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• The Tao of Elvis

  • Liv Pooleside
  • 7/22/11

  Seems to me that this one is the Holy Grail of Elvis movies. Elvis was much better than this. But he deserved this, too. The monster giveth, and the monster taketh away. My favorite musical segment is when he appears in a pool of blue water and sings about carpets with intricate patterns. And about wall hangings. Serious. There is some fantastic drumming behind the feast belly dance number, credited to the director(?) on the movie soundtrack album. I've played with middle-eastern drummers, and this is the best fake darbuka playing ever. I think it's on a bongo. If it really is Gene Nelson playing it, it's a talent not revealed in his WikiPedia profile. The little orphan girl does an amazing job of dancing like Ann Margret, considering the fact that she has none of the equipment. She dances better than Ann Margret, come to think of it... Elvis carries So Close yet So Far Away (the prison song) through the power of his eyebrows. He was really good at faking stuff. Billy Barty as BaBa does a lot of gags that scream for a laugh track. Without the laugh track they are quite surreal. Practically every scene is riveting, mostly because you can't believe what you're seeing. Elvis dancing around in green harum pants? Got that. The three female dancers are at their best when they slip over the wall of the palace. I've never seen any sexier wall-slipping-over in any movie. There's a lot of color in the movie. The evil ones wear black. My only disappointment is that Col. Parker didn't get the talking camel he wanted.

• Harum Scarum Loved It!

  • Elvis Fan
  • 1/7/10

  Any movie that featured Elvis was wonderful. He had a wonderful singing voice and will always be remembered by his fans. Happy 75th birthday.

• Harum Scarum (1965)

  • James Higgins
  • 12/27/09

  Wow, this is hokey even for an Elvis film. Very poor art direction, the songs aren't very memorable, the acting is poor, the costumes are gaudy. It's amusing, mostly when it shouldn't be. But it does have Elvis and the lovely Mary Ann Mobley.

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