Truly Dreadful Film

People are voting emotionally.

one of my absolute favorites!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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'turkeys' that Presley made.The whole Arab love affair is so predictable and the simplistic hero villain dimension is outdated and predictable.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.

For me, "Harum Scarum" is a prime example of different people having different opinions...I honestly don't think this is THAT bad, really. I'm an Elvis fan so I can be accused of bias, but I didn't think every film Elvis did was top notch. I'm not a western kind of guy so "Flaming Star", "Love Me Tender" and "Charro", but I think "Harum Scarum" is far more enjoyable and attention keeping than "Girls!Girls! Girls!", "The Trouble with Girls", "Tickle Me" and even "Blue Hawaii"...like I say, different people have different tastes. I know Priscilla Presley certainly doesn't like "Harum Scarum" she slates it in her autobiography "Elvis and Me" and even The King's Manager Colonel Tom Parker didn't like this and he was the man responsible for holding Elvis back in Hollywood. Once again, Mary Ann Mobley appears as the leading lady, looking even more beautiful than she did in "Girl Happy", as a king's daughter, while another beauty - actress and nude model Fran Jefferies also has a starring role as one of the villains. The director was the dancer and musical director Gene Nelson, and the set was used in a Laurence of Arabia type movie earlier. In "Harum Scarum", Elvis plays actor, singer and martial arts Hollywood star Johnny Tyrone, who is kidnapped by naive sheik's who believe Tyrone's movie skills where he can kill a tiger with his bare hands are real, and they want him to kill a king so they can take over control. Once held captive, Tyrone attempts to escape and return to America. En route, he meets and is smitten by Mary Ann Mobley and his escape plan soon makes way for plan B as he plots to save the King from the evil assassins and win the heart of his daughter. The soundtrack is not bad. They only song I'm not fond on is "Shake That Tambourine". "Kismet" and "Golden Coins" are fine songs, but all are nowhere near the sublime "So Close, Yet So Far (from Paradise)". A real hidden Gem from Elvis' movie soundtracks and one of my top 10 Elvis songs he ever recorded, it's a shame it had to appear in one of his most critically panned movies thus gets so criminally overlooked.

"Harum Scarum" gives even second-rate Elvis movies a bad name. If you're counting, Harum Scarum" was Elvis' nineteenth opus, coming between "Tickle Me" and "Frankie and Johnny." Reportedly lensed in a mere 18 days, "Harem Scarum" combines routine musical numbers with a pedestrian Arabian Nights adventure. Virtually everything about "Kissin' Cousins" director Gene Nelson's atrocious epic reeks of inconsistency. Not for an instant is anything about it believable. One minute everything is light-hearted nonsense, and then the next minute, everything becomes serious. Only the villain dies, and he perishes in a burst of machine gun fire. Inevitably, Elvis croons some lackluster tunes. This forgettable Sam Katzman produced potboiler unfolds in an imaginary Middle East that has little to do with the real Middle East. Mind you, for the sake of cost-cutting, everything was shot on back-lot MGM soundstages instead of actual locations in the Middle East. American celebrity superstar Johnny Tyrone (Elvis Presley) has agreed to represent the U.S. State Department on a goodwill tour of the Arab nation of Babalstan. The Ambassador and he have arranged a premiere of his latest cinematic swashbuckling saga "Sands of the Desert," for a well-heeled audience of dignitaries and their dates. These misguided people actually believe that the on-screen Elvis hero is as formidable as the off-screen Elvis. Elvis relies on his considerable karate skills to dispose of a leopard that stands between him and a bound princess in the movie shown them.Oxford educated scenarist Gerald Drayson Adams had earlier written swashbucklers like "The Golden Horde," "The Desert Hawk," and "The Prince Was A Thief," so he knew all the right tropes to cover. He serves up clichés galore as our handsome, dark-haired hero accepts an invitation from sinister Prince Dragna (Michael Ansara of "Sol Madrid") to enjoy the hospitality of his older brother King Toranshah in Lunarland. Not-surprisingly, his fictional country is surrounded by rock formations know as the Mountains of the Moon. Predictably, U.S. Ambassador McCord (Hugh Sanders of "Mr. 880") is flabbergasted by Prince Dragna's gracious offer. "Johnny, this is a tremendous honor. Do you realize that you're the first American His Majesty, King Toranshah, has ever invited into his kingdom?" Dragna's date Aishah (Fran Jeffries) provides additional information for Johnny's benefit, "When you cross theMountains of the Moon into our country, Mr. Tyronne, you'll be stepping back 2,000 years. You will find the pageantry and beauty almost unbelievable." Strangely enough, the villains in Lunarland carry vintage World War II British sub-machine guns so 20th century smugglers must have penetrated its boundaries. No sooner has he flown over a rugged range of mountains and ridden on horseback through the wilderness does Johnny find himself drugged by the beautiful Aishah, abducted by the notorious Arab Sinan (a bald-headed Theo Marcuse), chief of a band of Assassins, and forced to assassinate King Toranshah (Phillip Reed) so Prince Dragna can negotiate oil deals. Of course, Elvis falls in love with Toranshah's daughter, the gorgeous Princess Shalimar (former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley), but he entangled himself in local intrigue with a con artist Zacha (Jay Novello) and his band of thieves. Long-time Elvis bodyguard Red West plays one of Sinan's henchmen. Naturally, the girls look sexy, the surroundings brightly lighted, and script about as serious as a comedy. Only the most die-hard Elvis fans will find this palatable, and the King warbles his way through this crap without a shred of credibility.

Harum Scarum (1965) * 1/2 (out of 4) Elvis plays an American singer in a foreign country is who is kidnapped by a group of assassins to kill an Arab leader but the singer has fallen in love with his daughter. You'd think putting Elvis in a foreign country would lead to something new but outside the visuals there's very little to enjoy here. The humor is very forced from the start and really doesn't go anywhere. The supporting cast are all rather lame and the stuff dealing with the assassination is just as boring and pointless. The songs are also rather bad this time out and after watching all these films in a row I can't help but feel sorry for Elvis because some of this music isn't good enough for karaoke night. There's one really ugly moment where Elvis sings a rather sexual song to a little girl so you've gotta think that perhaps the adult actress didn't show up that night and they threw this girl in without thinking about the lyrics of the song.