C'est la fête au harem

With a couple of exceptions any Elvis Presley movie was merely a vehicle to display his singing talent. Movie executives thought that because he was such a colossal pop-star that any movie they put him in, no matter how trashy, was bound to sell. They were right, of course, & Elvis fans watched his movies in their droves. Harum Scarum is definitely one of his worst & pure hokum. It is so bad that it has the distinction of being listed in John Wilson's book of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made". It definitely fits into the "so bad that it's good" category of movie. It is enjoyable mainly because it is so utterly nonsensical & because, for us lads anyway, it showcases a number of gorgeous hot babes. Former beauty queen Mary Ann Mobley (who sadly died last December 9 aged 77) plays Princess Shalimar. Her talents as an actress are hardly called upon at all so she doesn't have much to do except look gorgeous & she never had any problem doing that. Pretty much the same goes for Fran Jeffries playing Aishah. It also contains a very enjoyable Arabian dance routine done by three more glamorous ladies played by Wilda Taylor (Amethyst), Gail Gilmore (Sapphire) & Brenda Benet (Emerald).

This was actually a much better movie than the critics say. It has an interesting plot and great actions. there are a lot of gorgeous women in this film. It's hard to believe that Sam Katzman produced a film this good, and also produced something as bad as Kissin' Cousins. This movie was the exact opposite of Kissin' Cousins, in Kissin' Cousins most of the songs were great, but the movie stank. In this movie, the film was great and most of the songs stank. There were still some good songs, like "Kismet", "So Close Yet So Far From Paradise". It's not that they weren't all good songs, they were just not good songs for Elvis.

Perhaps I was in a very forgiving frame of mind but "Harum Scarum" went down pretty well. Widely regarded as one of the King's worst offenders and he was disappointed with the results as he thought (before reading the finished script) that this would be a welcome change of pace from his established formula.

The scenery is a breath of fresh air (though we all know it's MGM's back lot for the most part) and the film has a bit more of a plot than usual; although it's very clumsily handled. The comedy bits are fairly lackluster and the action is rather stiff but the film moves along well with few to no lulls. Elvis has a strong presence but he really doesn't strain himself too much and he receives little support from his fellow co-stars; though Billy Barty (most memorable as J.J. MacKuen from "Foul Play") does induce a few chuckles without a line of dialog.

The songs range from pedestrian to very good ("Kismet" and "So Close (Yet So Far) From Paradise") and the girls, as almost always is the case with Presley films, are quite the eye candy.

"Harum Scarum" is not good but it's breezy enough entertainment for fans of Elvis that's not quite as bad as it's reputation suggests. I'd choose this over "Stay Away, Joe" any day of the week.

Widely considered to be Elvis' dumbest movie ever and the source of many prime gags in Top Secret, Harum Scarum is worth watching only for those Elvis fans interested in answering the question of what went wrong with his movie career. The answer was quite simply that, to Colonel Parker, Elvis was a carnival concession. He was getting million dollar offers to keep at the same old formula junk and since Parker had no idea how good movies were made he kept agreeing to the deals while the money was there. Harum Scarum shows the formula at its most derivative. Elvis himself looked bored and distracted at times on screen and even messed up some of his lip synching! The bulk of the songs are strictly for the Pat Boone set and badly out of date before the movie even came out. At a time of rapid change and great excitement in the music world (the Beatles made HELP around the same time) the music in Elvis' movies did not evolve or change, it just got recycled. The sets are also retreads, studio back lot leftovers from earlier better movies which look about as authentically middle eastern as a Moroccan restaurant in Brentwood. The costumes are a bad joke, and look like I Dream of Jeannie cast-offs. Elvis himself spends most of the movie looking foolish (and a bit like a Popsicle) in lime green pants. Add in a ridiculously predictable hand-me-down story about intrigue in the palace of the sultan and a few unfunny minor characters, and there is not much to like here, even for die hard Elvis fans. Even Elvis haters looking for a cheap laugh will find themselves bored by this exercise.

It's very easy to dismiss an Elvis flick with a goofy title like HARUM SCARUM just by hearing it. But I was actually rather surprised by this colorful and unconventional Presley romp. It turned out pretty good for a Presley knock-off, despite the hokum.

Taking Elvis into the odd world of the Middle East is in itself a fresh change of space considering the formulaic nature of his films. It's not high art by any stretch of the imagination, but it's fun. And leading ladies Mary Ann Mobley and Fran Jeffries are gorgeous to behold.

None of the songs are very strong, but there are plenty of them to go around this time.