Wholly Moses

Two American tourists travelling in Israel, Harvey and Zoey, come across an old scroll in a cave near a souvenir stop. Harvey, a professor of oriental languages, translates it and finds the story of Herschel, a man whose life ran alongside that of Moses. Herschel believes God is speaking to him and telling him to lead his people out of slavery, but the credit and the glory keep going to Moses instead. The scroll follows him through a series of mishaps set against well-known biblical episodes, with Herschel repeatedly ending up on the wrong side of events.

Wholly Moses is a 1980 American comedy directed by Gary Weis, his second feature after the 1973 documentary Jimi Hendrix. Guy Thomas wrote the screenplay and Freddie Fields produced it for Columbia Pictures. Dudley Moore plays both Harvey in the framing story and Herschel in the scroll, with Laraine Newman as Zoey and Zerelda. The credited cast of 39 includes James Coco, Paul Sand, Jack Gilford and Dom DeLuise.

The film runs 103 minutes and took about 14 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 4.8 from around 2,400 votes, and on TMDB 4.7 from roughly 40 votes, placing the two measures close together.