Orchestra as Themselves Production Lost in a Harem was filmed from March 22 through June 3, 1944, mainly using leftover sets and costumes from the 1944 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production of Kismet. Abbott & Costello filmed Lost in a Harem for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer before they made In Society for Universal, but it was released afterwards. It is the second of three films that Abbott and Costello made on loan to MGM while under contract to Universal, the other two being Rio Rita and Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra perform several musical numbers, the first of which backs Maxwell singing What Does It Take early in the film. Douglass Dumbrille's character's name, "Nimativ", is "vitamin" spelled backwards. International reaction This film was banned in Morocco, and Syria required that it be edited before it could be shown there. Routines In this film, Abbott and Costello perform the "Slowly I Turned" routine with Murray Leonard. Here the trigger word is Pokomoko. In this film, Abbott and Costello also perform their routine from episode 6 of The Abbott and Costello Show, "invisible friend". The invisible friend's name in this film is Mike. In this film, Abbott performs a brief version of the "Mirror Routine" used by many comedians from the silent film era onwards. In general, two different people think they are viewing their mirror image with one of them suspicious of that fact and trying to trip-up the "image" into demonstrating that it is another person. Abbott performs the routine with Douglass Dumbrille. Home media Warner Bros. released the film on DVD along with Abbott and Costello in Hollywood as a double feature-disc on November 21, 2006. See also List of American films of 1944 References External links 1944 films 1944 comedy films American comedy films Abbott and Costello films American black-and-white films Films directed by Charles Reisner Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films