Dudley Moore plays Old Testament-era idol maker Herschel, whose life and adventures seem to parallel that of the more famous Moses, all the while being misled to think he is the prophet of God.

Harvey and Zoey, two tourists travelling through Israel, discover an ancient scroll describing the life of Herschel, the man who was almost Moses.

Because of a production hiatus imposed on their television show by WTTW, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel did not review the film on Sneak Previews upon its initial release.

Of the film, Ebert wrote in print: One of the things that makes "Saturday Night Live" funny is that it's on television, so we're supposed to be slightly scandalized by its irreverence.

It takes on sex, religion and politics, subjects that were out of bounds during TV's early years, and so cloaks itself in a fashionable daring.

It kids the Old Testament, it has angels with wings that fall off, its narrator says things like "He sat her upon her ass", and we're expected to laugh.

The screenplay is third-rate college humor, a "satire" that doesn't dare really satirize its alleged source, a newly discovered Dead Sea scroll, since the audience might not have heard of the Dead Sea scrolls, and so tries for laughs instead with one of the oldest gimmicks in the book: dressing people up in Biblical costume and having them speak in contemporary terms.

[2] In another print review, Siskel wrote: Mention "parody of biblical movies", and anybody can name about nine tenths of the jokes in "Wholly Moses!