Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Bjorn (ODDBear) Perhaps I was in a very forgiving frame of mind but "Harum Scarum" went down pretty well. Widely regarded as one of the King's worst offenders and he was disappointed with the results as he thought (before reading the finished script) that this would be a welcome change of pace from his established formula. The scenery is a breath of fresh air (though we all know it's MGM's back lot for the most part) and the film has a bit more of a plot than usual; although it's very clumsily handled. The comedy bits are fairly lackluster and the action is rather stiff but the film moves along well with few to no lulls. Elvis has a strong presence but he really doesn't strain himself too much and he receives little support from his fellow co-stars; though Billy Barty (most memorable as J.J. MacKuen from "Foul Play") does induce a few chuckles without a line of dialog. The songs range from pedestrian to very good ("Kismet" and "So Close (Yet So Far) From Paradise") and the girls, as almost always is the case with Presley films, are quite the eye candy. "Harum Scarum" is not good but it's breezy enough entertainment for fans of Elvis that's not quite as bad as it's reputation suggests. I'd choose this over "Stay Away, Joe" any day of the week.

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.

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.

capnpisslog Elvis returns, this time he is slightly weathered, quite a bit more lethargic, and desperate to escape his captors. But, his captors are not the oil paint smeared Arabs, nor the fairly innocuous women that surround him. His captors are much bigger than one motion picture could possibly describe. They are the entire industry he has found himself immersed in. They are the money-hungry culture vultures that readily devour a popular figure like him until he is but a bloated pasty corpse. This film shows them as they are through their sinister machinations. They can be seen with invisible marionette string as they force Elvis to march around in costume, as they prod him with sharp knives into doing little lackluster dances that turn into morose forced marches across the barren tundra of his once mighty career. This is not the Elvis of folklore, nor is it the Elvis that will return one day and save us from mediocrity. This is the dry Elvis, milked fully, udders raw, yet ever sedated. The Elvis that might have died on the screen in front of your eyes and you might have not even noticed it. Don't let the bright lights and forced smile fool you. It is your duty to lament this vision before you, because it is an ugly one.