Sacré Moïse

Just speaking personally, this viewer would agree with one other review here: the material in this star-packed parody is amusing if never terribly funny. Screenwriter Guy Thomas and director Gary Weis have their hearts in the right place, but too many of the jokes fell flat and the movie became somewhat boring as a result, which is compounded by the fact that it's slowly paced and goes on a little too long. Now, that's not to say that there aren't some great moments, because there are. They just happened to mostly occur in the second half, so there was a bit of a wait.

Dudley Moore and Laraine Newman star as Harvey and Zoey, two tourists taking in the sights of the Holy Land who go off on their own and explore a nearby cave, where they find an ancient scroll. Harvey is able to translate it, so he spends the balance of the movie relating it to Zoey: it's the story of Herschel (Moore again), son of a slave named Hyssop (James Coco), who has many travels and at one point becomes a brother in law to Moses! When God entrusts Moses with the mission of freeing the Jews in Egypt from bondage, Herschel spends most of the movie thinking the request was directed at him. He meets many characters on his journeys: an Angel of the Lord (Paul Sand), a tailor (Jack Gilford), Shadrach (Dom DeLuise), an Archangel (John Houseman), a witch (Madeline Kahn), a beggar (David L. Lander), a pharaoh (Richard Pryor), and the Devil (John Ritter).

It's the earnest efforts of this capable comedy cast that make "Wholly Moses!" worth sitting through. This viewer personally found the appearances by DeLuise, Houseman, Pryor, and Ritter particularly delicious. There are also some little gags worth noting, such as when a character is turned into a pillar of salt, and Hyssop scrapes some of the salt into his food. The scenery and widescreen photography are gorgeous, and the production design / art direction / set decoration team certainly do their jobs well; the movie has a good look. In addition to the famous faces (also including Andrea Martin as Zipporah), the cast features some top notch character actors: Richard B. Shull, William Watson, Sandy Ward, Brion James, and Michael Champion. Walker Edmiston, who'd provided the incredibly creepy vocalizations for the Zuni fetish doll in the final segment of 'Trilogy of Terror', does the voice of God.

With so much talent assembled here, it's too bad this couldn't have provided more laughs. It's watchable but is never as hilarious as one might wish.

Five out of 10.

Released the year before The History of the World: Part One, Dudley Moore took his own crack at a biblical spoof: Wholly Moses! In it, a group of modern tourists are being bused through Israel, and during a lunch break, two of them (Dudley and Laraine Newman) wander off and come across an ancient scroll telling the tale of a man who lived through Biblical times but wasn't included in any text. Parts of it are really funny, like when Dudley does all the classic things Moses did in the Bible - but not really. He thinks he parted the waters, but really someone else dammed up the river with boulders. He thinks he can cure the blind and lame, and when he comes across a beggar with both afflictions, he declares his intention to fix his ailments. The beggar is faking it to get money from the townspeople, so when Dudley pokes his eye, he exclaims, "What are you trying to do, blind me?" Everyone is impressed because he can "now" obviously see. Other parts aren't that great, as it's easy to imagine the screenwriters just thought the jokes were funny while sitting around the table or rehearsing. Some jokes are milked too much, and if you don't like anachronistic humor, you don't stand a chance at laughing.

I thought James Coco was very cute as Dudley's father and devoted slave. You'll see tons of familiar faces in the supporting cast, from cameos to larger parts: Richard Pryor, Dom DeLuise, Jack Gilford, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, Paul Sand, and John Ritter. You can give it a shot, and if you laugh at about fifty percent of the jokes, you'll probably enjoy it. If you can't stand it after about twenty minutes, it won't get any better for you.

The other reviewer obviously has no sense of humor. This is satire at it's funniest. Before her wedding, her sister told her that she and her Hershel would do what sheep do in the field. So, Zorelda went "baaaa" to her new husband. When Hershel found her in Sodomm, in her room were a pair of the giant's shorts hanging to dry...the size of a picture window. When Zorelda is turned into a pillar of salt, Hershel carries her around, then introduces her to his father, who immediately covers her with a cloth so his daughter-in-law won't get chipped. Richard Pryor as Pharroh is hilarious. And so is John Ritter as the Devil. And we even have a barbershop quartet clad in red and white striped togas. This is a fine cast of award-winning actors and actresses, and it's well worth your time to see it.

This film is for people with different tastes. I actually like this movie. In fact it's the only film I like of Dudley Moores. (RIP) It has a couple amusing moments, maybe not laugh out funny, but the comedy is restrained. Anyway I do recommend this movie for a Saturday afternoon, sort of along the lines of Abbott and Costello.

7 out of 10. I liked it.

This was a cute movie. That's about all I really can say for the movie itself. It was witty without being clever. It was amusing without being downright funny. It was neither cutting edge nor creatively inspired (George Burns starred in Oh, God! in 1977). But after nearly thirty years of being preached at (The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille in 1956, and on and on), it was nice to be able to sit back and laugh about something most people get totally uptight over.

From this release in 1980, we received Mel Brooks's, "History of the World, Part One." Now I'm not saying that Brooks copied this, or ripped it off. It is obvious that he did not do either of those. These are two totally different movies about different issues.

Wholly Moses is about Moses's "brother," Hershel (an invention) and is set during Biblical times. History of the World Pt1 is just that: a very witty take on the ancient history of the world. While sometimes they do cross paths, they never run completely parallel.

While I absolutely LOVE HotW1, I still enjoy watching Hershel dork his way through life.

If you enjoyed History of the World, you may enjoy this one.

It rates a 4.8/10 from...

the Fiend :.