Lost in a Harem
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| Lost in a Harem | |
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 Lost in a Harem Theatrical Poster |
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| Directed by | Charles Reisner |
| Produced by | George Haight |
| Written by | Harry Ruskin John Grant Harry Crane |
| Starring | Bud Abbott Lou Costello Marilyn Maxwell Murray Leonard |
| Music by | David Snell |
| Editing by | George Hively |
| Distributed by | MGM Studios |
| Release date(s) | August 31, 1944 (U.S. Release) |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | In Society (1944) |
| Followed by | Here Come the Co-Eds (1945) |
| IMDb profile | |
Lost in a Harem is a 1944 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.
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[edit] Plot
When a traveling vaudeville show becomes stranded in the Middle East, their singer, Hazel Moon (Marilyn Maxwell), takes a job at a local cafe. Two of the show's prop men, Peter Johnson (Bud Abbott) and Harvey Garvey (Lou Costello), are hired as comedy relief, but their act unfortunately initates a brawl. The two men, along with Hazel, wind up in jail, where they encounter Prince Ramo (John Conte), a sheik, who offers to help them escape if they agree to help him regain the throne which his Uncle Nimativ (Douglass Dumbrille) had usurped with the aid of two hypnotic rings.
After escaping jail, Peter and Harvey join Ramo and his desert riders, and hatch a plan to have Hazel seduce Nimativ, as he is quite vulnerable to blondes. Once Nimativ is distracted, Peter and Harvey plan to retrieve the hypnotic rings to facilitate Ramo's reclamation of the throne.
Peter and Harvey enter the capital city, posing as Hollywood talent scouts, and meet up with Nimativ. He is quickly enamored with Hazel and manages to hypnotize Peter and Harvey, who then reveal their plans. They are imprisoned, while Hazel is hypnotized into being one of Nimativ's wives. After Ramo helps the boys escape, they enlist the aid of Teema (Lottie Harrison), Nimativ's first wife, by promising her a movie career. Harvey then disguises himself as Teema, while Peter dresses up as Nimativ. They manage to steal the rings during a large celebration and turn the rings against Nimativ, who abdicates the throne. Ramo again becomes ruler, with Hazel as his wife, and the boys return to the United States.
[edit] Production
Lost in a Harem was filmed from March 22 through June 3, 1944, mainly using leftover sets from the 1944 production of Kismet.
Despite the fact that this MGM Pictures was filmed before In Society for Universal Pictures, it was released at a later date. (It is also the second of three films that Abbott and Costello made on loan to MGM Pictures while under contract to Universal, the other two being Rio Rita and Abbott and Costello in Hollywood).
[edit] International Reaction
- This film was banned in Morocco, and Syria required that it be edited before it could be shown there.[1]
[edit] Routines
- In this film, Abbott and Costello perform the famous "Slowly I Turned" routine. They are in the cell with the derelict (Murray Leonard) and the trigger word is Pokomoko.
[edit] DVD release
Although filmed for MGM Pictures, Warner Brothers currently owns the rights and it is through them that this film was released on DVD.
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[edit] References
- ^ Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 978-0-399-51605-4
