geoffmcauliffe-60295
As a Presley fan, this film plumbs the depths of bad acting and casting. The script, if you call it that is so threadbare that you will snooze off within minutes. The cast look disinterested and frankly not one of them shows any real acting ability. With a ludicrous story line, and the lead who looks totally out of his depth, forget this film. It really is awful! Such a shame that this film will be another in the category of 'turkeys' that Presley made.The whole Arab love affair is so predictable and the simplistic hero villain dimension is outdated and predictable. I can only assume that this was one of many films made on an assembly line basis since clearly there was no attempt to widen Presley's audience of fans as this one simply repeats every cliché that appeared in so many of his films.
lisa-kevin3531
Being a huge Presley fan, it is absolutely depressing to see Elvis appear in such blatant nonsense as this. It's obvious why Elvis hated most of the movies he appeared in, and Harum Scarum has to be his worst film, hands down. The acting is terrible, as is the plot and songs. It's a shame Presley spent most of the 60s wasting his time on crap like this when he could've used his talent to create more great music or at least appear in films that warranted some merit. Unfortunately much of the blame has to lie with Elvis himself. Had he stood his ground and refused to take part in movies this bad, he may have dug his way out of the comedy/musical grind. But then, you can't really call this a comedy musical either, because it isn't funny and the music stinks!
MARIO GAUCI
Usually, I am partial to Arabian Nights-type romps but, unfortunately, Elvis had better stuck to karate as the few, weak swashbuckling scenes he has in this film show that he is clearly no fencer and, what’s worse, this is undoubtedly the silliest vehicle I’ve seen of his so far, with a meaningless title to boot (no wonder it was changed to HAREM HOLIDAY – also the name of one of the tunes Presley sings in the film – in the U.K.); I guess the fact that the same writer-producer-director team who brought us the dismal KISSIN’ COUSINS (1964) was also behind this one should have been fair warning...The songs are all below-par and, lazily, there isn’t any attempt to give them the expected ethnic touch; one of them even has the star singing as a reflection in a pool imagined by the heroine – a Sultan’s daughter, naturally! As usual with this type of film, the villainess is far more interesting than the heroine but the sheer obviousness of the true identity of the duplicitous villain (Michael Ansara as the Sultan’s brother) is no help either. The would-be jokes involving the clash of cultures generally fall flat and Elvis’ annoying cohorts – a smarmy beggar and ubiquitous dwarf-thief Billy Barty – offer little respite from the generally desperate air of the whole production.
samspin
Harum Scarum may not be Elvis's best movie, yet this Elvis movie is very much worth watching because it is a good movie. But more importantly the movies soundtrack is definitely the greatest album ever recorded, and its percussions are still being felt at the present time. For some reason they failed to play "Wisdom Of The Ages" in this Elvis movie and that is so wrong, because if there is one song from the 1960s that represents the 1960s rock & roll sound, its Elvis's song "Wisdom Of The Ages". Elvis's Harum Scarum soundtrack Middle Eastern infusion changed the world of rock & roll forever, and placed Elvis and his band, among the greatest of rock & roll teachers, who include John Lee Hooker and the most important Howlin Wolf. Yes, the Elvis movie Harum Scarum is worth buying to watch and so is that movies soundtrack.
AD
