Wow, Viva Las Vegas was his 6th best performing film and they didn't have the brains to release the soundtrack properly - it beggars belief really... OK, back to Follow That Dream
I enjoyed Flaming Star. I think the idea that Elvis shouldn't have played a native American is ludicrous. It's called acting for a reason, and he had a small portion of native American in him anyway. I think @SKATTERBRANE left the forum due to these kinds of nonsensical political leanings.
Follow That Dream is a great movie. I think the songs are very good, and they don't completely swamp the film. Lighthearted fun, delivered in a solid movie, with a very good performance from Elvis.
Blue Hawaii (1961) That movie - and "Magnum PI" - made me dream about those islands. So for many years, while I was kid, I thought it was an awesome movie with unbelievable locations. Today nothing has changed... about the locations. The movie is OK. "Lighthearted fun" - as mark winstanley said earlier - is the best way to describe it. The soundtrack is probably one of the most coherent he ever recorded although there are 3 songs I really don't like: ALMOST ALWAYS TRUE, MOONLIGHT SWIM and ITO EATS. The rest is fun and exotic. Favorite song: BEACH BOY BLUES Follow that Dream (1962) In this case, I prefer the movie over the soundtrack (although FOLLOW THAT DREAM is a great tune!) The acting (including Elvis') is actually great, with good timing in the funny parts. The plot is amusing with some cracking jokes and the locations are really nice. Acting wise, I would rank the film as high as, say, "King Creole" and "Flaming Star". Definitely one of Elvis' best performance on screen (and one of the last too until "Live A Little, Love A Little", some 6 years later.) TOP#9 (so far...) ----------------------------------- 9. Wild in the Country (1961) 8. G.I. Blues (1960) 7. Love Me Tender (1956) 6. Blue Hawaii (1961) 5. Loving you (1957) 4. Follow that Dream (1962) 3. King Creole (1958) 2. Jailhouse Rock (1957) 1. Flaming star (1960)
Well, you absolutely can state that it's not your opinion, but 'ludicrous' it is not. Ever asked an actual native person about it?
For me, "Roustabout" is the most enjoyable picture, because the soundtrack is so good. I think its in the top 3 soundtracks of Elvis movies. Elvis did a very credible acting job in that film. I've read that he was motivated because he saw Barbara Stanwick, who was a major Hollywood star, show up on time every, with all her lines memorized, and she expected everyone else to do the same. I think Elvis appreciated professionalism and did his best on that film.
Another point: one cannot blame Elvis one bit for getting tired of the same old movie formula. The movie companies continued to grind out those Elvis movies at a certain budget because there was a a guaranteed profit to be made on them. They would sometimes do three layers of distribution, first to first run theaters, then to second run theatres, and then subcontract the distribution to dealers who serviced the rural, independent theatres and drive ins to make their expected profit. ( I can only imagine the beat up quality of the film prints those rural theaters got). There is a great magazine called Cinema Retro, and in one issue they did a feature on the Elvis movies and how they were made. They used old Hollywood technology and tricks like rear projection to save every dollar they could. Poor Elvis was stuck indoors on a sound stage for 10 hours a day, because he was in most of the scenes. I think the biggest mistake the Col made was not working out the deal for Elvis to do "A Star is Born". One thing about Elvis, he needed a challenge to get the most out of his abilities, and that would have been a GREAT challenge for him. I am sure he would have done a terrific job, as he did in preparing for the 1968 TV Special. Everyone who worked with Elvis on the TV special has commented how committed he was to it and how he gave 110 percent. And what a great job he did!
It is ludicrous, it's a movie. If someone is just playing themselves it isn't acting. Do we only cast real gangsters in mafia movies? Does someone have to be a politician, or an ex-politician to be in a political drama? Was Sean Penn stepping into dangerous territory in I Am Sam? Elvis has native american connection in his bloodline anyway, so it's even more ludicrous.
I don't even know if I ever saw that lol There certainly are some goofy ones. What's the one where he plays a hillbilly and the military want to buy his mountain, and there are all these Feral women running around trying to mate with the guys..... someone may have been dancing with lily the pink when they put that little gem together lol It was still a fun lighthearted watch though
Ludicrous was the right word to use in my opinion. Here is a direct quote regarding Elvis's Indian ancestry. Elvis's great-great-great-grandmother, Morning White Dove (1800-1835), was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. She married William Mansell, a settler in western Tennessee, in 1818. William's father, Richard Mansell, had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
Kissin' Cousins, one of my least favorite Elvis movies, but much like Harum Scarum, I really like the soundtrack as it has some real gems on it like Once Is Enough (@czeskleba turned me onto the greatest of that song).
No worries, I stop it after this post. All your examples, though, have nothing in common with the cultural appropriation of a colonized (and pretty much wiped out) people within the cultural works of their colonizers. And bloodline relations used to be a standard trope! Sorry, if too political.
Sadly all a response to this post will bring from me is going to be deleted. You are trying to push a political agenda, it is poorly thought out, and much too complex for this thread.
I just started following this thread so please bear with me for late posts. There are so many crazy things that happened to Elvis that are never supposed to. As you said, he was starring in his first motion picture and never was in so much as a school play. Even at the beginning, he had a hit record before he ever played a professional gig. If someone l had predicted it, nobody would believe it.
Mark, there was controversy even at the time over white actors playing non white characters. Native American actors could not get work. Frankly it got insulting. Try having a white guy play a black guy.
The Wayans brothers played two white girls in White Chicks... It wasn't bad either, in it's own goofy way. As long as the person playing the part, looks the part, it's a storm in a teacup to me. Lines drawn in the sand can only divide.
Well to be fair, they played two black men dressed up as two white girls, which was of course the joke.....
It's important to view this in the context of the times. In the 60s, it was literally impossible for a Native American actor to get any role besides that of an Indian. So if they cast a white guy in an Indian role, it could be seen as taking away one of the very few acting opportunities available to a Native American actor. I can see why that would be upsetting. If there had been a variety of roles available to nonwhite actors at the time, it would be a different story, but there were not. It's somewhat better now, but even now it's not an entirely level playing field. Just wanting to add some perspective.
