Sixties Cheesecake Dance No. 12

PLEASE READ THIS - Here is the wonderful multiple bellydancer sequence from "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home" (1965), featuring Shirley McLaine in a quasi-bellydance routine. In this lame farcical comedy, two Americans, a female reporter (Shirley McLaine) and a pilot (Richard Crenna), are trapped in a desert kingdom and are conspiring to help the Arabian chief's football team beat Notre Dame, with the assistance of the CIA. Notre Dame found this spoof so offensive they sued in court.

The film was directed by J Lee Thompson, who also directed "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), and the original "Cape Fear" (1962). Peter Ustinov played the zany Arabian chief, and Wilfred Hyde White is great as the Arabian chief's principal advisor. Terri Garr has a small role as a harem girl and that's James Brolin struggling with the spicy stuffed mongoose. The two featured bellydancers are Sultanna, who appears first, and Nai Bonet, who follows.

The writer of this turkey, was William Peter Blatty, who wrote both the novel and screenplay of "The Exorcist" (1975).

I am always looking for new ideas for this series. If you have any suggestions please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• sixties
• cheesecake
• dance
• john
• goldfarb
• please
• come
• home
• shirley
• mclaine
• richard
• crenna
• william
• peter
• blatty
• lee
• thompson

[RockSalami]

This isn't lameturkeycheesecake, it's fun and with beautiful women. Get fit, and stop eating turkey cheesecake.

[pwgr2000]

Of course it's fun, that's why I've included it in this series. You are dead wrong if you are defending the artistic merits of the film.

"The film was a critical failure and earned back only $3,880,000 of its $4 million budget." - Wikipedia

"... this hodgepodge of political satire, horseplay and hoochy-koochy girls... not only makes Notre Dame look foolish in a familiar low-comedy way but it also demeans the prestige of movie humor and, indeed, of the human race." NY Times

[impCaesarAvg]

I recognized Richard Deacon, Harry Morgan, and Jim Backus. I didn't see Jerry Orbach. Is he in this clip?

[pwgr2000]

I didn't see him. Maybe some other viewers will have sharper eyes.

[djmbm100]

Raquel Welch and Teri Garr are amongst the harem girl dancers

[pwgr2000]

You are correct about Terri Garr but I would like to know the source about the claim that Raquel Welch was also a dancer here. If you have spotted her please give us a time reference. IMDb does not mention this film in her filmography and the very comprehensive Wikipedia biography does not mention her work on this film as one of the steps in the develoment of her career.

[nergvol]

A pleasant inspiration for "Ishtar".  Teri Garr is the best.

[GoblinXXX]

Cheesecake is about the only thing they haven't tried making out of turkey, yet.  I'm sure it's coming.

[bebetigre12]

Anyone know who the dancer in green skirt is ?

[vegasbob007]

@bebetigre12 If you look at the movie again they actually had another Belly Dancer in a green skirt that was not show like Nai Bonet and Sultanna were.

[VicDeHaven]

@pwgr2000 Once again the NY Times looks like a horse's ass. I LIKE "... this hodgepodge of political satire, horseplay and hoochy-koochy girls...", and maybe Notre Dame and a few other similar entities need to be fun of a lot more often. Parody and humor are all that I have to keep myself sane these days.

(of course I know the NYT article was written decades ago)

I like art - but without humor, they can stick it where the sun don't shine :) ):)

[VicDeHaven]

@pwgr2000 Thanks for posting this.

I loved this movie when I first saw it (I always had a crush on Shirley Maclaine) decades ago and now I want to show my friends that missed it.

Now I am on my way to finding a copy.

You don't have a copy to post somewhere do you??

VicDeHaven

[bebetigre12]

I love this movie for the beautiful costumes and two fab dancers. Love the music that follows their undualtions ,better than the mechanical bump and grind stuff u see today.Some of the background dancers looked like pros also.