I finally watched the second DVD in the 2-DVD Aloha set I bought at Graceland during Elvis Week. Because the main concert material is the same as the raw footage on disc 1, I'll just concentrate on the parts that are unique to disc 2 and the U.S. broadcast version.
Post-Concert "Insert" Songs Session
January 14, 1973
Elvis looks like he's singing with his eyes closed the whole time until you see that he's reading cue cards that people are holding below the stage, so he's just looking down. I don't know why they didn't have the guy with the cue cards stand on a ladder or something that would have brought him up to the level of the stage. It just seems like not a lot of thought or effort went into these recordings, particularly because Elvis was shown singing them during the broadcast. If we had just heard him, it wouldn't have been as bad.
All of the songs from Blue Hawaii were in the wrong key and the instrumentation was corny and nothing like the arrangement for the original soundtrack. I know Elvis's voice got lower as he got older, but they could have picked a better key.
Elvis, Aloha from Hawaii NBC TV Special
April 4, 1973 Broadcast Version
I have to take a crack at the inserts in the broadcast version because they were so weird/corny.
1) Early Morning Rain
Scene: Random Hawaiian dude walking along the beach with his shirt open, clearly conscious that he's being filmed walking along the beach. It is not the early morning, nor is it raining. Eventually, he takes a yellow Jeep into a field or pineapple plantation and drives around/walks around without his shirt on. He gets his shirt back just in time to go to the airport, stand on the tarmac, and look at an airplane. Eventually he gets back in his yellow Jeep and moves on.
2) Blue Hawaii
Scene: On one part of the screen, a hula dancer dances along to Elvis's singing while on another screen, a blonde woman wearing a blue loose dress that makes her look pregnant kneels on the beach looking into a birdcage.
3) Hawaiian Wedding Song
Scene: We see two hands rubbing each other in what I can only describe as hand sex. Eventually we see the people to whom those hands belong and they're looking at each other lovingly under a palm tree.
4) Ku-U-I-Po
Scene: A young couple is on the beach, and suddenly, the girl decides to run away. The guy then chases her and catches her in something like a cliche film scene.
In one of these montages, a guy slides down a waterfall. I think this show should have been called, "Elvis, Aloha from Hawaii, and the State of Hawaii's Travel Video."
Let me reiterate for the umpteenth time: Aloha is no '68 Comeback, That's the Way It Is, or even Elvis on Tour. I'm still glad to have it as part of my collection, though, since we have relatively few films of Elvis concerts (at least of decent viewing quality).
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
I HATE YOU BECAUSE
Its not like we could have expected her to become a doctor or a lawyer or a scientist, right?
It is a credit to Lisa Marie Presley's lack of imagination that she has chosen to spend her flush life pursuing the one thing she is unequivocably unsuited for: she wants to be a singer.
I'm sorry, I cant help but be suspicious of this whim of hers to try her hand at being a singer, I cant help feeling this is a calculated gambit in the continuing fleecing of that special contingent of Elvis fans who are simple rubes, who toss away their money while clinging to some blind devotion to their hero (and that means tossing money to their hero's daughter).
I mean, really - a duet with her dad? Her dead dad, as if you needed reminding. How much can you duet with a dead man, anyway? This is electronic engineering, nothing else. And this is the second (!) such duet with her dead dad - was the first one (a team up on "In The Ghetto") such a success that fans were screaming for another one? So, it is not just a shameless enterprise to go back to this particular well again, but then to do "I Love You Because" and make a music video comprised of clips of Lisa Marie's home movies featuring Elvis to tug on the heart strings and purse strings of Elvis fans is simply unconscionable.
Lisa Marie's albums (sorry, CDs) are full of songs that she herself wrote so I do give her props for that. It doesn't matter that these songs fail to rise above the level of girls-college-dormitory-angst, they are original and she is trying to express herself. But, I guess these albums (sorry, CDs) werent selling so Lisa Marie found she must resort to tapping this Elvis well again.
Is Lisa Marie a born singer, a burning talent that will, nay, MUST, out? I have read many Elvis books, and Lisa Marie was always a tangential presence at best (the young moppet both neglected and spoiled by her absentee daddy). Still, does anyone recall any mention of Lisa Marie ever expressing any desire to be a singer when she grew up? Were there stories somewhere of Lisa Marie sitting with her dad and the two of them harmonizing together? Maile, please let me know if any stories of this sort made its way into CARELESS LOVE.
It seems strange that Lisa Marie wants to pursue something that was the very reason her dad was an absentee dad much of the time while she was growing up, and when he was around, she was witness to the fact that her dad's chosen occupation was destroying him. You can't claim that, oh, the poor dear, she was so young so she wouldn't know what was happening: my kids who are 4+ years old and 1+ years old notice and specifically point out things like when I get a haircut or when a new bag appears under my tired eyes; how can we think Lisa Marie did not notice that her dad was getting fatter and fatter and behaving more and more strangely.
But, ok, for the time being, lets not question her motives, lets just agree she wants to be a singer.
What exactly is it that she wants to sing? Pop music? Pop music is disposable so that seems fitting for her. Rock 'n Roll, like her daddy? I know rock 'n roll music and what comes out of her mouth is not rock 'n roll. Blues? Please - she doesnt have the passion to be a blues singer and outside of being witness to her unconscious dad being worked on by paramedics who are trying to revive him, I don't think she has experienced any kind of heartbreak trauma to come out and sing the blues (busted relationships / marriages to certifiable freaks like Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage (one or more of which was probably some kind of publicity stunt), hardly give you the right much less the material to sing the blues). Country? Well, country music and it's fans tend to embrace even the most untalented of individuals.
But, ok, for the time being, lets not question her motives, lets just agree she wants to be a singer and, yes, pop music is her thang.
Does she have the instrument, a voice? Having listened to some tracks from her albums, I find her voice to be toneless, without any range of expression, it's too low, too husky, lacking in any musicality (Maile, being a singer herself, can help me out with using more technical jargon to describe the mechanics of Lisa Marie's voice).
But, ok, for the time being, lets not question her motives, lets just agree she wants to be a singer and, yes, pop music is her thang but she has no voice - the history of pop music is filled with arena-filling no-talents with no voice who still manage to release hit singles (a good producer can hide anything with enough mixing and over-production).
Does she have a "look" to fall back on? Remember Madonna in her early years? It can be argued that Madonna wasnt much of a singer in the beginning, and she specialized in pop confections like "Borderline" but, man, did she have a look. Well, Lisa Marie looks like Elvis, which would be great except she is a woman, and the result is that she looks like a drag queen (the aforesaid low voice adds to the illusion of a drag queen). I like to think that I have learned to appreciate Woman (with a capital "W") in all sizes and shapes (I love Chagall's ugly women, Rubens' fat women, Botticelli's beautiful women and Degas' shapely women) but I have to say Lisa Marie just...doesn't do it for me. I myself do not find her attractive and an offer from her to come to her hotel room for bountiful sex would raise nary an eyebrow on me. We all know of Elvis' ability to dress with style (not only were those Vegas jumpsuits awesome looking, but check out what Elvis wore, say, to the JayCees Ten Outstanding Men 1970 ceremony and elsewhere in his private life). Lisa Marie, by contrast, has no discernible style in clothing or appearance. She has no presence or personality at all, she is just there although you would be forgiven for not noticing her.
But, ok, for the time being, lets not question her motives, lets just agree she wants to be a singer and, yes, pop music is her thang but she has no voice and she has no style and the issue of her looks, while not appealing to me, is a purely subjective assessment on my part.
Does she have talent of any kind? One need only look at this clip of Lisa Marie's recent appearance at the Grand Ole Opry to provide an answer to that:question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NcHogHRE7Y
What stage presence! Look how she works that stage! Look how she works the crowd!
In the end, I know Lisa Marie will never amount to even a blip in the world of music (pop music, country music, whatever) but, perhaps because I am an Elvis fan, I find that her cash-in attempts (these duets in particular) promote values that deaden the sensibilities of a great democracy.
But, ok, for the time being, lets not question her motives, lets just agree she wants to be a singer and, yes, pop music is her thang but she has no voice and she has no style and the issue of her looks, while not appealing to me, is a purely subjective assessment on my part.
Does she have talent of any kind? One need only look at this clip of Lisa Marie's recent appearance at the Grand Ole Opry to provide an answer to that:question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NcHogHRE7Y
What stage presence! Look how she works that stage! Look how she works the crowd!
In the end, I know Lisa Marie will never amount to even a blip in the world of music (pop music, country music, whatever) but, perhaps because I am an Elvis fan, I find that her cash-in attempts (these duets in particular) promote values that deaden the sensibilities of a great democracy.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Mourning the loss, yet again
I just finished Careless Love and have posted a brief review on Goodreads, which I'll also repost below. I will follow up with a more lengthy review soon.
An unapologetic look at Elvis for the second half of his life, written seemingly without an agenda. You see the weaknesses and the strengths of the man; Guralnick doesn't paint a rosy picture, but he doesn't go out of his way to kick Elvis when he's down. Probably the most balanced version of Elvis's life story that I've read. The end will always be so tragically sad, no matter who the author is, and that's why the book gets 4 stars instead of 5. Guralnick ended the book with respect and with a tribute to Elvis's spirit and his music, and with a great quote from a 1962 interview:
An unapologetic look at Elvis for the second half of his life, written seemingly without an agenda. You see the weaknesses and the strengths of the man; Guralnick doesn't paint a rosy picture, but he doesn't go out of his way to kick Elvis when he's down. Probably the most balanced version of Elvis's life story that I've read. The end will always be so tragically sad, no matter who the author is, and that's why the book gets 4 stars instead of 5. Guralnick ended the book with respect and with a tribute to Elvis's spirit and his music, and with a great quote from a 1962 interview:
Well, I've tried to be the same all through this thing, you know, he declared early on. Naturally, you learn a lot about people, and you get involved in a lot of different situations, but I've tried to be the same. I mean, the way I was brought up, I've always considered other people's feelings; I've never - in other words, I didn't kick anybody on my way. I don't just sign the autographs and the pictures and so forth to help my popularity or make them like me. I do it because I know that they're sincere, and they see you and they want an autograph to take home, and they've got an autograph book, or they've got their little camera. They don't know the kind of life you lead, they don't know what kind of person you are. And so - I try to remember that. That's all. It's simple. It's just the way I was brought up [by] my mother and father to believe and have respect for other people. We were always considerate of other people's feelings.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
WHO MURDERED ELVIS
I was not going to even mention this title, it is really not worth mentioning, but, hey, its been a slow month for Elvis-related news and, frankly, this book cover had me laughing my ass off. I thought these kinds of ridiculously tawdry titles (Elvis! The Mob!! MURDER!!!!), full of outlandish, unverifiable claims, weren't even published in this day and age.
The lack of a publisher's name on the book spine leads me to believe this is self-published.
I just found it amusing.
WHAT NOW MAILE DUVAL
Performance anxiety. Creative block. Call it what you will. I'm stuck.
This used to come so easily.
It's Maile's fault. I think I am moving too fast for her.
Look, it has been a long time since I had an Elvis buddy, a special someone with whom you share a love of all things Elvis, that you can unabashedly obsess over the merits of take 1 of 'Frankie & Johnny" vs the master take used for the soundtrack, that you can analyze and pontificate at length over every single live performance given by Elvis in search of, well, a good performance of a song, yes, maybe some rarity that Elvis performed on stage only a few times, but also clues to Elvis' frame of mind, a glimpse into the metaphysical darkness of existential events (what? Even I don't know where that last bit came from but I am leaving it in).
A long time.
So it is a bit understandable that I would be overly excited at meeting someone who is not afraid to admit to being an Elvis fan, who listens to Elvis' music on long car trips, who traveled to Graceland of his/her own accord ferchrissakes. And I am positively hyper at the prospect of being able to bequeath onto this new Elvis buddy x-years worth of bootleg collecting.
My last Elvis buddy (lets call him "G") was the brother of an early ex-Mrs Blofeld's Cat.
(Actually, there was an Elvis buddy after G, a woman, but, although she was very nice, she was one of those certifiably loony Elvis fans, like she was married to a guy (also a crazy Elvis fan) who modeled his appearance on Elvis, from the pompadour to the 1970s sunglasses and paunch but he was too short to accurately complete the illusion).
In the years I knew G, he was in his most formative, impressionable years (late high school to early college years), somewhat directionless, fatherless. Through a shared a love of movies, an ongoing intense debate as to who was better: Pacino (me) or DeNiro (he), and a taste for the ganja (he was my supplier so he earned a few bucks off of me that way), I was able to introduce him to some culture in my own ways: books to read (I worked in publishing back then, a house with a line of very fine editions of the classics of literature: smoking weed is great but reading Dostoyevsky after smoking some weed is better); jazz music (which, given that G was a confirmed grunge fan, I consider this a personal triumph; I was no expert in jazz, I was learning myself at that time via some jazz encyclopedias from my publishing house and this coincided with cassette tapes being phased off the shelves of the franchise record stores when CDs started to come into vogue so you could always get cassette tapes of jazz really, really cheap); and yes, Elvis and his music (it started with the more outrageous Elvis material, like Elvis' monologues on stage when he was out of his mind but I was able to paint this within the framework of a larger Shakespearean tragedy which made it more interesting to him).
In order to introduce G to Elvis and jazz and literature, I would make radio shows (actually, these were mix tapes but I'll be damned if I call them that) comprised of carefully programmed music. Please understand that these shows were thought out, planned, scripted, everything had to flow, be thematically coherent.
Sadly, any copies I may have had at one time of these radio shows have long since been lost. All that remains are my notebooks with some draft tracklistings which provide a glimpse of how much I toiled on getting the theme and the flow right (lots of cross outs and lines with arrows indicating move this track up here, that track down there, drop take 7 of "You Don't Know Me" off completely).
Some greatest hits: one show featured carefully chosen Elvis movie songs bookended by excerpts of Quentin Crisp reading from THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT - these excerpts served to introduce the Elvis song and would comically comment on, say, take 1 of "Frankie & Johnny" or take 9 of "How Would You Like To Be".
Another show was an all poetry special, which featured Elvis songs bookended by the likes of Kerouac and other beats reciting their poetry, Charles Bukowski reading his poetry or William Shatner reading his poetry (!) and yes, Elvis also reciting some poetry ("As I awoke one morning...")!! Another radio show featured one of Elvis' complete performances, one chock full of his monologues, say the College Park, Maryland show from 1974, chopped up and wrapped with classic jazz music tracks.
In a way, it was a glorious creative time, in retrospect.
But I think I am moving too fast with Maile.
My god, what did I do, I mentioned to Maile that we should each make for the other a mix tape (yes, I used that very phrase, "mix tape"; I am a dork) of our respective favorite Elvis tracks.
Of course, my mind is on another radio show. My older self is wanting to recapture some part of my younger self that may be long gone.
I've already made the mistake of just blindly, hurriedly, excitedly ("Wait till Maile hears this, she will love it") making CDs for Maile already, straight copies, and so I have exhausted a good supply of outtakes and live performance tracks.
Adding to my creative impotence at the moment is a sense I have that Maile is hesitant. Maile is an Elvis fan, one of those true bloods who loves his music, who remembers fondly watching Elvis' movies when just a child. But Maile is not interested in a trip to the dark side. Maile is not interested (yet?) in listening to, say, a tape recording circa 1976 of the last phone conversation between Elvis and Red West, after Elvis had fired Red, or, rather, had his dad fire Red, and Red is trying to to get a woozy, drugged Elvis to admit that what Elvis did was really shitty. Or listening to a phone conversation between Arlene (obviously a former one night stand) and an Elvis who is clearly not interested in talking to her. And forget about College Park, MD 1974 and most of 1977. Believe me, I can understand that only the truly demented Elvis obsessive would have any interest in hearing Jackie Kahane's act or hear the Sweet Inspirations opening set.
So I am working to put together a CD of some Elvis tunes that are on constant play on my Ipod, cherry-picking from the bootlegs so hopefully this will be material Maile hasnt heard before (although with my Elvis collection in such disarray, some on CD, some of which is just digital files on who knows which one of dozens of different portable hard drives) this is taking too long a time
And still I think about introducing Maile to the dark side.
One show I have been listening to of late would be a perfect start. The September 3, 1973 closing show in Vegas. Elvis has not yet descended to the deranged (as he did in September 1974) but he is becoming unhinged.
How else to explain Elvis coming out on stage in this fashion:
Now, look closely. See anything, uh, strange? Yes, I know the sight of Elvis riding on the back of a fat man is strange, but is there anything else peculiar?
Look closer. What is that on...
Yes, there is a monkey on Elvis' back. He is giving a performance with a monkey on his back. Would Maile be curious to know why? How can Maile not be curious to know whether Elvis is even aware that there is a monkey on his back?
And that is just the start of the show.
I dont want to give away the high points of the show, but one visual bit of business (of which no photos can be found) that wont be appreciated by listening to the recording is that when Elvis starts singing "What Now My Love", a bed (!) is rolled out on stage and Elvis lies down on the bed and sings the song from there.
Believe it or not, there is a good set list for this particular evening but that is actually secondary to what happens on stage.
Would Maile want to know who this "Mario" person is that Elvis mentions during the show? and why exactly does Elvis decide (in mid-song!) to throw down a challenge to Conrad Hilton (the owner of the Hilton Hotel where Elvis happens to be performing) as well as all of the staff?
How can Maile not be intrigued enough to take a trip to the dark side?
This used to come so easily.
It's Maile's fault. I think I am moving too fast for her.
Look, it has been a long time since I had an Elvis buddy, a special someone with whom you share a love of all things Elvis, that you can unabashedly obsess over the merits of take 1 of 'Frankie & Johnny" vs the master take used for the soundtrack, that you can analyze and pontificate at length over every single live performance given by Elvis in search of, well, a good performance of a song, yes, maybe some rarity that Elvis performed on stage only a few times, but also clues to Elvis' frame of mind, a glimpse into the metaphysical darkness of existential events (what? Even I don't know where that last bit came from but I am leaving it in).
A long time.
So it is a bit understandable that I would be overly excited at meeting someone who is not afraid to admit to being an Elvis fan, who listens to Elvis' music on long car trips, who traveled to Graceland of his/her own accord ferchrissakes. And I am positively hyper at the prospect of being able to bequeath onto this new Elvis buddy x-years worth of bootleg collecting.
My last Elvis buddy (lets call him "G") was the brother of an early ex-Mrs Blofeld's Cat.
(Actually, there was an Elvis buddy after G, a woman, but, although she was very nice, she was one of those certifiably loony Elvis fans, like she was married to a guy (also a crazy Elvis fan) who modeled his appearance on Elvis, from the pompadour to the 1970s sunglasses and paunch but he was too short to accurately complete the illusion).
In the years I knew G, he was in his most formative, impressionable years (late high school to early college years), somewhat directionless, fatherless. Through a shared a love of movies, an ongoing intense debate as to who was better: Pacino (me) or DeNiro (he), and a taste for the ganja (he was my supplier so he earned a few bucks off of me that way), I was able to introduce him to some culture in my own ways: books to read (I worked in publishing back then, a house with a line of very fine editions of the classics of literature: smoking weed is great but reading Dostoyevsky after smoking some weed is better); jazz music (which, given that G was a confirmed grunge fan, I consider this a personal triumph; I was no expert in jazz, I was learning myself at that time via some jazz encyclopedias from my publishing house and this coincided with cassette tapes being phased off the shelves of the franchise record stores when CDs started to come into vogue so you could always get cassette tapes of jazz really, really cheap); and yes, Elvis and his music (it started with the more outrageous Elvis material, like Elvis' monologues on stage when he was out of his mind but I was able to paint this within the framework of a larger Shakespearean tragedy which made it more interesting to him).
In order to introduce G to Elvis and jazz and literature, I would make radio shows (actually, these were mix tapes but I'll be damned if I call them that) comprised of carefully programmed music. Please understand that these shows were thought out, planned, scripted, everything had to flow, be thematically coherent.
Sadly, any copies I may have had at one time of these radio shows have long since been lost. All that remains are my notebooks with some draft tracklistings which provide a glimpse of how much I toiled on getting the theme and the flow right (lots of cross outs and lines with arrows indicating move this track up here, that track down there, drop take 7 of "You Don't Know Me" off completely).
Some greatest hits: one show featured carefully chosen Elvis movie songs bookended by excerpts of Quentin Crisp reading from THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT - these excerpts served to introduce the Elvis song and would comically comment on, say, take 1 of "Frankie & Johnny" or take 9 of "How Would You Like To Be".
Another show was an all poetry special, which featured Elvis songs bookended by the likes of Kerouac and other beats reciting their poetry, Charles Bukowski reading his poetry or William Shatner reading his poetry (!) and yes, Elvis also reciting some poetry ("As I awoke one morning...")!! Another radio show featured one of Elvis' complete performances, one chock full of his monologues, say the College Park, Maryland show from 1974, chopped up and wrapped with classic jazz music tracks.
In a way, it was a glorious creative time, in retrospect.
But I think I am moving too fast with Maile.
My god, what did I do, I mentioned to Maile that we should each make for the other a mix tape (yes, I used that very phrase, "mix tape"; I am a dork) of our respective favorite Elvis tracks.
Of course, my mind is on another radio show. My older self is wanting to recapture some part of my younger self that may be long gone.
I've already made the mistake of just blindly, hurriedly, excitedly ("Wait till Maile hears this, she will love it") making CDs for Maile already, straight copies, and so I have exhausted a good supply of outtakes and live performance tracks.
Adding to my creative impotence at the moment is a sense I have that Maile is hesitant. Maile is an Elvis fan, one of those true bloods who loves his music, who remembers fondly watching Elvis' movies when just a child. But Maile is not interested in a trip to the dark side. Maile is not interested (yet?) in listening to, say, a tape recording circa 1976 of the last phone conversation between Elvis and Red West, after Elvis had fired Red, or, rather, had his dad fire Red, and Red is trying to to get a woozy, drugged Elvis to admit that what Elvis did was really shitty. Or listening to a phone conversation between Arlene (obviously a former one night stand) and an Elvis who is clearly not interested in talking to her. And forget about College Park, MD 1974 and most of 1977. Believe me, I can understand that only the truly demented Elvis obsessive would have any interest in hearing Jackie Kahane's act or hear the Sweet Inspirations opening set.
So I am working to put together a CD of some Elvis tunes that are on constant play on my Ipod, cherry-picking from the bootlegs so hopefully this will be material Maile hasnt heard before (although with my Elvis collection in such disarray, some on CD, some of which is just digital files on who knows which one of dozens of different portable hard drives) this is taking too long a time
And still I think about introducing Maile to the dark side.
One show I have been listening to of late would be a perfect start. The September 3, 1973 closing show in Vegas. Elvis has not yet descended to the deranged (as he did in September 1974) but he is becoming unhinged.
How else to explain Elvis coming out on stage in this fashion:
Look closer. What is that on...
And that is just the start of the show.
I dont want to give away the high points of the show, but one visual bit of business (of which no photos can be found) that wont be appreciated by listening to the recording is that when Elvis starts singing "What Now My Love", a bed (!) is rolled out on stage and Elvis lies down on the bed and sings the song from there.
Believe it or not, there is a good set list for this particular evening but that is actually secondary to what happens on stage.
Would Maile want to know who this "Mario" person is that Elvis mentions during the show? and why exactly does Elvis decide (in mid-song!) to throw down a challenge to Conrad Hilton (the owner of the Hilton Hotel where Elvis happens to be performing) as well as all of the staff?
How can Maile not be intrigued enough to take a trip to the dark side?
Notes on Double Trouble
I've finally seen it: the infamous scene in which Elvis was forced to sing a version of "Old MacDonald's Farm." It's one of those stereotypically bad scenes that is referenced by those who write about Elvis because it was so outrageous and embarrassing for him. As I watched it, I was embarrassed for him. It wouldn't have been so bad if he and co-star Annette Day were just sitting on the back of a pickup with a bunch of animals. People in movies tend to do that from time to time. It's just when he sings "ee-i-ee-i-oh" and flaps his arms like a chicken and makes horns with his hands to mimic a cow that you cringe on his behalf. (Elvis, wherever you are, I felt your pain.)
This scene appears in Double Trouble, Elvis's twenty-third film, released in 1967. In this adventure, Elvis plays Guy Lambert, a singer who finds himself dating a 17-year-old girl who just won't leave him alone. He tries to break it off with her when he learns her age, but to no avail. They sail from England to Belgium where she is supposed to attend boarding school and where he has gigs with his band. The music quickly gets moved to the back burner as Guy discovers that Jill's (Day) uncle has hired hit men to kill her before she turns 18 so he can get her inheritance. In addition to dodging hit men, Guy and Jill are also being followed by jewel thieves who stashed their cargo in Guy's suitcase during the trip to Belgium. After running to and fro and managing to ditch one of the hit men in an old well in Antwerp, Guy is arrested by the Wiere Brothers, who made cameo appearances as a comical trio of police officers. In the end, everything turns out all right, I guess (kind of an odd ending - you judge for yourself).
Since I commented on the costuming for Spinout in my last post, I'll mention here that Annette Day looks like Little Bo Peep in some scenes of the film, which makes it even more awkward that she's supposed to be a teenager dating an adult man. I didn't notice as many multi-layered costumes for Elvis this time, but his hair bothered me. He was sporting the same do that he had for Frankie and Johnny (1966), which featured a small tuft of hair sticking out in the center of his forehead, like all of the caricatures you see of him. It wouldn't have been so bad if the rest of his hair wasn't all slicked back. The tousled look was good for him, as was the style of having all of the hair slicked straight back. This one was not his best.
Some of the parallels between Elvis's life and this and some of his other films strike me as interesting. First, the idea that an adult man would never dream of dating a teenager. Priscilla was no longer a teenager when this movie came out, but she did live with him when she was one. Second, the man who is single and carefree and is finally convinced (or forced) to settle down and marry. Again, cue reference to Priscilla. Of course it's entirely possible that the writers (if you can bestow that title upon them) were just trying to create what they thought to be a believable story, but you have to wonder if they had any inspiration or, perhaps, encouragement by a certain Colonel - not just for Double Trouble, but for others too. Just food for thought.
(Aside to Blofeld: I bet the outtakes from the Double Trouble soundtrack recording sessions are entertaining. I imagine some 4-letter words during the "Old MacDonald's Farm" tracks. Am I right?)
This scene appears in Double Trouble, Elvis's twenty-third film, released in 1967. In this adventure, Elvis plays Guy Lambert, a singer who finds himself dating a 17-year-old girl who just won't leave him alone. He tries to break it off with her when he learns her age, but to no avail. They sail from England to Belgium where she is supposed to attend boarding school and where he has gigs with his band. The music quickly gets moved to the back burner as Guy discovers that Jill's (Day) uncle has hired hit men to kill her before she turns 18 so he can get her inheritance. In addition to dodging hit men, Guy and Jill are also being followed by jewel thieves who stashed their cargo in Guy's suitcase during the trip to Belgium. After running to and fro and managing to ditch one of the hit men in an old well in Antwerp, Guy is arrested by the Wiere Brothers, who made cameo appearances as a comical trio of police officers. In the end, everything turns out all right, I guess (kind of an odd ending - you judge for yourself).
Since I commented on the costuming for Spinout in my last post, I'll mention here that Annette Day looks like Little Bo Peep in some scenes of the film, which makes it even more awkward that she's supposed to be a teenager dating an adult man. I didn't notice as many multi-layered costumes for Elvis this time, but his hair bothered me. He was sporting the same do that he had for Frankie and Johnny (1966), which featured a small tuft of hair sticking out in the center of his forehead, like all of the caricatures you see of him. It wouldn't have been so bad if the rest of his hair wasn't all slicked back. The tousled look was good for him, as was the style of having all of the hair slicked straight back. This one was not his best.
Some of the parallels between Elvis's life and this and some of his other films strike me as interesting. First, the idea that an adult man would never dream of dating a teenager. Priscilla was no longer a teenager when this movie came out, but she did live with him when she was one. Second, the man who is single and carefree and is finally convinced (or forced) to settle down and marry. Again, cue reference to Priscilla. Of course it's entirely possible that the writers (if you can bestow that title upon them) were just trying to create what they thought to be a believable story, but you have to wonder if they had any inspiration or, perhaps, encouragement by a certain Colonel - not just for Double Trouble, but for others too. Just food for thought.
(Aside to Blofeld: I bet the outtakes from the Double Trouble soundtrack recording sessions are entertaining. I imagine some 4-letter words during the "Old MacDonald's Farm" tracks. Am I right?)
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
What's with Elvis's movie wardrobe?
After just having finished Spinout, I have to ask: what's with Elvis's movie wardrobe? In at least two scenes, it looks like he's wearing three shirts - a turtleneck, a crewneck, and a vest - all under a jacket. Perhaps the turtleneck is actually a Dickie, but it still looks silly. This wardrobe style seemed to be the norm from the mid-1960s Elvis movies on. Why the need to cover up so much? It looks particularly dumb when he's singing by a swimming pool and most of the other people are in bathing suits and he's in a button-down shirt and long pants. In Blue Hawaii we saw him shirtless and in tight short shorts. In Girls! Girls! Girls! he wore short-sleeved polo shirts. In Kid Galahad he was bare-chested and just wearing boxing shorts during all of the boxing matches. It is true that his weight yo-yoed a lot in the mid-'60s, but in Spinout he looked pretty darn good to me. Why not show off those muscular legs? I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks that some of these fluff movies would have been much improved if we saw fewer bikinis and more swimming trunks.
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