Elvis Films FAQ

All That's Left to Know About the King of Rock 'n' Roll in Hollywood

Paul Simpson

• Publisher: Applause
• Year: 2000
• eBook ISBN: 9781480366909
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

If Elvis Presley had not wanted to be a movie star, he would never have single-handedly revolutionized popular culture. Yet this aspect of his phenomenal career has been much maligned and misunderstood – partly because the King himself once referred to his 33 movies as a rut he had got stuck in just off Hollywood Boulevard. Elvis Films FAQ explores his best and worst moments as an actor, analyzes the bizarre autobiographical detail that runs through so many of his films, and reflects on what it must be like to be idolized by millions around the world yet have to make a living singing about dogs, chambers of commerce, and fatally naive shrimps.

Elvis's Hollywood years are full of mystery, and Elvis Films FAQ covers them all! Which of his own movies did he actually like? What films did he wish he could have made? Why didn't he have an acting coach? When will Quentin Tarantino stop alluding to him in his movies? And was Clambake really the catalyst for his marriage to Priscilla? Elvis Films FAQ explains everything you want to know about the whys and wherefores of the singer-actor's bizarre celluloid odyssey; or, as Elvis said, "I saw the movie and I was the hero of the movie."

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: “I Saw the Movie and I Was the Hero of the Movie”
• 1. Loving Who? Love Me Tender to King Creole
• 2. Where Do I Go from Here? G.I. Blues to Kid Galahad
• 3. Please Don’t Stop Loving Me: Girls! Girls! Girls! to Roustabout
• 4. A World of Our Own: From Girl Happy to Clambake
• 5. I Want to Be Free: Stay Away, Joe to Change of Habit
• 6. How Good an Actor Was Elvis? The Views from Critics, Co-Stars, Directors, and Others
• 7. Big Boss Man: What Kind of Technical Advice Did Parker Provide for Elvis Movies?
• 8. Roads Not Taken: What Elvis Could Have Learned from Bing, Sinatra, and Dino
• 9. Directing Elvis: The Twenty-two Men Who Shouted, “Lights, Camera, Action,” on a Presley Movie
• 10. Hal B. Wallis: Starmaker or Starbreaker?
• 11. The King’s Consorts: Elvis’s Leading Ladies and the Part They Played in His Life
• 12. “Son of a Bitch, We’ve Won!”: Those Elvis Awards and Nominations in Full
• 13. The Last Farewell: Proof That Elvis’s Movies Could Damage Careers
• 14. The Rules of the Game: How to Get Cast in an Elvis Movie
• 15. Never Say Yes: Those Working Titles, from the Sublime to the Ridiculous
• 16. Something in the Way He Moves: Elvis the Dancer
• 17. “With His Foot on the Gas and No Brakes on the Fun!”: The Best of Those Tag Lines
• 18. It’s Only Words: Writing for the King
• 19. Not as a Stranger: The Actors Elvis Befriended—From Nick Adams to Sammy Davis Jr.
• 20. Return to Sender: The Scripts, Ideas, and Movies Elvis Never Made
• 21. They Were Contenders: The Co-stars Who Could Have Been
• 22. The King’s Oscars: The Movies Elvis Really Loved
• 23. On to Greater Things: From Bobby Kennedy’s Bodyguard to Voices in Scooby Doo: The Remarkable Future Careers of Elvis’s Supporting Actors
• 24. “Your Time Hasn’t Come Yet, Baby”: Child Stars in the King’s Movies
• 25. The King’s New Clothes: Presley as a Fashion Icon
• 26. “Real Florida Mountains!”: The Worst Goofs
• 27. Young Dreams: Elvis and the Teen Movie
• 28. Kissin’ Cousins: Elvis Films and the Beach-Party Movie
• 29. Pieces of My Life: Were the Movies Elvis’s Autobiography?
• 30. “It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’”: The Absence of Elvis’s Mother as Reflected in the Movies
• 31. In My Father’s House: Vernon, Feckless Dads, and Why the Movies Featured So Many Jailhouse Shocks
• 32. Double Trouble: Twins in Elvis Movies
• 33. “Elvis Cannot Be Fat or Pudgy Looking”: The Continuing Struggle over the King’s Weight
• 34. My Grandmother’s a Full Cherokee: Elvis’s Native American Ancestry in the Movies
• 35. The 50 Percent Men: The Abundance of Svengali Parker Figures in Elvis Movies
• 36. Inherit the Wind: Elvis’s Secret Wanderlust
• 37. Girls! Girls! Girls!: Elvis as a Very Chaste Kind of Super Stud
• 38. In the Land of Cotton: Elvis the Celluloid Southerner
• 39. There’s So Much World to See: The Elvis Travelogues
• 40. Aloha, El: The Hawaiian Presley
• 41. The Shoeshine Boy: Elvis’s Duet with a Black Shoeshine Kid and the Racial Politics of His Movies
• 42. “If You’re Going to Start a Rumble”: The Importance of the Fight in an Elvis Movie, and a Celebration of the Five Best and Worst
• 43. Even Concrete Cracks: How Actresses Rose to the Ultimate Challenge—Being Sung to By Elvis
• 44. A New Breed of All-Action Hero: Elvis the Boxer, Race-Car Driver, Speedboat Racer, Stock-Car Ace, and Rodeo Legend
• 45. Ramblers, G-Men, and 1 Plus 2 + ½: The Role of Elvis’s Bands in the Movies
• 46. The King’s Domain: The Movie Music
• 47. What Do You Do When You’re Asked to Write a Song Called “A Dog’s Life”? The Inner Workings of the Presley Music Factory
• 48. Fifty Million Reasons Why the King Can’t Stop Singing: Who Needs Money? Presley and Parker Do
• 49. That Curious Baritone: And Why Did They Speed His Voice Up in Girl Happy?
• 50. Nice Strategy: Shame about the Songs
• 51. “Could I Fall in Love?” The Best of the Movie Ballads
• 52. Hard Rock: The Most Intriguing Rock Songs in His Movies, from “Party” to “Long Legged Girl”
• 53. So Close, Yet So Far: The Songs That Never Made It—One of Which May Have Inspired “Imagine”
• 54. The Songs They Should Have Cut: In Other Words, How Did “Old MacDonald” Stay In?
• 55. “I Sing All Kinds”: Jazz, Country, Blues, and Gospel in Elvis’s Movie Music
• 56. King of the Whole Wide World: Elvis’s World Musical Tour—From Hawaii to Germany and Back Again
• 57. Shake That Tambourine: Dance Crazes in Elvis Movies
• 58. Who Are You? Exploring the Theory That Elvis Used His Movie Songs to Pay Homage to Such Heroes as Harry Belafonte and Jackie Wilson
• 59. Operettas, Elvis, and Al Jolson: The Rules of Singing in the Movies
• 60. Shrimps, Income Tax, and Chambers of Commerce: The Most Unusual Songs in Elvis Movies
• 61. They Also Sang: The Other Singers Who Shared the King’s Limelight
• 62. The Elvis Soundtrack That Was Ahead of Its Time: How The Trouble with Girls Broke the Mold
• 63. Sing It, Fella: The Best Use of Elvis’s Music in Other Movies
• 64. A Dozen Seriously Underrated Movie Songs: From “Return to Sender” to “Beginners Luck”
• 65. The King is Dead, Long Live the King! Presley’s Intriguing Influence on Directors
• Selected Bibliography