
Elvis Presley In The Movies
Thirty one scripted features and a pair of concert films; that’s the sum total of Elvis Presley’s cinematic legacy The most enduring highlights—Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole—are bunched together tightly in his pre-Army years. Elvis’ natural charisma was undeniable, those soundtracks were filled with classic rock and roll. The immediate post-Army flicks Visually had a few nice moments, a hit or two to anticipate.
Midway through the ’60s Presley’s films had become anachronisms full of instantly forgettable ditties, yet they pulled in enough coin to ensure that Colonel Parker wasn’t about to let his golden goose—now thoroughly sanitised for the drive-in circuit—avoid his movie commitments (he wasn’t doing Concerts). Cranking out three fluffy films a year was no way to achieve quality, but that was the schedule Presley often adhered to until decade’s end.
Producer Hal B Wallis gave Elvis a screen test on April Fools’ Day of 1956 in Hollywood, an incendiary lip-synch of Blue Suede Shoes. Less than two weeks earlier, Presley’s first RCA Victor single, Heartbreak Hotel, had settled into the top spot on the pop hit parade. Wallis wasted no time, signing Elvis to a Paramount contract on April 6.
However, he loaned Presley to 20th Century Fox for his 1956 film debut, Love Me Tender. Originally written as a Civil War drama entitled The Reno Brothers, it was renamed to cash in on the title ballad (it’s unlikely that pseudo-rock and roll such as We’re Gonna Move and Poor Boy were sung in the early 1860s, but such is fictional license). Despite Presley dying at the end, it was a major hit, its title theme his fifth and final pop chart-topper that year.

Back at Paramount with producer Wallis and filmed in eye-popping Technicolor, 1957’s Loving You came closest to mirroring Elvis’ own climb to stardom. Deke Rivers, a guitar-toting, hip swivelling hillrod, lands himself a glamorous manager (Lizabeth Scott, a lot easier on the eyes than Col. Parker) and blasts out the rocking Mean Woman Blues, Hot Dog, Got A Lot Of Livin’ To Do and Party with Presley’s actual band (guitarist Scotty Moore, bassist Bill Black, and drummer D. J. Fontana) behind him. The film’s (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear proved Elvis’ third #1 seller of the year. The romantic title theme on its flip also went Top 20.
Darker in atmosphere than its predecessor, Jailhouse Rock, which came out later that year (Wallis produced it for MGM this time), cast Presley as a bad boy rocker who learns his trade in the joint. He hits it big after his release from stir and acquires a big head to go with his stardom. In this movie not only are Presley’s real-life bandmates back, but they’re joined by pianist Mike Stoller, who along with Jerry Leiber contributed Treat Me Nice and (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care to the soundtrack. Presley’s dance moves on the title production number were spectacular. The Leiber / Stoller-penned Jailhouse Rock was another chart-topper; its flip Treat Me Nice went Top 20.

1958’s King Creole, Presley’s last film prior to entering the military, may have contained his finest work as an actor (director Michael Curtiz brought out new dramatic dimensions in him). Integrating a narrative set in the seamier sections of the Big Easy with blazing rockers (the snarling Trouble, Dixieland Rock, New Orleans, the title tune) displaying Dixieland overtones, the film benefitted from a top-flight supporting cast (including tough guys Vic Morrow and Walter Matthau and gangster moll Carolyn Jones, who dies in Elvis’ arms). The storming Hard Headed Woman, another highlight, was Presley’s second and final pop chart-topper that year.

A more family-friendly Elvis emerged upon his Army discharge, and his films quickly fell into a formulaic routine. First up was G.J. Blues, an enjoyable if slight I960 Paramount cash-in on Presley’s recent military endeavours in Germany. He chases leggy dancer Juliet Prowse when he’s not belting out Shoppin’ Around, the title track, and a remake of Blue Suede Shoes. Scotty and D.J. are visually as well as aurally back on board. RCA dropped the ball on the Germansounding ballad Wooden Heart; it was an overseas smash, but stateside it wasn’t a single, opening the door for Joe Dowell’s soundalike cover to top the pop charts.

Presley’s ongoing aspirations as a dramatic actor led him to drop two of the proposed songs from Flaming Star, out just in time for Christmas of I960. Future Dirty Harry director Don Siegel was hired to helm the Western, which for the first time wouldn’t spawn an accompanying soundtrack album because the rousing theme song, supplied by veteran ASCAP songscribes Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards, was all Elvis cut for the film.
Wild In The Country, Elvis’ first film of 1961, was another potboiler that was nearly as short on musical content. As aspiring author Glenn Tyler, Presley delivered a handful of forgettable numbers, including the title item, that were tossed onto vinyl as B-sides or album tracks. Elvis sang the sole rocker, I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell, to Millie Perkins while piloting a pickup truck. The film’s relative lack of success meant Presley’s dramatic ambitions would be put on the back-burner in favour of innocuous musicals presenting him in variations of the same role.

Elvis’ fate was sealed by the mammoth response to his other film of ’61. Blue Hawaii was the prototype for most of his subsequent flicks: exotic locales, frothy plots, lots of songs (many of them throwaways), and Elvis pursuing several lovelies while working a menial gig that gave him plenty of time to sing. This Norman Taurog- directed smash spawned the immortal ballad Can’t Help Falling In Love, a #2 pop smash, and its zippy hit flip Rock-A-Hula Baby. Angela Lansbury portrayed Presley’s mom despite being less than a decade older in real life.
Follow That Dream, Presley’s first movie of 1962, wasn’t as glamorous. He was cast as a member of a nomadic family, travelling the backroads of Florida in an antique car, that sets up camp on the side of a road. There was only room for four songs; the title track made it to #15 pop off the soundtrack EP, but never saw release as a single. For the second Elvis flick in a row, Howard McNear, beloved as Floyd the barber in The Andy Griffith Show, graced the cast.

Elvis as a pugilist? In 1962’s Kid Galahad he steps into the ring, emerges victorious, and retires to a peaceful life as a mechanic with his looks intact. His co-stars included flinty Charles Bronson and the lovely Lola Albright, voluptuous girlfriend of TV private eye Peter Gunn. Director Phil Karlson had some formidable noir films under his belt by the time he took on this project. Only six songs graced the soundtrack EP; King Of The Whole Wide World, a pretty fair rocker, went Top 30 without benefit of a ingle release.
Leiber and Stoller had been excommunicated by the Colonel from contributing to Elvis’ soundtracks, but they slipped back in with the title cut of Girls! Girls! Girls!, a ’62 remake of a Coasters single that the duo had produced the year before. Presley’s raucous version benefitted from a blistering sax solo from Boots Randolph. The film was again set in Hawaii, with Elvis cast as a fishing guide with romantic entanglements. Return To Sender, the other great rocker in the film, soared to #2 in the pop charts late that year. It was penned by R&B songscribes Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell (the latter wrote Presley’s seminal smashes Don’t Be Cruel and All Shook Up).

MGM took advantage of a major happening in Seattle, filming some of It Happened At The World’s Fair there. Presley’s first 1963 movie didn’t have a lot going for it other than the scenery, a cute little girl, and the Blackwell/Scott-penned charmer One Broken Heart For Sale, which just missed the pop Top 10. Future matinee idol Kurt Russell made his film debut as a boy who kicks Elvis (this time portraying a cropdusting pilot) in the shin.
Then it was south of the border for Fun In Acapulco, despite Presley being persona non grata in Mexico due to riots that had broken out in the wake of King Creole and G.I. Blues. The exteriors were done without him and much of the soundtrack should have been as well, considering the puerile You Can’t Say No In Acapulco and (There’s) No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car. Only Bossa Nova Baby, a zesty cover of a Leiber / Stoller gem originally performed by Tippie and the Clovers, was worthy of Elvis’ golden pipes, crashing the pop Top 10. This time the gorgeous Ursula Andress was Elvis’ love interest.

Producer Sam Katzman knew how to film on the cheap. He’d been in charge of a slew of low- budget horror, sci-fi, and noir flicks as well as Rock Around The Clock and Don’t Knock The Rock, and he brought that miserly mindset to Kissin’ Cousins, Elvis’ first celluloid offering for 1964. It starred two Elvises, one with blonde hair, supposedly cousins in a feather-light tale set in the Smoky Mountains but mostly filmed in southern California. The soundtrack LP held two title themes; the better one didn’t miss the Top 10 by much. Katzman didn’t care that Presley stunt double Lance LeGault’s face was clearly visible in one fight scene.

The incendiary Viva Las Vegas restored Presley to cinematic form. The sizzling chemistry between Elvis and co-star Ann-Margret had a lot to do with it, as did the race car sequences (Presley’s character Lucky Jackson drove one) and the improved music. Although there was plenty for a full-length LP, RCA only issued an EP and a single of the blazing title theme that went Top 30, penned by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and featuring Billy Strange’s lightning guitar (the flip, a revival of Ray Charles’ What’d I Say, actually did a bit better).

Raquel Welch made her uncredited film debut in 1964’s Roustabout, which co-starred Barbara Stanwyck as the owner of a carnival where Elvis’ character Charlie Rogers works after losing his singing gig. No hits ensued from the extremely successful soundtrack album, though Presley’s reading of Leiber and Stoller’s humorous Little Egypt (another Coasters revival), a storming Hard Knocks, and the sardonic rocker Poison Ivy League hit the spot.
Elvis opened 1965 with Girl Happy, a spring break romp that unfolds on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale as nightclub singer Rusty Wells keeps a protective eye on the daughter (Shelley Fabares) of his mobster boss Harold B Stone. The melodic ballad Puppet On A String cracked the Top 15 late in the year, though the rollicking title theme (allegedly sporting a sped-up vocal) and The Meanest Girl In Town were the best things on the soundtrack LP.

Tickle Me saved Allied Artists from bankruptcy. Elvis is a singing rodeo star working at a ranch that’s a fitness salon for nubile lovelies. There was apparently no budget for fresh songs, so director Taurog dipped into Presley’s back catalogue for enough quality stuff to fill a charting EP, Leiber and Stoller’s Dirty, Dirty Feeling, Pomus and Shuman’s Night Rider, and the sensuous Put The Blame On Me among them. Blackwell and Scott’s mellow (Such An) Easy Question, first out as a 1962 LP track, became an #11 pop entry thanks to its belated movie exposure. Its grinding five-year-old flip It Feels So Right dented the hit parade too.

Katzman was back in charge for Elvis’ last movie of 1965. That meant while Harum Scarum was set in the Middle East, it was filmed in Hollywood to save scratch. Presley was a singer (there’s a stretch) who cavorts with slave girls and a princess while delivering the script-appropriate Harem Holiday (not as bad as it sounds) and Shake That Tambourine.
Trying to recapture the magic ol Blue Hawaii, Presley was dispatched back to America’s 50th state for his first film release of 1966, Paradise, Hawaiian Style, introduced as a singing helicopter pilot. Alas, it wasn’t of the same calibre either as a movie or musically, with no hits on a full-length soundtrack album sporting certified dreck such as Queenie Wahine’s Papaya (sung to a gaggle of cute children) and A Dog’s Life (crooned inside a ’copter full of canines, with Elvis nearly receiving a nasty nip on the hand).

The lethal tale of Frankie And Johnny inspired a great blues by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928, but just an okay Elvis movie 38 years later. He had the pleasure of co-starring with Beverly Hillbillies sexpot Donna Douglas in the period piece, set on a 19th Century riverboat (Presley portrayed a singing gambler). The swaggering title track, complete with King Creole-style Dixieland horns, and its ballad flip Please Don’t Stop Loving Me both charted.
Presley donned his race togs again for Spinout, his last film for 1966. He was a singing driver, with three women vying to marry him. Shelley Fabares was one; she’d co-starred in Girl Happy and had her own ’62 chart-topper with Johnny Angel. The slinky title track and its dreamy flip All That I Am both flirted with the Top 40. Stop, Look And Listen, from the soundtrack LP, was a Rick Nelson retread, but I’ll Be Back rode an engaging strut.

The flagwaving theme song of 1967’s Easy Come, Easy Go was one of the best things about the last movie Wallis would produce for Presley, cast this time as a singing deep sea diver. Scotty and D. J. were still hanging in there as session sidemen, even if their appearances in the movies ended long before. Six songs were assembled on a soundtrack EP, but titles like Yoga Is As Yoga Does and The Love Machine helped consign it to obscurity.
Poor Elvis was forced to sing Old MacDonald as one of the eight tunes in Double Trouble. He reportedly let his displeasure resonate all over the recording studio. As singer Guy Lambert, he dodged trouble from a couple of dames while touring Europe. Elvis’ sound was updated on the soundtrack LP, crunchy rock guitar adorning the rollicking Long Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On), a minor hit, and bouncy brass decorating the title theme.
The old identity switch plot defined Clambake, Elvis’ last film of 1967. As the rich heir to an oil fortune, he trades places with a Florida waterskiing instructor to see what normal life is like. Fabares returned for her third tour of duty. Seven songs, including a stately rendition of the country evergreen You Don’t Know Me, were fattened into a soundtrack album by adding some non-film gems, including Jerry Reed’s scorcher Guitar Man.
So underwhelming were the three songs written for 1968’s Stay Away, Joe by veteran Presley songscribes Sid Wayne and Ben Weisman that RCA didn’t bother to release them to hype the movie. Two were offloaded to budget albums; Dominick was so awful that it was buried for decades on Elvis’ strict orders. The comedy they hailed from was no bargain either, with Presley cast as a Navajo rodeo rider.
For the third time on film, Presley jumped behind the wheel of a race car in Speedway. Nancy Sinatra was the IRS agent hot on his trail (things turn romantic between the pair). Despite both sides of a single pulled from the flick (Let Yourself Go and Your Time Hasn’t Come Yet, Baby) making minor chart noise, the album was a relative stiff (Nancy had a solo song on the set. Your Groovy Self), signalling the imminent end of Elvis’ movie soundtrack run.
Things got bizarre in Live A Little, Love A Little, Elvis seemingly trapped in a drug-induced pipe dream just prior to staggering through the endless production number Edge Of Reality. Fortunately, 1968 was the year his career would be revitalised thanks to his amazing comeback TV special. A Little Less Conversation, written by Billy Strange and newcomer Mac Davis, was the film’s best song; it barely squeaked into the charts at the time, but a radical remix of a version Elvis did on his TV special ended up being a worldwide smash in 2002.
1969 saw Elvis finally star in a movie with no musical sequences. Charro! was a tough Western drama, with Presley taking on a role Clint Eastwood reportedly turned down. Strange and Davis supplied the theme song, played under the opening credits (Hugo Montenegro was in charge). Presley’s fans were nonplussed by the movie’s lack of music and mostly stayed home.
Set in 1927 Iowa, The Trouble With Girls had Elvis managing a barnstorming Chatauqua troupe unwittingly harbouring a murderer in its midst (what happened to lighthearted scripts?). At least there was space for a little music: Clean Up Your Own Backyard, another Davis / Strange collaboration, made a #35 pop impression that summer.
Elvis’ last appearance on film as someone other than himself came before year’s end when he teamed up with three supremely sexy actresses, Mary Tyler Moore, Jane Elliot, and singer Barbara McNair, in Change Of Habit. Talk about bizarre casting: Elvis portrayed a young inner city doctor, and Mary and Barbara were nuns (thus the title pun). Though this was a heavy urban drama, four Presley songs were squeezed into the plot, notably Rubberneckin’.
Presley was back all the way by 1970, performing at sold- out stadiums just like the old days. Elvis: That’s The Way It Is contained rehearsal footage and some performance clips from other venues, but the bulk of its 108-minute running time came from his August 1970 shows at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Backed by an ensemble that included lead guitarist James Burton, Elvis roared through his primordial Sun Records classics That’s All Right and Mystery Train as well as his recent comeback triumph Suspicious Minds.
Presley’s movie career concluded in 1972 with the documentary Elvis On Tour. Clips from episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show and interview interludes were interspersed with performance footage from a Southern concert tour Presley did in April of ’72 that went a little heavier on fresh material: Polk Salad Annie, Never Been To Spain, Proud Mary, and his smash Burning Love. The King was rocking to the end.
THE END
It is a quote. VINTAGE ROCK PRESENTS – ELVIS COLLECTORS EDITION 2015