HARUM SCARUM

What do you think?

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:00 am, edited 6 times in total.

The album peaked at number 8 the week of January 1, 1966.

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

That is an awesome, hilarious bit of research. Have a nice holiday, HoneyTalkNelson.

If individual sales are down, release more product: November 6, 1965

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:00 am, edited 2 times in total.

You Won't Believe It When You See It!

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sat Dec 08, 2012 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Bringing the Big Beat to Bagdad

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sat Dec 08, 2012 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Not everyones favourite film, not even the colonels, but a great post nonetheless HoneyTalk Nelson, I would definatly vote it a turkey

Thanks, Chris.

I just enabled the voting option. Please cast your official vote!

Thanks, Chris.

I just enabled the voting option. Please cast your official vote!

Just have and at this time, my vote, the only vote, makes it 100% a turkey

Give it time, Chris, give it time.

It ain't no big thing yet, but it's growing!

The New York Times review:

December 16, 1965
Presley Shares Billing
VINCENT CANBY.

"SOMETHING terrible is about to happen" mutters an inscrutable, English-dubbed Japanese actor early in "Ghidrah, The Three-Headed Monster," and during the next three hours his prophecy comes only too true.

It is hard to imagine a more perfect blending of witlessness than this double bill of "Harum Scarum," the latest Elvis Presley vehicle, and "Ghidrah," an all-star Japanese monster film, which opened yesterday at the New Amsterdam and 20 other neighborhood theaters. Elvis is prettier than Ghidrah, and has two fewer heads, but both characters are definitely the products of the special effects departments.

Mr. Presley wanders through the improbable whimsies of "Harum Scarum" with all the animation of a man under deep sedation, but then he had read the script, which has to do with a Hollywood star, a mythical Arab kingdom and some oil rights. Every line of dialogue sounds like a song cue, and about every other one actually is.

"Ghidrah" at least provides a smile or two as it lurches and lunges through a veritable anthology of Japanese monster picture plots. The film brings together for the first time those heroes of earlier Toho films: Rodan, a surprisingly limp-looking supersonic bird; Godzilla, a scaly, rubbery dinosaur, and Mothra, a huge plastic caterpillar not yet come of age as a butterfly.

Their climatic battle with the three-headed Ghidrah, here making his film debut, is a kind of marathon battle of Japanese miniatures, a grunt-and-groan struggle where much of a tiny mockup of Tokyo is laid waste.

This fascination, on the part of contemporary Japanese film makers, with the destruction of their land by fantastic, prehistoric forces only 20 years after Hiroshima, might be of interest to social historians. The film, otherwise, is strictly for the comic book set.

Cool post!

Harum or Harem?

Cool post!

Harum or Harem?

I would go with the official domestic advertising: Harum

Mary Ann Mobley remembers: http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/intervi ... bley.shtml

mmmmmm tiger

Entertaining thread! I voted for Tiger cause he's the Tiger Man!!

Don't talk smack on Ghidrah. I love that three headed cheapo menace to society.

Harum Scarum was more a return to normal sales as opposed to a decline. The 300,000 was about par for the course after 1962 with Girl Happy and Roustabout sort of anomalies with their gold status.

Does Elvis kill that tiger or is it another type cat he slays with his bare hands in HS?

It's kind of the craziest premise for any Elvis movie. They kidnap Elvis because he slays the big cat in a movie!!!! It's in a movie and everyone thinks it really happened. And Johnny Tyrone never thinks to say "Um, you know I'm an actor and what an actor is pretend to do stuff." Apparently, Johnny works for a company without SPCA approval.

When Elvis entered RCA's studio B in Nashville on February 24, he would certainly have seen a copy of the February 20 issue of Billboard. The second page had an ad for his new single.

"This Diamond Ring" topped the HOT 100 charts while "Beatles '65" was number one in albums. ROUSTABOUT, in its 15th week on the chart, had dropped to number 10.

When filming began at MGM in Culver City on March 14, GOLDFINGER was doing tremendous business in its 11th week in Los Angeles. HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE was the big new hit in Memphis.

Smalltown exhibitors were still singing the praises of VIVA LAS VEGAS and ROUSTABOUT and the Theatrical Advertising Co. in Detroit was selling 1,000 8x10 photos for $15.00.

What do you think was going through his mind at this time?

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

When Elvis entered RCA's studio B in Nashville on February 24, he would certainly have seen a copy of the February 20 issue of Billboard. The second page had an ad for his new single.

"This Diamond Ring" topped the HOT 100 charts while "Beatles '65" was number one in albums. ROUSTABOUT, in its 15th week on the chart, had dropped to number 10.

When filming began at MGM in Culver City on March 14, GOLDFINGER was doing tremendous business in its 11th week in Los Angeles. HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE was the big new hit in Memphis.

Smalltown exhibitors were still singing the praises of VIVA LAS VEGAS and ROUSTABOUT and the Theatrical Advertising Co. in Detroit was selling 1,000 8x10 photos for $15.00.

What do you think was going through his mind at this time?

Maybe something like this.

Nirvana, "I Hate Myself And Want To Die" The Beavis And Butt-head Experience (Geffen GEF 24613, November 1993)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beavis_and_Butt-head_Experience
http://www.livenirvana.com/digitalnirvana/discography/nirvana/beavis-butthead.html

"You won't believe it when you see it" was at least honest

Moviegoers in the UK were treated to this 30x40 poster outside the cinema when HAREM HOLIDAY opened in Great Britain on December 26, 1965.

In the meantime, domestic audiophiles could purchase the new soundtrack on 7-1/2 IPS reel to reel tape.

But not all was well as HARUM played around the country in the first half of 1966. Exhibitors were noticing a drop in quality and ticket sales were not up to par. Some complained that his movies were now being shown on TV. The following two network broadcasts had occurred since the new Fall season began in September, 1965:

GI BLUES – 11/9/65 – Tuesday, NBC – rating 20.4
GI BLUES – 4/12/66 – Tuesday, NBC – rating 21.3

Ironically, the upcoming Fall season would see the premiere of the following five features:

KISSIN' COUSINS - 10/23/66 - Sunday, ABC – rating 22.3
BLUE HAWAII - 11/29/66 - Tuesday, NBC – rating 27.3
IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD'S FAIR - 1/1/67 - Sunday, ABC – rating 21.5
Girls Girls Girls/Fun in Acapulco re-issued to theaters in January.
FLAMING STAR - 1/18/67 - Wednesday, ABC – rating 16.9
WILD IN THE COUNTRY - 3/15/67 - Wednesday, ABC – rating 21.1

In the meantime, the assembly line was moving full speed ahead. FRANKIE AND JOHNNY was announced for an Easter release and PARADISE, HAWAIIAN STYLE was due in June.

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:02 am, edited 3 times in total.

HARUM finally had its network debut on October 24, 1968. Elvis was next seen in prime-time when "Singer Presents Elvis" aired on December 3, 1968.

It was shown again the following March 14, two days after filming commenced on CHANGE OF HABIT.

HARUM SCARUM - 10/24/68 - Thursday, CBS – rating 19.9
HARUM SCARUM – 3/14/69 – Friday, CBS – rating 18.1

This data illustrates the unusual significance of this film. The two network airings bookend the Singer special and the American Sound Studios sessions in Memphis.

Last edited by HoneyTalkNelson on Sun Nov 25, 2012 1:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for the fun posts. We're talking about my youth here. I bought the Harum Scarum LP around the same time as Rubber Soul. I was 14 when I saw HS in the theater and I thought it was great. I still like the soundtrack but it isn't his best music.

My friend saw it on its opening weekend at the 3,200 seat Loew's theater in Jersey City. He said it was a big crowd that had fun and laughed with the film, not at it.

I watched that October 24, 1968 CBS broadcast. As a young fan, I enjoyed it but it certainly made that December 3 opening even more powerful. To go from "Harem Holiday" with Billy Barty running around slot machines to "If you're looking for trouble..." was jarring, to say the least!

Here are some comments from Variety, October 7, 1965: Presley’s Performance Lacked Spirit

"If Presley were any more relaxed, Perry Como and Bing Crosby would have to retire, but he gets into the general spirit of things and he’s Elvis. With anybody but Elvis Presley to gun possibilities this would be a pretty dreary affair at the box-office. Elvis, however, apparently can do no wrong—even if producers do manage—and ‘Harum Scarum,’ which suffers from a lack of imagination in providing star with a substantial showcase but enabling him to belt out eight song numbers, will probably meet with response similar to Presley’s past entries.

Presley breaks out in song in unexpected places—viz, awakening from being drugged launches into a number while surrounded by flock of bosomy beauts—but no matter, audiences will get the voice they love in the type of melody they’ve come to expect from him. One of the numbers, ‘Harem Holiday,’ is reprised, and ‘Go East, Young Man,’ carries a romantic flair.”

Always cool to see the old ads. Too bad about the film and music though.