TCM is showing Jailhouse Rock next week and I’ve set the TiVo to record it. When I was young, I remember that Elvis movies were often shown on a local independent station. I vaguely remember Blue Hawaii and Viva Las Vegas as being decent enough, although that’s from my teenage years.
I’m gonna go with “No”. Haven’t seen them all, but I’ve seen enough.
Not really “good,” in any real sense of the word. They can be “fun” to watch, if you’re into the whole 60s pop vibe. Change of Habit though is a bit-heavy handed with its social commentary, and other stuff like Spinout pretty silly (and whatever movie featured “Yoga is as yoga does,” among other “classics”). Mostly they were the Colonel’s effort to sell Elvis records. They were never meant to be high culture.
Also going to go with “no.” I probably saw most of them when they were on TV during my childhood because my mother was a huge fan. I haven’t seen them all again as an adult, but have seen a few (half-watching in the background while doing something else) recently, including Girls! Girls! Girls!, Kissin’ Cousins, and Clambake. That random selection was bad. Really bad. Elvis could not act his way out of a wet paper bag.
Define “good.”
A lot of them are fun. A lot are formulaic. I own most of them on DVD.
Personal faves:
King Creole
Blue Hawaii
Girls! Girls! Girls!
Viva Las Vegas
Easy Come, Easy Go
Spinout
Elvis might have wanted to be a dramatic actor, but nobody wanted to see him in those rolls.
I always thought he was a well bread young man.
You’re just buttering him up with that!
Worth watching:
Jailhouse Rock
King Creole
Fun in Acapulco
Viva Las Vegas
I’ll define good as being equal or better to A Hard Day’s Night and Help! I’m not expecting The Bridge On The River Kwai from a movie featuring pop stars.
Then…no. Not in the least.
It’s the yeast I can do.
And he rises to the occasion!
I’m crust fallen because I can’t top that.
I’d be a heel if I didn’t give you another chance.
I say we blame silenus for starting the hijack which I will stop here.
If the goal is to watch Elvis for 90 minutes, I bet some of them are good.
Love Me Tenderis a pretty good Western. Not the greatest ever made, but way above average.
Ann-Margaret’s white shorts in Viva Las Vegas.. They were gooooooood.
It appears that the highest-rated one on the IMDb is King Creole at 7.0. A Hard Day’s Night is rated 7.7. Help! is rated 7.3. The Bridge on the River Kwai is rated 8.2. A 7.0 film is a reasonably good one, I think. So at least one of Elvis’s movies is reasonably good, but none are great or even very good.
Before you all end up in Leavenworth?
^ Matzoh fast, Chefguy!
According to his acting IMDB page, the lowest rated one is Harum Scarum at 4.7.
As low as that is, you can find a lot of movies on IMDB that are rated lower.