Kim Newman wrote in
The Monthly Film Bulletin : "Occasionally, a movie is so perversely ill-conceived that one begins to suspect that something like the cinema equivalent of vanity publishing is responsible for the production. Here, an incredibly diverse group of variously talented players are gathered together in a prop-filled room to shout at and fall over each other in the service of a script that seems to be patterned remotely on ''
You Can't Take It with You''. Tony Curtis mugs energetically in the lead, and manages to be exhaustingly unamusing, while the various supporting actors range from the ludicrously miscast (Donald Pleasence as a kilted,
Rabbie Burns-quoting Scot) to simple token presences (Vladek Sheybal as a mysterious magician, totally unconnected to the plot)."
Variety wrote: "Ludicrous beyond belief,
Where Is Parsifal? is one of those pictures that makes one wonder how it got made at all. Frenetic, pathetic comedy has spun out of control even before the main titles are over, and commercial potential is nil. Structurally, film is a variation on ''You Can't Take It With You'', except screenwriter Berta Dominguez D (who also acts under the name of Cassandra Domenica) forgot to put in any funny lines. ... Henri Helman has directed as if in desperate imitation of the 1960s comedy styles of
Clive Donner or
Joseph McGrath. Actually, Ron Moody does get off some self-contained moments as a Prussian aide-de-camp, the score by
Hubert Rostaing and
Ivan Jullien is attractive and the production looks decent. But it's a fiasco from start to finish." == Preservation status ==