Elvis's 31 Feature Films: Which are watchable?

Some of the HD masters on iTunes, like many of the MGM titles (now WB) look pretty darn good. A few are still in SD only—the same goes with the Paramount’s . Off the top of my head, this is what’s available on BD now:


Love Me Tender
Jailhouse Rock
Flaming Star
follow The Dream
Kid Galahad
Frankie and Johnny
Viva Las Vegas
Clambake
That’s The Way It Is <se version>
Elvis On Tour <music change in titles>

B region only;
Tickle Me (aka Cowboy Melodie)

Coming:
Wild In The Country

TV:

Singer Presents Elvis (comeback special)

 

Thanks for turning me on to that album! It’s got a version of Do the Clam from Girl Happy!!

 

Glen Sings For The King are demos Glen did for Elvis movie songs. All mono. Presley may have hated recording the stuff but Glen was selling the songs. Most all are better than Elvis.

 

When I was nine I had the hots For Donna Butterworth - so I vote “Blue Hawaii”.

 

Recognize the location of this clip from a Vanilla Ice movie? And the theme of riding motorcycles? Hahaha...

 

Wow...never knew that...that’s a cool album

 

Yep, Glen and a few of the Wrecking Crew ripping through these demos live in studio. Pretty fun album.

 

In tribute to this thread I watched an Elvis movie and will review.

I chose It Happened At The World's Fair. Interesting title at least. I suppose it poses the rhetorical question, What happened at the World's Fair? The answer appears to be "Not all that much."

SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR ELVIS MOVIE THAT IS 56 YEARS OLD

Elvis and Gary Lockwood own their own plane in the Pacific Northwest. They get paid after a crop dusting session, then head off to the nearest town to pursue their respective vices. Elvis' is women. Elvis winds up in a house with Yvonne Craig, whose name he cannot remember. Yvonne seems somewhat game for action and somewhat, wisely so, interested in fending off a wolfish Elvis. The party's over when her parents come home and her father finds his shotgun. Lockwood's vice is gambling and he loses their crop dusting profit and more in a poker game. Elvis and Gary get out of that with a fist fight and try to flee in their plane, but the sheriff has different ideas. Impounds the plane until they pay a $1200 debt.

Elvis and Gary decide to hitchhike to Seattle to find work. The chicks won't give them a ride, but an Asian man in a pickup with a young child who's a girl. The Asian man is played by Kam Tong. At first I though this was Kam Fong, who later did a dime on Hawaii Five-O. That Kam Fong was actually born Kam Tong, but he's a different actor. Kam Tong was finishing up a run in his most famous role as Hey Boy on Have Gun Will Travel. Elvis and Gary clambor in the back of the pickup, where Elvis sings the young girl a song. The girl is played by Vicky Tiu, in her only acting appearance ever. Vicky Tiu would later marry the governor of Hawaii.

Elvis, Gary, Kam, and Vicky reach Seattle, where the World's Fair is going on. Kam, who is Vicky's uncle (her parents we find out later don't exist) has business to attend to and can't take Vicky to the World's Fair as promised. He asks Elvis, a hitchhiker he has known for a couple of hours, to take Vicky to the World's Fair, promising to pick Vicky up at 8 pm, and exits the picture.

Elvis and Vicky see the fair. Vicky eats too much and needs to see a doctor. There's no doctor, but a couple of nurses are there. The older one looks after Vicky while Elvis puts the moves on the younger one, played by Joan O'Brien. He pretends to have something wrong with his eyes and gets too close in something of a creepy fashion. The nurse rebuffs him. Elvis later admits he came on too strong.

8 pm comes and goes. Elvis still has Vicky and no idea what to do with her. He meets up with Gary who has secured some lodging by being the house for interested middle class local gamblers. Meanwhile, Elvis still wants to get with Joan O'Brien. He gets Kurt Russell to kick him in the shin so he has a reason to see her. Joan doesn't believe he's hurt, but he has an actual contusion. She softens to him, until Kurt (who is apparently allowed to wander the park unaccompanied, despite being 10 years old or so) finds him and lets Joan know it was all a set-up.

Meanwhile, Elvis doesn't want Vicky to go to social services, even though Kam is still missing. They come anyway. They say that Joan called them. Elvis can't deny that two bachelors are perhaps not the best home for a child. Then Vicky runs away from social services after they turn their backs for a few minutes (see, they suck.)

Gary has meanwhile been trying to find Elvis and he jobs. He finds one with a guy named Vince Bradley, played by H.M. Wynant. Wynant wants them to fly some stuff across the border to Canada. Gives them a big advance. Elvis has to go find Vicky, he knows just where to look. A chase around the World's Fair complex at night ensues. Elvis gets back, finds out Wynant wants them to smuggle furs, apparently still a big deal in the 1960s. Canada must have run out of beaver pelts. A punch out ensues. Elvis wins.

Everyone goes to the police. Finally it's found out that Kam had a truck accident and suffered ye old bump on the head. He'll be just fine, off screen. Bye Bye Vicky. Things are going good with Joan now. Joan has an interest in space, and Elvis can qualify for NASA based on being a pilot. So it's off all the way across the country for the two of them, right? It should go well. Given the massive amount of infidelity in the astronaut set, I'm sure Elvis will be single once again by the start of his next picture.

Gary Lockwood does the best acting here. His character verges on a heel turn throughout most of the picture, but it never fully comes. That this was left unresolved is the most satisfying part of the flick. Lockwood covers a lot of ground in his performance.

Joan O'Brien reportedly had a torrid romance with Elvis on set. She was 27 here. By the time she was 30, she would be finished with acting and thrice divorced. She eventually became an executive with Hilton Hotels and settled down her personal life. Despite her torrid off screen behavior, her romance with Elvis is not well realized. Joan got stuck playing a lot of nurses perhaps due to her cool, officious demeanor. Yvonne Craig would have been a lot more fun in a larger role than Joan was.

Vicky Tiu is cute and not cloying, but not a great actress. She wears out her welcome over time. Elvis hanging with Kurt Russell would have been more fun.

Elvis is lively when he bickers with Gary Lockwood. There is a redemptive arc based on how his character is written that he fails to pull off as an actor. There was an actor at the time, Michael Callan, who could have done this sort of material. Elvis could not.

The songs are all at least decent. One Broken Heart For Sale was the best.

A fair like this has been the subject of successful entertainment before. Think State Fair or Meet Me In St. Louis. This movie is not one of them. Way too much time spent on the Vicky Tiu sub plot that goes no where. There need to be more reasons to watch these movies than just Elvis. For this one, there just aren't enough reasons.

 

ha! I remember that! two random hitchhikers lol

 

Different look at it: I was there when Elvis burst upon the scene. I still love his early musical output. In Junior High and High, I attended almost all his films until the mid-‘60s. Even bought the LPs; always hoping to hear what he was like in the ‘50s. Now, I can barely watch his ‘60s films, except a couple.

They took a singer who literally changed the culture and put him back in the culture he had changed. They’d tell him, “Hey, Elvis, put on this silly hat.” Or, “Put on this helmet that’ll sit way above your hair”. Sad.

I’d stick with “Loving You”, “Jailhouse Rock”, and “King Creole”. “Viva Las Vegas” is good because of AM and the sparks they caused.

 

Great, great review and recap!

Yvonne Craig should have had larger roles...especially in lightweight Elvis fare!

 

I admit I have a problem. I also have enjoyed Clambake since I was a kid.
He sleepwalks his way through "You Don't Know Me" when he could have done much better.

Still love the movie for all it's flaws.

 

The only one I can stand is Jailhouse Rock.

 

And it's also the only film Elvis never watched, because of how broken he was over Judy Tyler's death.

 

She was terrific in that film and I seem to recall she actually died four or five months before it was released. She definitely had something and could've gone on to much more -- I liked her sass and attitude in the movie. One of the rare Elvis films that I think has very little that's corny or fake.

 

I remember being excited as a little kid in the 60s when I saw an Elvis movie trailer on TV and finally learned what his last name was!

 

Really? I know it has a strong reputation but when I went back to watch it (admittedly about 10 years ago), I found it literally too boring to sit through. Ponderous and slow.

My memories of King Creole is that it was a better film, but as I said in my OP, I need to watch it again (soon) to see if my memory is faulty..

 

King Creole is a REALLY good film. Elvis is very good for an inexperienced actor, and Walter Matthau and Carolyn Jones are excellent as well.
The movie was based on the Harold Robbins novel "A Stone For Danny Fisher", which was a best selling book.

 

im partial to the sillier churn 'em out movies, the earlier ones were good but a little too earnest....

 

Yeah, there was a period there -- roughly 1960 to 1963 -- where those "churn 'em outs" were kind of watchable, but starting with Kissin' Cousins....


(I might make an exception for Viva Las Vegas. Gets by on charm!)

 

My all time favourite movie of Elvis has got to be that one with 'Una Stubbs' and the Double Decker bus....loved that film.....

 

Yeah, I wish they'd made such a box about ten years ago, made way too many, so I could get one now, cheaply.

 

Fun fact: "Clambake" was re-titled "Blue Miami" in Japan, based on the popularity of "Blue Hawaii".


I wonder if any of his other movies were retitled like that?

"Blue Vegas"?
"Blue Hawaii 2"?

 

Jailhouse Rock
Kid Galahad....

 

So, I just got the Elvis "MGM Legends" collection. Tonight I watched "Kid Galahad". Hadnt seen it in many years. The movie was much better than I remembered, this is one of Elvis's better ones. GREAT soundtrack, too, excellent tunes.
The Video mastering was Excellent, although it appears they mastered it from a 35mm interpositive rather than the original negative, it really looked great on my 50 inch QLED. Very nice color.

My only issue was that I kept waiting for Charles Bronson to say "You Two Pick Out Something You like.....I'LLLLL Get The Ice Cream".....