Elvis Films: S&D

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Fiction or non-fiction is cool with me, as long as it has Elvis in it. Which are your favorite Elvis films?

― Mark, Friday, 14 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Change of Habit" is probably my favorite. Elvis plays a child psychologist and Mary Tyler Moore plays a nun who leaves the fold for The Real King. Entertaining.

― Mark, Friday, 14 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

when i was in ireland circa summer 97, it was the anniv. of his death or birth...i can't remember. and they played elvis movies ALL WEEK. watching viva las vegas on the terlet is most disconcerting. what's WRONG with you people? ::points in ronan's general direction::

― jess, Friday, 14 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like Elvis movies.

Setting aside the obvious Jailhouse Rock and going straight into the mid-60's kitsch festival, I enjoy Girl Happy and Tickle Me. Very entertaining flicks. Girl Happy is all about Spring Break '65 and the story of Elvis & his band having to look after a mobster's sexy daughter in sunny Ft. Lauderdale. It's just as entertaining as any Monkees episode. Plus you get great tunes like the title song, "Wolf Call", and "Do the Clam".

Tickle Me continues the hot streak with lots of fun 60's chicks, Scooby Doo-ish haunted house sequences, and a very funny wisecracking sidekick nerd sorta guy. The only song I can remember is "Such an Easy Question". It's pretty good.

― Oliver, Friday, 14 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ditto on change o' habit & spring break - and spinout (racecar/carnival theme)has the best soundtrack of all of them. nick tosches writes some funny stuff about going to see elvis movies as a kid hoping to see something dirty.

― fritz, Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was fortunate enough to attend the launch of a book called 'Elvis in Hollywood' or something at the Glasgow Film Theatre. The author referred to Elvis as 'The King' throughout. And somehow that really impressed me. Then they showed two films, 'Flaming Star' and one where The King has two jobs, one on the sixth floor and one on the fifth floor (or whatever) and has to keep dashing up and down the stairs, changing his clothes on the way. I bet he had two girlfriends too, but I can't remember. Featured song: the unstoppable psychedelic steamroller 'The Edge of Reality'.

I like the one where The King is a wall of death motorcyclist best. They're all fucking ace though.

― Peter Miller, Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I need to see Tickle Me.

― N., Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Jess: I really dont remember that. ALL WEEK?? Nah, dont be daft.

King Creole is the only Elvis movie you need to watch.

― Michael Bourke, Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

michael, i swear to god. unless age has eaten at my brane, it is SO. okay, maybe not alll week, but damned if i ever expected to watch that many elvis movies in a few days (in a foreign country no less.)

― jess, Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

GI BLUES is fabulous. Great songs in fascinating settings ('Wooden Heart'!), and that astounding moment when Elvis Presley comes on the jukebox and Elvis reacts by smashing up the joint.

Saw a great one on TV lately, with Elvis as 'Deke Rivers' - but don't know the title: can anyone provide it?

― the pinefox, Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pinefox, that's Loving You. The semi-autobiographical one?

― Arthu, Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Right, "Wooden Heart" is from GI Blues, that makes sense. I thought it was later.

― Mark, Saturday, 15 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, very semi-autobiographical I guess - very reflexive re. the responsibilities and dangers of rock'n'roll, its relation to c&w, etc.

― the pinefox, Monday, 17 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

King Creole is the only Elvis movie you need to watch.

True, it's the only one you need to watch, but the rest are just so damned fun. If only he'd lived long enough to make a cameo in Cannonball Run.

― paul cox (paul cox), Friday, 2 May 2003 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"That's the Way it Is" concert flick is mighty impressive. His first season in Vegas, but don't get turned off by that; he's awesome: fit, handsome, and amazingly on. Pretty revelatory for me.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 2 May 2003 03:38 (twenty-two years ago)

The absolute weirdest one is "The Trouble With Girls," the title of which was obviously slapped on at the last minute and has nothing to do with anything. It was one of his very last films. Elvis plays the manager of a 1920s Chautauqua troupe, essentially a traveling mediciine show. (Honest.) He's almost a peripheral character, with not much to do other than walk around with huge muttonchop sideburns. The supporting cast includes John Carradine, Vincent Price, Joyce van Patton, Dabney Coleman, and Buffy from Family Affair. It's sort of like watching a dream about a movie.

― Burr (Burr), Friday, 2 May 2003 04:03 (twenty-two years ago)

It's sort of like watching a dream about a movie.

Must...see...this...now!

― paul cox (paul cox), Friday, 2 May 2003 04:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Clam Bake or Kissin Cousins. I prefer the really, really bad ones.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 2 May 2003 04:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Search: Change of Habit, Viva Las Vegas, King Creole, It Happened at the World's Fair, Girls! Girls! Girls!, Clambake

Destroy: Kissin' Cousins, Spinout, Charro! (I haven't seen this one, but it looks insufferable), Fun in Acapulco

― JS Williams (js williams), Friday, 2 May 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

the only elvis film i've ever seen was clambake, and that one only for 15 minutes. i understand that it's widely considered to be one of his worst (which must be something of an accomplishment). i still remember the silly "clambake" song, though.

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 2 May 2003 04:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I reckon Kissin' Cousins is marginally worse, Tad, but for full effect, you really should see them both. Poor Elvis. He's a trooper, but you can see he's really suffering.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 2 May 2003 05:27 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

i just saw jailhouse rock for the first time tonight. what a terrific film! i still can't believe the colonel let elvis play such a jerk!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 29 July 2005 11:43 (twenty years ago)

Apart from the jail bit, the whole thing was eerily foretelling...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 29 July 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Search: Flaming Star. More of a movie that has Elvis in it than an Elvis movie per se, but, dude, Don Siegel.

Destroy: Stay Away, Joe. I've seen almost all of them and for my money, this is the absolute worst.

― Hillary Brown (Hillary Brown), Friday, 29 July 2005 12:15 (twenty years ago)

That's the Way It Is, as pointed out earlier, is a great non-fiction film. His outfits change throughout the course of the show (it was edited together from three different shows); Elvis explains his firing of one of his musicians by saying to the rest of the band, "he had to go home, he's got a little baby now to take care of. I told him he could stay..."; during "Love Me Tender", Elvis manages to kiss every. single. female. in the auditorium.; and of course, his wonderful studio medley of "Little Sister / Get Back". Oh, and he also rides a tandem bicycle.

Tickle Me is amazingly underrated. I would dare say that Jocelyn Lane was the hottest Elvis movie girl.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 29 July 2005 12:27 (twenty years ago)

fuck, they all run together. the one with Barbara Stanwyck is interesting. the only one I really like is "Clambake," which I think is one of the essential Elvis Documents, and one of the greatest anti-musicals ever done (up there with Bloodstone's "Train Ride to Hollywood," which I guarantee will blow your mind if you ever gather up your courage to see it. Dope might help). The scene where Elvis and the Jerry Reed lookalike guy sing "Who Needs Money" while driving motorcycles; the "Hey, Hey, Hey" sequence when EP puts his "goop" on the boat while bikini girls dance around; "Confidence," sung to a bunch of kids, sounds just like Sinatra's "High Hopes." It's *everything* I think a musical should be--stupid, impossibly prole, and with lotsa shots of people skiing and riding cars and motorcycles thru Florida. And if you can ever find the twofer on BMG of "Speedway" and "Clambake" you not only get the songs from the two movies, you get "Guitar Man" and "How Can You Lose What You Never Had," two great EP tunes!

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Friday, 29 July 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

eight years pass...

I saw many Elvis movies as a kid...haven't watched them until recently. Post-dead Elvis changes the experience of it. Watching "A Change of Habit" and find Elvis' presence in it VERY distracting. It is from 1969 and grapples with social problems as if Elvis never saw poor people before or something. Also who is prettier - him or Mary Tyler Moore? I like vintage MTM she is so cute.

― Sweetfrosti (I M Losted), Wednesday, 4 December 2013 23:31 (eleven years ago)

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