Herschel (Dudley Moore) is an idol maker who ends up on the mountain with his brother-in-law Moses is getting a message from God. Herschel thinks God was talking to him and heads to Egypt with his wife Zerelda (Laraine Newman) to free his people in bondage. This is rough stuff and I don't think a single joke worked. Director Gary Weis got big directing for SNL and this proves the cast on that show may have been the sole reason for its success. I tried to think of a joke to use as an example, but there are all so terrible. Okay, here you go - Zerelda asks her sister what to do on her wedding night and she says, "You do what the sheep do in the fields." So that night Hershel comes in, blows out the candles and in pitch black we hear her go, "Baaaaah." Yikes! They apparently thought this joke was so riotous, that it is repeated two more times in the next scene.
Poor Moore was coming off the smash success of 10 (1979) when he started this. According to an article in Variety, 10 came out on October 5th and Moore signed onto this for 30 times his salary on the Blake Edwards film and started filming October 22nd. Hey, nice work if you can get it. He tries but his charm can only go so far. Lucky for him, he rebounded with Arthur (1981). If the film has any redeeming feature, it is there are a ton of cameos from folks like Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, David "Squiggy" Lander, John Ritter, and Richard Pryor. But they are all wasted in their bits too (Pryor probably literally). Example: DeLuise's one-scene cameo involves him running into Hershel in the vast desert and they have a "let's do lunch" type Hollywood talk. Wah, wah, waaaaah. There is a modern day wrap around with Moore and Newman as American tourists in Israel who discover a scroll that allows them to tell the story. This plus Moore's narration makes me think it was added later by the studio to help. It didn't. The big comedy gag in the modern footage is that Moore's character gets his head stuck in the tour bus door...twice. Ouch!
Poor Moore was coming off the smash success of 10 (1979) when he started this. According to an article in Variety, 10 came out on October 5th and Moore signed onto this for 30 times his salary on the Blake Edwards film and started filming October 22nd. Hey, nice work if you can get it. He tries but his charm can only go so far. Lucky for him, he rebounded with Arthur (1981). If the film has any redeeming feature, it is there are a ton of cameos from folks like Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, David "Squiggy" Lander, John Ritter, and Richard Pryor. But they are all wasted in their bits too (Pryor probably literally). Example: DeLuise's one-scene cameo involves him running into Hershel in the vast desert and they have a "let's do lunch" type Hollywood talk. Wah, wah, waaaaah. There is a modern day wrap around with Moore and Newman as American tourists in Israel who discover a scroll that allows them to tell the story. This plus Moore's narration makes me think it was added later by the studio to help. It didn't. The big comedy gag in the modern footage is that Moore's character gets his head stuck in the tour bus door...twice. Ouch!