Wholly Moses! (1980)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

Gary Weis

Writer:

Guy Thomas

Stars:

Dudley Moore, Laraine Newman, James Coco

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dudley Moore	...	Harvey Orchid / Herschel
Laraine Newman	...	Zoey / Zerelda
James Coco	...	Hyssop
Paul Sand	...	God's Angel
Jack Gilford	...	Tailor
Dom DeLuise	...	Shadrach
John Houseman	...	The Archangel
Madeline Kahn	...	The Witch
David L. Lander	...	The Beggar
Richard Pryor	...	Pharaoh
John Ritter	...	Satan (The Devil)
Richard B. Shull	...	Jethro
Tanya Boyd	...	Princess
William Watson	...	Bandit
Sam Weisman	...	Talent Coordinator

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

moses | reference to god | reference to jesus christ | richard pryor | independent film | 

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Taglines:

The story of Herschel. He wanted to be Moses...but he didn't have the right connections.

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy | History

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 June 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Oh, Moses!

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Zoey: Hey everyone. My husband is going to do God now. He just met him. He's doing God.

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Connections

References West Side Story (1961)

User Reviews

You have this movie to thank for Mel's, "History of the World: Part One!"

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 :.