The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age
In November 1965 MGM released "Harum Scarum". In North America and Canada the motion picture yielded rental fees of 3.1 million USD, which means it made 6.2 million USD at the box office. Today (using the factor 15) it would have earned MGM 46.5 million USD and would have grossed 93 million USD.
In Germany the movie started on July 8, 1966. It was named "Verschollen Im Harem" which can be translated to "Lost In The Harem".
After the premiere of his latest movie "Burning Sands" the singer and actor Johnny Tyronne (Elvis) is kidnapped by Sinan to kill Toranshah, king of Lunarkand. But Johnny escapes, discovers the conspiracy of prince Sinan and falls in love with princess Shalimar.
Sam Katzman (producer), Gene Nelson (director), Gerald Drayson Adams (script), Fred Karger (music), Fred H. Jackman (camera), Ben Lewis (editor).
Elvis Presley (Johnny Tyrone), Mary Ann Mobley (Princess Shalimar), Fran Jeffries (Aishah), Michael Ansara (Prince Dragna), Jay Novello (Zacha), Philip Reed (King Toranshah) und Theo Marcuse (Sinan). The German voice of Elvis was dubbed by Joachim Ansorge.
After "Girl Happy" Elvis' contract with MGM had run out, but of course the management of the studio was keen to continue because the Presley flicks still made as much money as they used to do back in 1961. So they offered a deal of three more motion pictures, each one paid with a fee of $750,000 and a profit share of 40%, reduced of the fee. Because everybody knew that Elvis was sick and tired of the musicals the deal was topped off with a bonus of $250,000 (to be paid by weekly installments of $1,000) just for signing the contract. Translated to the present (once again using the factor of 15) the king was to receive 33.75 million USD for three movies plus a bonus of 3.75 million USD for his agreement to sign. On top of that came the profit share of 40%. If that made the king another million per movie back then, it would be a total of 45 million today. It's safe to say that this contract would be worth at least 82.5 million USD today!
Back in 1965 "Harum Scarum" was budgeted with 2.4 million USD, including Elvis' fee of $750,000 and the bonus of $250,000. So in total Sam Katzman just had 1.4 million USD to make the movie. To save money he did without building new backdrops and using old ones instead. The temple complex had originally been build in 1927 (so it was almost 40 years old when "Harum Scarum" was made) for the movie "The King Of Kings", most costumes had been made for a picture named "Kismet" and had been stored for twenty years. Even the dagger Elvis used was one of the items originally made in 1939 for "Lady Of The Tropics". Of course the production time was also kept to a minimum, the whole thing was made between March 15th and April 19th. A few scenes were shot at Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, but most of the work was done at the MGM Studios in Culver City.
According to Priscilla Presley Elvis considered the script a joke, Johnny Thyronne (his character) a fool and the songs disastrous. Even Colonel Parker, who usually only cared for the payment of his client, wrote a letter to MGM in which he ironically assumed only a 55th cousin of P.T. Barnum could sell a product like this. To me these reactions are somewhat strange. MGM had paid Elvis well for starring in lightweight musical comedies and now offered even more money for three further pictures. Did Presley and Parker really expect the studio to switch to arthouse movies? Besides that, it was the Colonel himself (with the approval of his client) who had insisted on keeping the budgets down. They wanted easy money, signed the contracts and were whining about the results. Bloody stupid! By the way, Parker was wrong about the problems to sell "Harum Scarum". The movie was as successful as most of the Elvis movies of the past five years.
In November 1965 RCA Victor released a soundtrack album. It made it in the top 10 of Billboard's album charts and sold 2.5 million copies. A tap on the cover leads to the review.
Warner Brothers released "Harum Scarum" in August 2024 as part of their "Warner Archive Collection". Tap on the cover for a short review.
"Harum Scarum" looks as cheap as "Tickle Me", but it's less entertaining, the songs are much worse and the boredom of the principal actor is all too obvious.
Movie Posters (C) MGM, DVD Cover (C) Warner Brothers, Record Cover (C) RCA Victor