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John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!

  • 19651965
  • 1h 36m
IMDb RATING
5.1/10
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John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
Comedy
During the Cold War, John Goldfarb (Richard Crenna) crashes his spy plane in the Middle East and is taken prisoner by the local government. His captor, King Fawz (Sir Peter Ustinov), soon di... Read allDuring the Cold War, John Goldfarb (Richard Crenna) crashes his spy plane in the Middle East and is taken prisoner by the local government. His captor, King Fawz (Sir Peter Ustinov), soon discovers that Goldfarb used to be a college football star. So he issues him an ultimatum: c... Read allDuring the Cold War, John Goldfarb (Richard Crenna) crashes his spy plane in the Middle East and is taken prisoner by the local government. His captor, King Fawz (Sir Peter Ustinov), soon discovers that Goldfarb used to be a college football star. So he issues him an ultimatum: coach his country's football team, or Fawz will surrender him to the Russians. Goldfarb tea... Read all
IMDb RATING
5.1/10
728
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • J. Lee Thompson
  • Writer
    • William Peter Blatty
  • Stars
    • Shirley MacLaine
    • Peter Ustinov
    • Richard Crenna
  • Director
    • J. Lee Thompson
  • Writer
    • William Peter Blatty
  • Stars
    • Shirley MacLaine
    • Peter Ustinov
    • Richard Crenna
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 37User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos13

    Shirley MacLaine and Richard Crenna in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Nai Bonet in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Nai Bonet in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Shirley MacLaine in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Shirley MacLaine and Richard Crenna in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Shirley MacLaine in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Shirley MacLaine in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Shirley MacLaine in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Shirley MacLaine and Peter Ustinov in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Shirley MacLaine and Nai Bonet in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)
    Nai Bonet in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Shirley MacLaine
    Shirley MacLaine
    • Jenny Ericson
    Peter Ustinov
    Peter Ustinov
    • King Fawz
    Richard Crenna
    Richard Crenna
    • John Goldfarb
    Jim Backus
    Jim Backus
    • Miles Whitepaper
    Scott Brady
    Scott Brady
    • Coach Sakalakis
    Fred Clark
    Fred Clark
    • Heinous Overreach
    Wilfrid Hyde-White
    Wilfrid Hyde-White
    • Mustafa Guz
    Harry Morgan
    Harry Morgan
    • Secretary of State Deems Sarajevo
    Patrick Adiarte
    Patrick Adiarte
    • Prince Ammud
    Richard Deacon
    Richard Deacon
    • Secretary of Defense Charles Maginot
    Jerome Cowan
    Jerome Cowan
    • Ambassadaor Brinkley
    Leon Askin
    Leon Askin
    • Samir
    David Lewis
    David Lewis
    • Stottle Cronkite
    Milton Frome
    Milton Frome
    • Air Force General
    Charles Lane
    Charles Lane
    • 'Strife' Magazine Editor
    Jerry Orbach
    Jerry Orbach
    • Pinkerton
    Jackie Coogan
    Jackie Coogan
    • Father Ryan
    Nai Bonet
    Nai Bonet
    • Specialty Dancer
    • Director
      • J. Lee Thompson
    • Writer
      • William Peter Blatty
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Notre Dame University got a court injunction to delay the release of this movie, claiming Twentieth Century Fox had "knowingly and illegally misappropriated, diluted, and commercially exploited for their private profit the names, symbols, football team, prestige, high reputation, and goodwill" of the university. After three months of court battles, the studio won out.
    • Goofs
      When Shirley first presents herself to the king she is fearful he will "make his move on her" so she dresses herself to be as undesirable as possible and throws herself on his bed. The next three shots have her legs crossed right over left, then left over right, them back to right over left in quick succession.
    • Quotes

      Jenny Ericson: What did he ask you to do?

      Mandy - Harem Girl: Ask? He didn't 'ask' me to do anything. He's the king.

    • Connections
      Referenced in I Spy: No Exchange on Damaged Merchandise (1965)
    • Soundtracks
      John Goldfarb, Please Come Home
      Music by John Williams (as Johnny Williams)

      Lyrics by Don Wolf

      Sung by Shirley MacLaine during the opening credits

    User reviews37

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Low-grade Humor and Subtle Satire; a Sexy Romp That's Hard To Forget
    Two sorts of minds watch "John Goldfarb"--"realists" who regard the movie as a satirical send-up of U.S. public-interest postmodernists, and "surrealists" who regard the surrealized Establishment in the U.S. as realistic and miss the movie's point. Since I am the leader of the first group, I regard "Goldfarb" as one of the funniest satires ever made. The behavior of Establishment types throughout the film is consonant with and nearly as inane as their real-life performances before or since 1965. The plot involves a man dogged by cosmic bad luck, John Goldfarb, dubbed "Wrong Way" by a female reporter after an unfortunate football play some years earlier. A U-2 pilot for the USAF, he meets the same reporter, while going the wrong way in a Washington building. He takes off on a secret mission over Russia, she is forced by her editor to take on an un-feminist assignment: to get the lowdown on girls being smuggled into a Middle Eastern harem, belonging to king Fawz of Fawzia. The third thread of the story is the need to placate oil-rich U.S.ally Fawz after our ambassador sends him pigskin luggage for his anniversary and his son is dropped from Notre Dame's football team, and complains the coach did it because he is Arab, not Irish. The three strands become a tangled knot when his instruments fail and Goldfarb lands not in Russia but in Fawzia, when his fuel runs out. And, of course, he is recruited by Fawz--to train an Arab football team that can defeat Notre Dame and avenge the insult to his son...Goldfarb tries to hold out, shows the King film of Notre Dame's powerful college squad but cannot dissuade him. The King then bribes him with a harem girl; he recognizes Jenny, the girl reporter; she is now trapped in the harem, having been told Fawz is too old for sex but having been singled out for attention by the lecherous king. He chooses her from among a group of eager dancers, to Fawz's displeasure; and they set up housekeeping in a room of the palace; every few hours, a golden toy train goes by, and Fawz asks, "Are you still happy with her?". This Goldfarb nominates (classically) as "dittahowatrola", since a victrola is playing on the train, while a camera snaps flash pictures and a penguin is carried by. He trains a team, finally, to get to go home. Of course they are a disaster--until he recruits Bedouin warriors as college students: "Our country right or wrong," he murmurs. Then it's the turn of the government which lost him in the first place to try to deal with his disappearance; they put ads in newspapers, "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home". And the State Department has to convince the head of Notre Dame to allow his team to play the Arab squad, no easy task. The game is played; and the party that precedes it and the game have become cinematic classics. This is a sexy, spirited and often intelligent romp with only the utter ineptitude of the U.S.'s State Department types as its parody element; it has marvelous satire of Republican governmental methods and sly jabs at every group concerned. Directed with style by J. Lee Thompson, the film boasts set decorations by Stuart A. Reiss and Walter M. Scott, lovely costumes by Adele Balkan, Edith Head and Ray Aghayan, bright cinematography by legendary Leon Shamroy, art direction by Dale Hennesy and Jack Martin Smith. The cast included Richard Crenna as the "crooked astronaut 'Wrong Way' Goldfarb, Pete Ustinov hamming delightfully as the King, Shirley Maclaine trying hard as a frigid girl reporter, Fred Clark, Harry Morgan, Jim Backus, Richard Deacon, David Lewis, and Milton Frome as the government hacks, plus Telly Savalas, Leon Askin, Jerome Cowan, Charles Lane, Jerry Ohrbach, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Patrick Adiarte as the Prince, Scott Brady as Notre Dame's Coach, Jackie Coogan as the University's beleaguered Chancellor, Angela Douglas, Nai Bonet, Irene Tsu and Sultanna as harem girls and now-familiar actors in smaller roles. The film has a fun situation, color, laughs and pretty girls. When Fred Clark pulls the pin on a place destroyed by a cobalt bomb and wonders, "Thulia Oman?", we know we are dealing with a realistic portrayal our state department. Music by John Williams, state department types named Subtle Overreach and Miles Whitepaper--this may be Hollywood but it's as near as the latest headline.
    helpful•20
    8
    • silverscreen888
    • Sep 14, 2005

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 24, 1965 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Ta't lungt shejken!
    • Filming locations
      • Edwards Air Force Base, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Orchard Productions
      • Steve Parker Productions
      • Twentieth Century Fox
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $4,000,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 36 minutes
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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