Elvis Presley: The Movies - Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Bink, Aug 22, 2021.

  1. Ah thanks. Too bad they couldn’t figure out a place for Scatter ;)

    I normally don’t have an interest in these kind of things but I thought it was kinda neat when this model of the dune buggy was issued:

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Here’s a pic of the actual dune buggy with the camera mounted off the front:

    [​IMG]
     
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  3. Another production photo:

    [​IMG]
     
  4. PepiJean

    PepiJean Forum Resident

    I've always loved this one:

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Edge of Reality:

     
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  6. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    I've always loved this song. The "Almost In Love" LP was one I listened to often as a kid.
     
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  7. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    I wasn't a kid but I had the Pickwick cassette in my car and played it to death.
     
  8. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    That is so cool! If I had saw that model in the stores back in the day, I would have bought it. By the 1970s, I guess it was out of production. Thanks for posting it!
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2021
  9. It actually came out much more recently, IIRC in the last 10 years or so I think?
     
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  10. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    Thanks! It looked like those kits from the 1960s and 70s. I would have been all over it in the 1970s.
     
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  11. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    This is in my top 5 60s Elvis film soundtrack songs. I wish he had done some more in this style.
     
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  12. Sebastian

    Sebastian Senior Member

    Live a Litte, Love a Little is probably my favorite Elvis film. It's certainly my most watched Elvis film.

    Here's a nice commentary on this film by film critic Sheila O'Malley that I completely agree with:

    The best of the bunch is 1968’s Live a Little Love a Little, directed by Norman Taurog. There is no reason this film shouldn’t be on any list of good ’60s comedies. Its nearly forgotten status is baffling. Presley plays Greg Nolan, a busy photographer, who gets caught up unwillingly in the crazy-making web of Michele Carey’s ditzy Bernice. Bernice takes one look at Greg and decides: I must have him. The film owes a lot to Bringing Up Baby, even down to the fact that it’s an animal that brings them together, Bernice’s gigantic dog Albert. (There are other nods: Presley racing around her house in a bathrobe because she has hijacked his clothes, and Bernice pretending to be a pre-recorded voice on the phone when he calls her, just as Hepburn did in Bringing Up Baby.)

    Live a Little is not strictly a musical. Along with the title song, it features only two numbers, a psychedelic dream-sequence song called “The Edge of Reality” and the ferocious “A Little Less Conversation,” sung at a gigantic party at what is obviously meant to be the Playboy mansion. Many of the songs in the formula pictures are terrible, and so far beneath him that it’s vicariously insulting to listen to them (although he commits to these songs fully, evidence of his professionalism). But the two songs in Live a Little give him a chance to do some real singing. “A Little Less Conversation,” in particular, allows Elvis to do what got him famous in the first place: be a sexual dynamo. (Many of the “formula pictures” are quite coy about sex. Elvis is not coy here, and it’s a thrill.)

    What makes the film so much fun—and an anomaly in Elvis’ movie career—is the tension between what Elvis’ character wants to be doing (get his photography career on track), and the roadblocks tossed in his way by Bernice. In his other movies, the “Elvis” character always got what he wanted: the main “conflict” was “Which one of these totally available scantily clad women chasing me around do I want? Maybe I can have all of them?” Here, though, he doesn’t want any of it. Throughout, he is irritated, cranky, unshaven, and frantic to get away from this screwball in go-go boots who won’t leave him alone. It’s such an unexpected sweet spot for Elvis, and it’s one of his best performances.


    TCM Diary: Elvis, Actor
     
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  13. Hooperfan

    Hooperfan Your friendly neighborhood candy store owner

    Location:
    New York
    Glad to see this movie getting such good traction. I thought I was going to be in the minority
     
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  14. It’s a shame Elvia didn’t get the chance to sing with Rudy Vallee in the film, even just something off the cuff and not an ‘official’ song.
     
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  15. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    A Little Less Conversation:

     
  16. ClausH

    ClausH Senior Member

    Location:
    Denmark
    Here is the scene.
     
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  17. Always get a kick out of this:

     
  18. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    That’s rather good! I can actually imagine Elvis playing a 60s/70s style Bond.
     
  19. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    I was in Dollar Tree this afternoon-I think they finally got around to putting these out at the stores here in town. I found "Kid Galahad", and as you mentioned, there were quite a few other MGM movies (I picked up the Presley film, and seven additional DVDs).
     
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  20. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Almost In Love:

     
  21. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Bachelor pad music!
     
  22. Hooperfan

    Hooperfan Your friendly neighborhood candy store owner

    Location:
    New York
    This was song that really took its time growing on me. I first heard it when I was 13-14ish when I got a copy of the Almost In Love LP. The song I found really boring...like a Perry Como type of song.

    Now, however, I really dig it. Plus, it's got a sweet Bossa Nova kind of feel to it. Plus I love how it's used in the movie. At least in Live a Little, Love a Little, Elvis doesn't break into song out of nowhere. In this movie, him singing the songs have more contextual structure.
     
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  23. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I also found a copy of Kid Galahad at my local Dollar Tree last week. The only reason I didn't get it was because my friend may give it to me for Christmas. Otherwise I would have grabbed it.
     
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  24. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    I don't claim to be an expert, but it reminds me more of a samba.
     
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  25. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    It's funny that you mention this. I think of LALLAL and a couple of other movies when I see the Austin Powers photo shoot scenes. There were a few characters that were professional or recreational cheesecake photographers in the 1960s.

     
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