Roustabout

Whenever Elvis returned to his rebel roots, his product improved. Roustabout provided him with his meatiest sixties role, a leatherclad itinerant musician who falls in with Barbara Stanwyck's travelling carnival. He's lean and mean and his songs actually work as part of the film instead of as a distraction. Recommended.

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.

'Roustabout' is not one of Elvis' better overall films, not being as good as the likes of 'King Creole', 'Flaming Star', 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Viva Las Vegas' and 'Loving You'. This said as far as his mid- 60s onwards efforts go, 'Roustabout' generally is one of his better faring ones.

Very rarely were the script and story strong suits in Elvis' films, quite often being weak links even. 'Roustabout' is not an exception. The story is paper thin and formulaic, with neither the friction between Charlie and Joe or the romance between Charlie and Cathy ever igniting and structurally it's all too pat and obvious. The former due to too much immature silliness and not enough grit, which one kind of expected when you have the rebellious sort of character that Elvis played in the 50s in films that did have tension and grit, and the latter due to the chemistry not being there and Joan Freeman being somewhat bland.

The songs generally are less than stellar and mostly very forgettable. A few do work, and they will be mentioned later, but most suffer from lacking sound mixing that give them a cheapness, sloppy lip-synching, fitting awkwardly and from being too short. "Carny Town" and "It's Carnival Time" especially apply here. The script has its fun and good-natured moments, as well as its tragic ones, but over-silliness and corn run all over it as well.

However, 'Roustabout' is a good-looking film, it's beautifully shot with a great atmosphere and the rural scenery is colourful and evocative. A few of the songs are good, the title song and "Little Egypt" being knockouts. The tender "Big Love, Big Heartache", the acid "Poison Ivy League" and the energetic "One Track Shot" also stand out. The choreography has a good deal of energy, the carnival atmosphere is just magical and the Wall of Death scene hits hard.

A good cast helps and 'Roustabout' has that (Freeman excepted), John Rich also directing more than capably. Elvis is not at his very best and has been in better shape, but there is still an easy-going charisma and vigour to his performance. Barbara Stanwyk provides compelling realism and effortless command to her role, while Sue Anne Langdon adds a good deal of lustre and Leif Eriksson relishes his unsympathetic character. Familiar faces such as Pat Buttram, Steve Brodie and Jack Albertson are fun to see, and the film also boasts short appearances from Racquel Welch, Richard Kiel, Teri Garr and Billy Barty.

Overall, not great but decent likable fun. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This is a very entertaining film. Elvis (Charlie Rogers) is a rebel biker who has a reputation as fighter and a womanizer. He makes a living as a traveling singer.

Early on in the film he is fired for getting into a fight with a group of college toughs. While riding his bike to the next engagement, the father of a girl he was flirting with tries to run him off the road. To make ends meet, and to earn enough money to repair his bike, he joins up with a traveling carnival.

The carnival is run by Maggie Moran, played by legendary actress Barbara Stanwyck. Elvis falls quickly for her lovely daughter Cathy, (Joan Freeman). The film takes off from there.

It's a wonderful adventure and is sure to entertain. Plus there are some great music tracks. "Little Egypt", "Roustabout", and "Big Love, Big Heartache" are great examples. The soundtrack went to #1 on the Billboard charts.

Some fun facts: Raquel Welch has a bit part at the very beginning of the film, and Teri Garr is one of the dancers. The title song, Roustabout is one everyone remembers. However Elvis also recorded another song for the film called "I'm a Roustabout". "Roustabout" was picked and "I'm a Roustabout" was never released. The song was recently discovered and was released as a bonus track on a CD in 2003. The motorcycle Elvis rides throughout the movie is a Honda 305 Superhawk.

Most people don't think too much of this Elvis romp compared to any other, but for me it stands out as one of the better "formula" movies the man made in the '60s. As club singer Charlie Rogers, Elvis is a little different from his usual stock characters from this period because the young man has a chip on his shoulder. He's a reckless person who never had a family and is prone to being self-centered and dismissive. After getting fired from a gig one day, he and his motorcycle are smacked up by a threesome of small-time carnival owners driving in their car, so they invite him to stick around their modest fairgrounds and work as a "roustabout" for a little cash while waiting for his bike to get back from the repair shop. Rogers is able to boost business with his singing to lure customers to the Fair.

Barbara Stanwyck plays the strong-willed carnival chief who breathes the carny lifestyle, but she's saddled with a crotchety and hard-headed partner (Leif Erickson) who once caused a tragedy to a customer by not safely securing one of the rides at the fair, and who tries to keep Charlie away from his daughter Cathy (Joan Freeman). It's refreshing to see a leading girl who can hold her own and not easily succumb to Elvis' whims. There are a few decent songs here and there, if no great ones. Raquel Welch can be spotted in the beginning of the film as one of a group of young folks going to see Charlie Rogers perform at the club. *** out of ****

Once again, this is an above-average Elvis Presley star vehicle but which, at the end of the day, offers nothing really new; still, I feel that the star’s own performance here is near the best that I’ve seen him give as he is well up to the challenge of playing a relatively complex character: alternately selfish, cocky, rebellious but, eventually, compassionate and even shrewd.

Presley, however, is let down by the plot which, as I said, is not only formulaic and, therefore, entirely predictable but rather sentimental as well, what with Barbara Stanwyck’s carny show forever on the brink of foreclosure; one other definite thorn in the film’s side is the one-dimensional nature of Leif Erickon’s grumpy characterization. On the other hand, Stanwyck’s participation adds undeniable distinction to the film (her role had previously been offered to Mae West!) and lovely Joan Freeman projects the right mix of independence and vulnerability as the heroine.

At least, the vivid carnival setting does provide plenty of opportunity for color, action, thrills, romance, comedy (courtesy of Sue Ane Langdon as a flirtatious fortune-teller) and, of course, songs which are not too bad – “Poison Ivy League”, “One Track Heart” and, especially, the Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller penned “Little Egypt” – though, again, Elvis has certainly sung better ones in his Fifties heyday.

For the record, an uncredited Raquel Welch can be glimpsed among the college kids in the film’s very first sequence and, unless they didn’t hit it off here, it seems rather strange now that they were never paired together when she became a star in her own right a couple of years later!