Elvis Presley: The Movies - Appreciation Thread

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

  1. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Charro

    Year of release: 1969
    Studio: National General Pictures
    Director: Charles Marquis Warren

    Plot:
    Elvis plays Jess Wade, who is set up by his former gang, who want to make money from a canon that they have stolen.

    Songs:
    Only one song is included in the film in the opening titles - Charro.

    A 2nd song, Let's Forget About The Stars, was recorded for the film but not used.

    There's a great score by Hugo Montenegro

    Trailer:

     
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  2. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Elvis stars in an ersatz spaghetti western. Has to actually act and try on his best Clint Eastwood. National General was not exactly a major studio.
    My first copy of this was from a PD company on VHS. Yeah it made my eyebrows jump too. It ended up with WB so I wonder what the provenance of the film was. I was happy to get the blue DVD issue. The tape looked like crap.
     
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  3. Hooperfan

    Hooperfan Your friendly neighborhood candy store owner

    Location:
    New York
    Definitely "a different kind of role"!

    This movie had promise, but it ends up falling flat. Elvis looks really cool with the facial hair, certainly looking the part. But the script is substandard. There are moments that work, but not too often.

    This is the only film he made where he doesn't sing on camera. I know "Let's Forget About the Stars" was recorded at the same time as the title track, but there's no place in the picture where it would fit. Plus, the song was recorded months after filming ended. So, that particular song and its intended use is a bit of a mystery.

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I wonder if Elvis beat out Rick Dalton of Bounty Hunter for the role :D

    Somewhat more seriously, I wonder what would have happened if Elvis did the Rick Dalton route & made movies in Italy, although again, Colonel Tom Parker would have been a block.
     
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  5. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    It's been said that Elvis was initially excited about the film until it was rewritten into something that was a shadow of the screenplay that he had signed onto. Changes had stripped all of the edginess from the screenplay and left it like an episode of a television western. Why there was no contract rider about drastically changing the script, I don't know.

    I've read that Elvis was a big fan of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. If Klaus Kinski could do cult classic spaghetti westerns in Italy, Elvis could have as well. The change might have added another facet to his career. The music score was very good as I recall. An intriguing story, lots of action, suspense, moments of comedy, and a great music score were the hallmarks of spaghetti westerns. I think Elvis wanted a gritty role as an antihero. Too bad that it turned out to be such a conventional western movie.

     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2021
  6. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    That's an interesting point about the script being changed and reminds me of a similar situation faced by another singer who made a number of films that were not well received.

    In the early 90's Madonna made a film called Dangerous Game co-starring Harvey Keitel and directed by Abel Ferrarra. It was produced by Madonna's own production company. The original script apparently showed her character being abused by the other characters, however by the end she would have turned the tables on them and become victorious. The problem is that in the editing suite the director decided to completely change the ending so her character became what Madonna described as a 'deaf mute'. The film is rubbish but for once her acting was praised by critics. So your point that directors should be contractually held to account if they change the script to something that the actors hadn't signed up for is one that has occurred to me before.

    Having said that I quite enjoyed Charro. It was a perfect film to watch on a Sunday afternoon.
     
  7. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    I too enjoy Charro for what it is. It's a conventional western that wants to be edgy. Elvis does a good job in his role but the movie limps along.

    As far as contractual stipulations, I've read that it was common for Dean Martin to place stipulations in his movie contracts. There were stipulations about excessive changes in the scripts or unwanted co-star changes that allowed him to walk away.
     
  8. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I read that Dean Martin refused to do another Matt Helm movie due to the murder of Sharon Tate, who starred w/him on the previous one.
     
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  9. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    In the absence of any performance clips from Charro I thought I would share this montage from the film that is accompanied by the title track:

     
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  10. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    It's another excellent Elvis movie song from the late 60s - as the number of songs per film decreased, their quality thankfully increased.
     
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  11. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    The song that was recorded for Charro, but not used - Let's Forget About The Stars:

     
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  12. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    The Trouble With Girls

    Year of release: 1969
    Studio: MGM
    Director: Peter Tewksbury

    Plot:
    Elvis plays impresario Walter Hale who is overseeing the travelling tent show as it arrives in Radford Centre, Iowa.

    Songs:
    Swing Down, Sweet Chariot
    Clean Up Your Own Backyard
    Signs of the Zodiac
    Almost

    Trailer:

     
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  13. Hooperfan

    Hooperfan Your friendly neighborhood candy store owner

    Location:
    New York
    First of all, The Trouble with Girls is a terrible title for this film. It makes it seem like it's a rehash of Girl Happy, but it's not.

    Second of all, Elvis may be the "star" of the movie, but there are a number of scenes in which he doesn't even appear. It's kind of an ensemble cast, featuring Dabney Coleman and Vincent Price!

    The plot is... interesting. A traveling Vaudeville show called Chatauqua, in which Elvis is the head honcho... And somehow it turns into a murder mystery halfway through.

    The songs are small in number, but not bad. There's a new version of "Swing Down, Sweet Chariot" which I like even more than his 1960 recording. We have a late night piano ballad called "Almost", which is pleasant. There's a goofy duet with Marilyn Mason called "Signs Of the Zodiac", which is fun. But the definite highlight is "Clean Up Your Own Back Yard", which is so good, it doesn't really sound like a movie song.

    Perhaps Elvis has never looked more handsome on film than here. The movie is supposed to take place in the 1920s, so it's interesting that the poster promoting the movie says "Elvis '69"

    [​IMG]
     
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  14. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    In many rural areas a Chatauqua was the biggest thing to hit town. Everybody went. William Jennings Bryant was a popular speaker on the circuit before prosecuting the Scopes Monkey trial.

    Chautauqua (/ʃəˈtɔːkwə/ shə-TAW-kwə) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, showmen, preachers, and specialists of the day
    [​IMG]
     
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  15. croquetlawns

    croquetlawns Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    Sadly, Signs of the Zodiac is pretty awful, which is a shame when there's only four songs! I like all of the others though. Having watched the trailer, my memory of this film is extremely vague - I think I've seen it, but if so probably only once.
     
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  16. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yesterday was the first time I had seen the film and to be honest is probably not one I would revisit much if at all.

    On the one hand I like the fact that it was a different sort of role for Elvis and the film does remind me of other films of the late 60's, but to be honest, apart from the musical performances I lost interest part way through.

    We are also at the point in Elvis' career where he had already done the Comeback Special which I think of as the dawn of a new era, so I got a nagging feeling watching this film of "why are you still messing about making these films".
     
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  17. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Swing Down, Sweet Chariot:

     
  18. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    Good movie, not great but Elvis does a good job. I like all of the songs except Zodiac. "Almost" is one of my very favorite Elvis songs of all time. It saddens me that he never recorded an expanded version of "Almost". What a beautiful song to be so short and for Zodiac to be so long is irritating.

    These differing movie roles were just what was needed four years earlier. Too bad that the type-casting was so strong by now.
     
  19. Bink

    Bink Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Clean Up Your Own Backyard:

     
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  20. PepiJean

    PepiJean Forum Resident

    Charro / The trouble with girls (1969)
    Elvis' "Charro" and "The trouble with girls" are two misfires, specially the first: a spaghetti western that has "shoulda been better" written all over it. It seems that Elvis was very excited by that particular project but the script changed so much that, at the end, it became totally unrecognizable. Presley, who looks great, was looking for a dirtier and more violent film but the plot and the direction are both bland and dull. The title song is, on the other hand, really interesting. Thus those opening credits are the best part from the whole movie.

    "The trouble with girls" (what an awful title for a movie picture!) is better but suffers from a somehow overload plot that doesn't really go anywhere. Comedy? Murder mystery? Musical? Film experiment? Well, a little bit of all that. Plus some continuity errors or jump cuts between scenes keep taking me out of the movie. The soundtrack also goes from bad (SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC) to great (CLEAN UP YOUR OWN BACKYARD) but, with only 4 tracks in total used in the movie, that does not really help to elevate the whole "thing".

    After the good impression of "Live a little", these two flicks (despite of the aim of wanting to do something different) have the effect of a cold shower.

    TOP#30 (1956 / 1969)
    -----------------------------------------
    30. Harum Scarum (1965)
    29. Kissin' cousins (1964)
    28. Paradise, Hawaiian style (1966)
    27. Double trouble (1967)
    26. Clambake (1967)
    25. Frankie and Johnny (1966)
    24. Charro (1969)
    23. Stay Away Joe (1968)
    22. Girl Happy (1965)
    21. It happened at the world's fair (1963)

    20. Fun in Acapulco (1963)
    19. The trouble with girls (1969)
    18. Spinout (1966)
    17. Easy come, easy go (1967)
    16. Tickle me (1965)
    15. Wild in the Country (1961)
    14. Speedway (1968)
    13. Roustabout (1964)
    12. G.I. Blues (1960)
    11. Love Me Tender (1956)

    10. Girls, girls, girls (1962)
    9. Kid Galahad (1962)
    8. Blue Hawaii (1961)
    7. Loving you (1957)
    6. Viva Las Vegas (1964)
    5. Live a little, Love a little (1968)
    4. Follow that Dream (1962)
    3. King Creole (1958)
    2. Jailhouse Rock (1957)
    1. Flaming star (1960)
     
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  21. garyt1957

    garyt1957 Forum Resident

    Location:
    mi
    Might be the best of his "unknown" songs. And one of his best period.
     
  22. garyt1957

    garyt1957 Forum Resident

    Location:
    mi
    He would have been sooo good as a Matt helm type character
     
  23. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Great, great song. His vocals are amazing.

    The way he spits these lyrics is unreal:
    When you get right down to the nitty-gritty
    Isn't it a pity that in this big city
    Not a one a'little bitty man'll admit
    He could have been a little bit wrong


     
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  24. PepiJean

    PepiJean Forum Resident

    Yep, another fine mixture of talking blues and country.
    I remember that George Harrison said he loved that track too!
     
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  25. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    When did he say that? I was under the impression the Beatles never had anything good to say about post-army Elvis.
     
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