Wholly Moses!

Wholly Moses! is a 1980 American Biblical spoof film written by Guy Thomas. Dudley Moore plays Old Testament-era idol maker Herschel, whose life and adventures seem to parallel that of the more famous Moses, all the while being misled to think he is the prophet of God. The film also stars Laraine Newman, James Coco, Paul Sand, Jack Gilford, Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, David Lander, Richard Pryor, and John Ritter.

Wholly Moses!
Film poster by Jack Rickard
Directed byGary Weis
Produced byFreddie Fields
Written byGuy Thomas
StarringDudley Moore
Laraine Newman
James Coco
Paul Sand
Jack Gilford
Dom DeLuise
John Houseman
Madeline Kahn
David L. Lander
Richard Pryor
John Ritter
Music byPatrick Williams
CinematographyFrank Stanley
Edited bySidney Levin
Color processMetrocolor
Production
company
Columbia Pictures
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • June 13, 1980 (1980-06-13)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12 million gross = $14,155,617

Plot

Harvey and Zoey, two tourists travelling through Israel, discover an ancient scroll describing the life of Herschel, the man who was almost Moses. Herschel receives the command from God to free his people from Egyptian slavery, but Moses keeps blundering by and taking all the credit. Several other biblical stories, such as Lot and his wife, David and Goliath, and the miracles of Jesus, are also parodied in this story of the life of a man trying to follow the path to God, but somehow always seeming to lose his way.

Cast

Reception

The film received poor reviews.

Because of a production hiatus imposed on their television show by WTTW, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel did not review the film on Sneak Previews upon its initial release. Of the film, Ebert wrote in print:

One of the things that makes "Saturday Night Live" funny is that it's on television, so we're supposed to be slightly scandalized by its irreverence. It takes on sex, religion and politics, subjects that were out of bounds during TV's early years, and so cloaks itself in a fashionable daring. We laugh at some of the stuff not so much because it's funny as because it's on TV at all.

Proof of this is a very bad new comedy named "Wholly Moses!" which is the first feature film by "Saturday Night" director Gary Weis. The movie depends for its effect on the kind of shock value the TV show has, and it seems to he under the impression that that's enough. It kids the Old Testament, it has angels with wings that fall off, its narrator says things like "He sat her upon her ass", and we're expected to laugh.

I didn't. The movie's not funny on its own, and since movie audiences are scarcely going to be shocked by its mild but relentlessly repetitive irreverence, it all boils down to a very old joke. The screenplay is third-rate college humor, a "satire" that doesn't dare really satirize its alleged source, a newly discovered Dead Sea scroll, since the audience might not have heard of the Dead Sea scrolls, and so tries for laughs instead with one of the oldest gimmicks in the book: dressing people up in Biblical costume and having them speak in contemporary terms.[1]

In another print review, Siskel wrote,

Mention "parody of biblical movies", and anybody can name about nine tenths of the jokes in "Wholly Moses!", an all-too-familiar comedy that proves the adage, "Never go to a film with an exclamation point in its title." (The Beatles' "Help!" being a possible exception.) "Wholly Moses!" is similar to Monty Python's "Life of Brian", released last year, which parodied the life of Jesus amid cries that it was blasphemous. "Wholly Moses!" is a satire of Moses' life and is unlikely to arouse similar protest. It's just not that biting.[2]

When the film was released on DVD, John Sinnott of DVD Talk echoed Siskel's comparisons:

It is incredibly obvious that this movie was meant to cash in on the popularity of The Life of Brian. Brian was made just the year before this was released, and received rave reviews for the most part. So instead of doing a parody of the New Testament, the creators of this movie decided to spoof the Old Testament. But they got it all wrong. The jokes are bad, the setups lame and the laughs nonexistent. The script is so bad that I can't imagine how the project ever got green lighted. My own theory is that this movie is the result of a game of Truth-or-Dare that got terribly out of hand.[3]

In a guest review for Entertainment Weekly regarding the same DVD release, and that of another film starring Moore, Crazy People, Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the film a D grade, describing the film as a "wholly unfunny comedy."[4]

Five orthodox Jewish groups protested the film for mocking their religion.[5]

Wholly Moses currently holds a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on seven reviews.[6]

Production
  • Producer Freddie Fields hired Phil Silvers for one of several small cameo roles, but his only scene was cut from the final film.
  • Between scenes during filming on stage at the Burbank Studios, Dudley Moore entertained the cast and crew with improvised piano interludes.
  • On the final day of shooting, Richard Pryor, who was signed to do a one-day shoot as the Pharaoh, didn't show up. With production at a complete standstill, frantic calls were made. There was even some talk of replacing him with Cleavon Little. Several hours later that afternoon Pryor finally appeared but then refused to play the scene as written with a trained lion by his throne.
gollark: _considers automatically checking biomes periodically_
gollark: They're normally regular?!
gollark: If only we had data to work from...
gollark: Well, I've seen more aeons and actually caught a copper again, but no silvers/golds.
gollark: I blame the new release for the lack of golds.

References
  1. Ebert, Roger (1980-06-16). "Wholly Moses!". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  2. Siskel, Gene (1980-06-16). "'Wholly Moses!': One more bland Bible parody is lost in the reeds". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
  3. "Wholly Moses : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  4. Ty Burr (2004-07-16). "Crazy People; Wholly Moses! Review | Movie Reviews and News". EW.com. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  5. Lee, Grant (July 9, 1980). "ORTHODOX JEWS PROTEST 'MOSES'". Los Angeles Times. p. h2.
  6. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wholly_moses


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