Nancy Travis Movie:

Harem Reviews:
THE HANDSOME BEDOUIN KIDNAPPS JESSICA, AND THE SULTAN WANTS HER TOO!
2009-08-22 - If you wish to get a glimpse of a Sultan's palace, and his harem of beautiful ladies, and see how they all lived, then this movie is just for you! It is a very romantic, sensual story, with lots of action, and adventure, and drama; men and women both, would like this movie! This movie also, has a all-star cast of outstanding actors: OMAR SHARIF as the Sultan; and AVA GARDNER as the Sultan's first wife!

This is a story about Jessica(NANCY TRAVIS); a innocent young woman, who is very beautiful and headstrong, and very spirited; who travels on a long journey, to the exotic land of the desert sands, with her father and fiance.

While traveling, Jessica is looking out the train window, when she sees this very handsome Turkish, Bedouin (ART MALIK), covered in flowing robes, riding a beautiful stallion, with a group of Turkish, revolutionaries, and they overtake the train, and one of the men sees Jessica, and tells the handsome Bedouin, (who happens to be their leader with a just cause) about how pretty Jessica is, and that they could trade her to the Sultan's harem, to help in their fight for freedom and to help save their men; while everyone knows the Sultan loves pretty women!

The men end up kidnapping Jessica, and the sparks fly when the handsome Bedouin, and Jessica meet. He is strongly attracted to Jessica, but Jessica is placed in the Sultan's harem, and she enters a new world, and the women of the harem teach Jessica how to please the Sultan, and how to behave in this beautiful, but very dangerous place; especially when the Sultan and his first wife hold life or death in the palm of their hand, and your life depends on what mood that they are in, and on whether they like you or not, or especially when they feel that you may be a serious threat to them!

When the Sultan finally sees Jessica, he is smitten, and then rumors start flying that he is ready for another wife! While Jessica's fiance is trying so hard to get her released; he then gets help from a very important lady that helps him find Jessica, and this lady also knows someone that can sneak into the Sultan's palace undetected, and that someone is that handsome Bedouin, who kidnapped Jessica in the first place, and he goes in disguise in the palace and falls in love with Jessica, and he risks his life to save Jessica and his men, Ladies! you will love Tarek's,(the handsome Bedouin's)compelling brown eyes, and his beautiful deep voice! And Guys! you will love Jessica's awesome beauty and courage!

I also loved the lavish beautiful clothes and robes, and the beautiful palace with those pools of water covered in rose petals! The music to this movie was perfect for it, and I highly recommend this movie!

Remember Me
2008-04-15 - For any woman who has experienced the love of a distant land and embers that continue to burn, this is a must see! I just wish it was on DVD already! That last scene, her last answer to his question....what woman wouldn't just love to be her in this movie? Been there...done it. Put this on DVD already!

fantasy!
2004-06-15 - This movie is nothing more than fantasy, not based on real facts. The only real thing would be the costumes. There is no revolution , love story or no palace on the top of the hill like the one I saw in this movie. Ava Gardner and Omar Shariff are great actor/actresses but they made the scenario to make them play like an ordinary actor/actress. The movie is one time watch just for curiousity. You might have fun if you watch it as a comedy because the story is ridicolous, does not reflect any reality from Ottoman Empire history.

A romance out of the past
2003-06-27 - I enjoyed this seemingly made for TV movie when I saw it back in 1990. I discovered afterward there was another movie with the title of Harem made the same year (1985-86) and starring Nastassja Kinski. That one was a bit darker, but also enjoyable.
I had already seen Nancy Travis, the starlet of this Harem, in the Richard Gere cop thriller Internal Affairs, and in a bit part in Married to the Mob, so at the time she was babelicious.
It's become a common plot, in these types of movies, to have a beautiful western woman kidnapped by a lustful or politically-motivated sultan or sheik (I think of the excellent The Wind and the Lion, the surreal The Sheltering Sky, then Sahara and a bunch of lesser movies). But Harem executes this plot well - you sympathize for Jessica, the character played by Nancy Travis, you want her fiance to rescue her, and yet you start rooting for her new Bedouin love interest and even feel for the tyrannical sultan, played by Omar Sharif.
Julian Sands plays Jessica's stiff Brit fiance, a turnabout from the dashing and impetuous young lover he played in A Room with a View. You wish he would be a stronger character, but he is so weak-kneed you understand Jessica's fickle betrayal.

Nice Cast, good sets..fun, but a little cheesy...
2003-04-16 - This film is fun to watch, with a good cast, nice costumes etc. but it is a little cheesy in so much as the plot is rather convoluted and stereotypical...but like I said, it's just for a fun watch. Worth buying!