Steineded
How sad is this?
XoWizIama
Excellent adaptation.
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Fleur
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
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'turkeys' that Presley made.The whole Arab love affair is so predictable and the simplistic hero villain dimension is outdated and predictable.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.
Hotwok2013
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).
Michael_Elliott
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.
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.
