Abenteuer im Harem

The review dated 21 May 2000 is indeed amazing. The reviewer states that he never cared for Bud and Lou. Well, dear reader, I sure hope that y-o-u never waste your time on a topic that you have no interest in. Profit from Ron's time-wasting and do what you enjoy. This film, which may be a step-up, budget-wise, may also be a step down in content, to some. It is definitely a product of its time and audiences of World War II couldn't get enough of Abbott & Costello. If you enjoy big band music, the idea of Jimmy Dorsey's band will excite you. To see one of the era's prettiest women, Marilyn Maxwell, this is a fine showcase. Just as every Bogart film isn't CASABLANCA, every A & C film isn't MEET FRANKENSTEIN. But this one will do ...

Lavish (by their standards) production values, tuneful music (Jimmy Dorsey and his band contribute a lot to that), and some chucklesome routines, but the story is too repetitive: A & C get captured by the evil sheik, escape, get captured, escape....and so on. Pokomoko! **1/2 out of 4.

Mildly amusing A&C. Moving over to big-budget MGM means bigger production values than usual. And some of the Middle-East cityscapes are really impressive. The boys are helping the prince of the realm (Conte) regain the throne from the evil usurper Nimativ (Dumbrille). Needless to say, their help is a lot funnier than effective. The sketches are okay but the connecting narrative is flatter than usual. And too bad we don't see more of the harem than the pudgy little keeper who looks a lot like Costello—a funny bit.

Actually, my favorite part is the frenetic dance routine imaginatively set to the exotic strains of Scheherezade—the long scarves flying fast and furious. Surprisingly, we don't see much of Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra, despite their featured billing. At the same time, there's the lovely Marilyn Maxwell who mostly gets to stand around and look blonde.

Some of the funnier parts—pretending to be Hollywood talent scouts to get the harem girls on their side, the derelict (Leonard) doing his "Slowly I turn…" bit that usually ends with Costello looking like a pretzel, and the invisible man routine that turns Costello into a janitor. Anyway, it's a peppy 90-minutes and if not among their best, at least it has its share of laughs.

This was always one of my favourite A&C's, and as a previous commenter stated, definitely their best for MGM! Imho their best period overall was with Universal during WW2, but this is on the same level and the generally higher production values more than compensating me for the loss of that special Universal atmosphere. It only came about because MGM wanted to re-use the sets from the film they'd just made of Kismet with Ronald Colman, so John Grant set about writing a pastiche version for the duo.

At Port Inferno in Africa Bud & Lou are travelling magicians Garvey & Johnson but only making a living thanks to the alluring insistence of the top star Marilyn Maxwell; they all get ravelled up in young Prince Ramo's attempts to overthrow the throne of his wicked uncle Nimativ (full of vitamins one supposes). On the way they also get ravelled up in many of A&C's wacky routines including Don't say Tin, a bit of piffle-diffle, the classic Pokomoko sketch, Lou trying to sleep with a mouthful of beard, and my favourite the Hi Mike sketch – poor devil: shot to death twice, once with a knife! Douglas Dumbrille played Nimativ perfectly as a despot with a human side, even wanting to take Maxwell as wife no. 38. Maxwell had a great song with What Does It Take, while Jimmy Dorsey and his Orch. unfortunately dressed as Arab tribesmen had a couple of interesting well staged and photographed numbers. I wonder if the scenes would have been condemned by todays professional critics if someone like Louis Armstrong (and his Orch.) had been ridiculously togged up thus instead of Dorsey?

For the fan there are many entertaining scenes, some snappy smart ass dialogue going on and the film is a toe-curling pleasure from start to finish; please refer to commenter no. 1 from 2000 if you're not a fan and have as much time to kill as he did.

Lost In A Harem is one of the best Abbott & Costello films for 3 reasons: One, unlike most of their films in the 1940s which were produced at Universal Studios (and available on DVD in a Universal set), this one was done at MGM with that studios usual higher production standards, including a few spectacular musical numbers. Two, it is one of only about a dozen filmed appearances of big band great Jimmmy Dorsey, who performs, with his band, a number called John Silver ("15 men on a dead man's chest") which I haven't found elsewhere, and a few other songs. Three, the "Pokomoko" routine ("Slowwwwly I turned, step by step I crept upon him . . .") is done to perfection by A&C with Murray Leonard as the Derelict, which I've always remembered as one of my favorite A&C routines since I was ten years old. Furthermore, there's a real live giant (Lock Martin), full costumes and exotic sets as you would expect from MGM, a magic skit by A&C, hypnotism, a fine performance from Douglas Dumbrille as the bad guy, and more good music. I would rate it below Abott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, In The Navy, In Society, The Naughty Nineties, and perhaps 3 or 4 others, but definitely in their top ten or twelve. But since it's not in the Universal set, it's not available on DVD anywhere.