I have seen the movie, many years ago, and enjoyed it. Had a great cast, and it was a group of actors strong enough to overcome any serious script problems. My main interest is in the producer, Steve Parker. He and I share the same name.The first time I went to Japan was in 1979. When I would tell people my name, they would all react as if they'd seen a ghost. I wondered why, until one local finally told me, "Oh, Steve Parker very famous in Japan. He's married to Shirley MacLaine!".Little did I know that was perhaps the reason I was treated rather courteously and deferentially throughout my trip. However, having been to Japan more than 20 times now, either for the automobile business or for visiting the Buddhist shrine Taisekiji at the foot of Mt. Fuji, I find the Japanese people treat most visitors, especially those from western countries, very well.Also, the current generation of Japanese people in the age group of 20 -30 or so are not as familiar with "that" Steve Parker as their parents. So while I sometimes get a nod of recognition from some older Japanese now when I introduce myself, it is nowhere as serious or 'ceremonial' as it was 25 years ago! Read more about car movies, Japan and the worldwide auto industry at www.SteveParker.com (no news there about Shirley MacLaine!).And if anyone can tell me where to find more information about "that" Steve Parker, please email me at [email protected]. It would be greatly appreciated!

Without doubt one of the worst movies ever made, and considering that the others up there in the top ten were all rank amateur efforts (like Ed Wood) and JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME was a major studio release that's saying something. When I was a kid I used to go to just about every Shirly McLean picture from ARTISTS AND MODELS on. Her career had a few more star turns left in it before she became a character actress but any thought of Richard Crenna (of whom I was also a big fan) becoming a leading man stopped right here. The most notable thing about this stinker was that it engendered one of the great publicity coups of all time. Realizing that they had an unreleasable mess on their hands, Twentieth Century Fox somehow contrived to have football powerhouse the University of Notre Dame sue to keep John Goldfarb from being released. It became a cause celebre and when it did open three months later the houses were packed to see what all the fuss was about. What they found was infantile drivel. JOHN GOLDFARB reeks of being a 'good idea' and if one were to recount the plot it sounds like the basis for a funny comedy. A CIA U2 pilot (think Francis Gary Powers) comes down not in Russia but in Arabia. The king there is smarting because his son didn't make the football team at Notre Dame and inveigles the State Department, in exchange for returning the pilot and his plane, to make Notre Dame send their team to Arabia to play his son's pick up team. A great idea to develop after one too many bourbons along with the boys at a poker table but in the harsh light of day it should have been clear that there was no place to go in the development of the plot. Instead they pressed on and just did a lot of stupid things that people who have no sense of humor but remember stuff from other films think is funny. Since they were funny when they first saw them then they must just be funny in an absolute sense. I mean we've all seen Curly be magnificently funny in the Three Stooges films but would doing his act in a story driven comedy like this be funny? Since Peter Ustinov as the king acts like a drooling idiot from the start there's no where to go with that act. Don't believe that stuff that its merely political correctness that has caused this meretricious piece of crap to go around with a bell warning one and all that it is unclean, but the fact that it is like making Jell-o with sewer water that makes it unappetizing and odoriferous. But see it to see just how jaw droppingly unfunny a comedy can be.

I remember seeing this movie when I was like 10 and I thought it was just hilarious. It wasn't until recently that I discovered this site and am now trying to hunt down a copy (hopefully on DVD.) I mean, just look at the cast!Shirley MacLaine, Peter Ustinov, Richard Crenna, Harry Morgan, Carl Reiner, Jim Backus, Richard Deacon, Telly Savalas, James Brolin, Kent McCord and Teri Garr? My lord is she old enough to have played a harem dancer back in 1965? Now, throw in William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist) and the composer John Williams. Are you kidding me? What was probably considered as total crap back in '65, would today be a campy, cult, comedy classic. If nothing else, it would be fun to watch just to catch glimpses of fallen stars or (would be) future stars in something I'm sure they all would just as soon forget, and would hope that no one else would ever see. Seriously, If I'm like Craig Kilborn or Conan O'Brien or Jon Stewart and one of those stars appeared on my show I would surprise them with a clip from this old madcap farce. I also find it hysterical that Notre Dame (who's football team is depicted in this film) tried in vain to keep it from being released. Classic!

I saw "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home" today hoping to see a funny Richard Crenna/Shirley Maclaine film. I was not disappointed. It was the absolute epitome of the '60s, made right in the middle of the decade. The music, done by a young "Johnny" Williams simply managed to reinforce this notion. The opening/ending theme, sung by the lead actress, had an Arabian sound to it, fitting enough. The movie takes place when it was made, in the middle of the Cold War. As it begins, a US ambassador to the nonexistent Middle East country of Fawzia (strangely similar to Saudi Arabia) has just sent the Sultan, a toy train obsessor with a golden golf cart and a harem, pigskin luggage, which just so happens to offend the Muslim. Therefore, the Americans intend to do everything they can to appease him. They didn't count on two things, though: John "Wrong Way" Goldfarb, all-American football star and U2 pilot, and Jenny Ericson, reporter for STRIFE magazine, who intends to get inside the sultan's harem and report on it. Meanwhile, Goldfarb gets lost (big surprise) and crash lands in Fawzia. There are all sorts of crazy complications involving Goldfarb, the reporter (and concubine), and the sultan's would-be football player son, who attended Notre Dame college. It all culminates in an insane football game between Notre Dame and the Fawz U team. If you miss it, you're missing something out of this world. Of course, if you deplore '60s comedies, you might wanna steer clear. Maclaine and Crenna are great together, and Ustinov as the eccentric sultan is brilliant. For all its insanity, I loved it.