one's got everything a fan of pre-"Saturday Night Live" satire can ask for, plus it had Shirley MacLaine before she went into orbit. A young John Williams did the funny score (including the Notre Dame fight song played belly-dancer style). I was just the right age to appreciate the presence of sitcom regulars like Crenna and Backus (I still love "Gilligan"). I'd give anything to find "John Goldfarb" on video. And the kicker? It was written by William Peter Blatty, who scared the daylights out of us with "The Exorcist" a decade later! I prefer this Blatty, thank you. "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home"- the perfect off-the-wall movie for MAD/ Freberg/"Gilligan"/Marx fans of all ages. If you know and love this picture, you're on my A-list for life!

Only politically correct prigs and other humorless types will fail to enjoy this over-the-top farce. (Including some here, one of whom doesn't like "Michael" Myers, so consider the source.) The plot involves a dim U-2 pilot (Richard Crenna) who takes a wrong turn and lands in the oil-soaked desert domain of a zany sheik, a dippy journalist (Shirley MacLane) trapped in his harem, State Department bureaucrats, the Notre Dame football team, and other innocents who find themselves asea in the sand.

Everyone's insulted, so everyone should have a good time. Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau was classic, but Peter Ustinov's King Fawz is something else again. If you see "John Goldfarb" in your TV listings, gather your craziest crowd, pass the stash, and laugh away the evening on this crazy flick.