Year: 1965
Director: Gene Nelson
Country: US
Language: English
At age 30, Elvis Aaron Presley had hit a low point in his Hollywood film career with Harum Scarum no thanks to interference by his money hungry manager Col.Tom Parker. In addition, MGM put Harum Scarum in the hands of producer Sam Katzman, director Gene Nelson, and writer Gerald Drayson Adams. This grand trio was responsible for the flop that was Kissin' Cousins a year earlier.
American singer Johnny Tyrone (Elvis Presley) is enlisted by sinister forces to assassinate an Arab king whose daughter he has fallen in love with.
Elvis' nineteenth picture had an unfortunately predictable outcome. Elvis was actually enthusiastic when he arrived at the studios to start filming, but once he saw what he was in for he felt a blow of instant regret. This was partly due to the comedic script, as The King would have loved to be seen as a mature actor. In addition the studio execs felt this was a paint by the numbers picture. One exec quipped "Elvis' movies don't need titles; they could just be numbered!"
At first the Sheik character seemed like a Rudolph Valentino role, but as the film progressed Elvis seemed to be more of a joke. If you want to know how seriously this was taken, note that Harum Scarum was double billed with Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster. Elvis himself was prettier than the monster, but even his signature ballads couldn't help the frightening box office numbers.
A spoof of the arabic-adventure genre, perhaps much of the film's failure was that the "spoof" part was not immediately obvious. The script was pretty damn poor and the attempt at humour was a joke in itself. Overall this is certainly one of Elvis' worst.
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