Elvis films - your thoughts?

[Nigel77]

"Downunder" Elvis films are a regular weekend inclusion on "free-to-air-TV" during non-footy season (i.e. our summer). I quite like sitting down on a lazy (usually) Sunday afternoon and rewatching Elvis movies. Most aren't as bad as some make out and they are a fun and mostly pleasant musical 90+ minutes.

[iplayastrat]

...Apart from Hey Little Girl with it's very dodgy lyrics (how did that get through?)...

Hey Little Girl - Lyrics.JPG

Maybe the writers of this song were thinking it wouldn't be sung to a 'Little Girl' as young as it turned out in the film !

Harum Scarum - Little Girl.JPG

Sounds more like a song that Humbert Humbert would sing
to Dolores Haze. Creepy.

Coming summer of '62, Elvis Presley, Sue Lyons star in Lolita.

Wouldn't that have changed Elvis movie career? Though I
suppose he would have been a little too young to play the
part that went to James Mason.

[Colin B]

Sounds more like a song that Humbert Humbert would sing
to Dolores Haze. Creepy.

Coming summer of '62, Elvis Presley, Sue Lyons star in Lolita.

Wouldn't that have changed Elvis movie career? Though I
suppose he would have been a little too young to play the
part that went to James Mason.

In the 1997 more explicit & controversial remake of 'Lolita', Jeremy Irons played Humbert Humbert with Dominique Swain as 'Lolita'.

[iplayastrat]

Sounds more like a song that Humbert Humbert would sing
to Dolores Haze. Creepy.

Coming summer of '62, Elvis Presley, Sue Lyons star in Lolita.

Wouldn't that have changed Elvis movie career? Though I
suppose he would have been a little too young to play the
part that went to James Mason.

In the 1997 more explicit & controversial remake of 'Lolita', Jeremy Irons played Humbert Humbert with Dominique Swain as 'Lolita'.

Yes. I remember that was controversial at the time. I think it was only shown
in a very limited release in the United States. I think Showtime movie channel
eventually picked it up. There couldn't have been a better Humbert Humbert
than Jeremy Irons.

I read Vladimir Nabokov's book Lolita. While watching the films you can almost
feel sorrow for Humbert. But reading the book you'll feel no empathy towards
that character. A very troubling read.

[Keeper]

I think he could have made better films if he had been allowed. I loved them anyway as it was a way of seeing Elvis.

[Colin B]

I think he could have made better films if he had been allowed. I loved them anyway as it was a way of seeing Elvis.

Yes he could have.

The stumbling block to that was Parker, who only saw the quick buck...

[Yin Yang]

I think he could have made better films if he had been allowed. I loved them anyway as it was a way of seeing Elvis.

Yes he could have.

The stumbling block to that was Parker, who only saw the quick buck...

The stumbling block to that was Hal Wallis, who only saw the quick buck.

[Colin B]

I think he could have made better films if he had been allowed. I loved them anyway as it was a way of seeing Elvis.

Yes he could have.
The stumbling block to that was Parker, who only saw the quick buck...

The stumbling block to that was Hal Wallis, who only saw the quick buck.

Hal Wallis certainly had his eye on the quick dollar also, but not all Elvis' films had his involvement.

With Parker, it was 100%.

[Yin Yang]

I think he could have made better films if he had been allowed. I loved them anyway as it was a way of seeing Elvis.

Yes he could have.
The stumbling block to that was Parker, who only saw the quick buck...

The stumbling block to that was Hal Wallis, who only saw the quick buck.

Hal Wallis certainly had his eye on the quick dollar also, but not all Elvis' films had his involvement.

With Parker, it was 100%.

I always thought Elvis should have produced a movie of his choice and see what happens, audience-wise.
Instead he gave a lot of money away to strangers, relatives and hangers-on.

[Colin B]

I always thought Elvis should have produced a movie of his choice and see what happens, audience-wise.
Instead he gave a lot of money away to strangers, relatives and hangers-on.

Well, he did do Wild in the Country & Flaming Star - both were commercially successful, but not as much as the runaway success of G.I. Blues & Blue Hawaii.

The success of those two, with their equally successful soundtrack albums, set the pattern & style for subsequent films.

[Keeper]

I think Elvis could have ,ade much better films if he had been allowed to. However I loved every film as it was a way of “seeing” Elvis.

[TheKingForever]

I have all movies that is available on bluray but have seen only a few of them…..
The only thing I care for right now is that Loving You and This Is Elvis extended would be
released in HD but that doesnt seems likely.
Big E fan but its all about good quality audio here ……..video and movies not so much.
Maybe the Baz prodject can change that

[Glyn]

I heard somewhere that Elvis nearly got Midnight Cowboy - is that true ?

[John]

I heard somewhere that Elvis nearly got Midnight Cowboy - is that true ?

So it's rumoured, but I have to say, I don't think he could have bettered Jon Voight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKZQEDh_KAA&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqoyTuHxzbO5PtUwIeFF2H4_&index=4

[Nigel77]

As someone who has lectured in film studies since the 1990s, including Elvis on Film, it is my view that Elvis' film canon - while chronologically temperamental, is critically underrated, and erroneously maligned as a body of work. Most reviews suggest Elvis' films were the same, yet his 1950s quartet, and early-mid 60s films, were strikingly different to his late 60s/post-Speedway releases. In the 1950s to mid-60s, who would have thought Elvis' films would have, by the late 60s, reflected a spaghetti western, sex farce, period drama, or contemporary socially aware drama?