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This is one of Elvis's best films in my opinion. And one where he extended his range a bit. Usually he plays he troubled youths, or confident smart people who are trying to prove themselves. Here's he's an innocent in the world and it's a tribute to his acting skills that he was acquiring that he didn't descend into being Gomer Pyle.

Of course the film is greatly helped by the title tune which in my opinion is one of his best movie songs. Follow That Dream rightly belonged among Elvis's golden hits.

With an innocence here that rivals even Stan Laurel or Harry Langdon, Elvis manages to defeat some pretty sharp characters. The film itself has a charming innocence about it that makes it thorough going fun.

Follow That Dream is one of my favorite Elvis movies.He proves he could have been good at light comedy.This is a fun,good natured role for Elvis.There is comedy,romance and Elvis music.If you like this combination,you will like this movie.

This is actually a very good Elvis movie. The plot concerns a bunch of hillbillies, the Kwimpers - a dad, his son, and three orphans, who take over some beach property under the Homestead act after they run out of gas there.

Elvis portrays a dummy of sorts - he plays it very naturally and he's quite funny! It's not so much that he's dumb, but he's so guileless, literal, and helpful, he seems that way.

With these attributes, he continually gets the best of the bad guys, including a mobster, Simon Oakland, Joanna Moore, from child welfare, and assorted others.

The conceit makes for some hilarious scenes. In one, the mobster, after Elvis beats up his thugs, decides to blow up Elvis' family home. They prepare a bomb and put it in a box. When Elvis sees it, he thinks the mobsters have forgotten their package and dutifully returns it. BAM.

One poster mentioned that Elvis doesn't try to look as if he's singing. Apparently, he was notorious for not bothering much with lipsynching, though I'm not sure why. For my money, the only really good song in this film is the title one. And lipsynching or not, Presley looks great.

I guess we can spend time lamenting the fact that Elvis didn't make better films or get the acting opportunities he deserved, or we can enjoy what we have. And Follow That Dream is better than most.

This movie is in my top ten of all time. It is a pure romp! Even though you have the "bad guys" from the government to add some drama, and the fact that Elvis character "Toby" and his family are all government freeloaders, this is essentially just a feel good movie.

You can read the plot from the other reviews, but it is essentially about homesteaders coming to Florida with a composite "family" and trying to make their way.

This is Elvis at his best--as he was meant to be in movies--singing and romancing his way through, with a back woods innocence that Max Baer would later use as Jethro Bodine on "The Beverly Hillbillies".

Enjoy this film. It is a delight!

Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.

While not one of the top three Elvis films, those being 'King Creole', 'Flaming Star' and 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Follow That Dream' is one of his better overall films. It's proof that his early films were actually pretty good, but unfortunately it was one of his last good ones when the formula started here wore increasingly thin and further suffered from looking less appealing and even the quality of the soundtracks and Elvis' acting wavering significantly.

'Follow That Dream' is not perfect. The dialogue is idiotic at times, then again the script was not a strength in a vast majority of Elvis' films, even in some of his better ones. The songs are terrific (especially the hauntingly beautiful title song), but there were too few of them in the film and Gordon Douglas judging from the indifferent at best way they were staged didn't seem to know what to do with them. Despite Elvis singing it beautifully, the title song is cheapened somewhat by the sloppy lip-synching, which showed the one time in the film Elvis was not comfortable or enthusiastic.

However, 'Follow That Dream' benefits from colourful locations and beautiful photography. While one wishes there were more, the songs are terrific, while there are several very funny and movingly romantic moments. The story is formulaic, but still very easy to like and energetic.

Douglas generally does an assured job directing, faltering only in the musical numbers, while the cast are a high point. Elvis' gently good-natured and laid-back performance is one of his better ones, and he is very well supported by a coolly graceful Arthur O'Connell, charming Joanna Moore and adorable Ann Helm. The chemistry is similarly great.

In summary, good Elvis film and one of the last ones properly worth watching. 7/10 Bethany Cox