Live a Little, Love a Little

During the making of the 1968 comeback Tv special, Presley was making a lot of changes and so was his manager. Here we get to see a new type of Elvis movie that although suited for kids has more of an adult theme than ever before. With a light hearted sexual theme and some better but fewer songs this Presley picture is better than most from his later career. After this, each of the last four films he ever did had a new slant to them that differed greatly from his early to mid 1960s movies. Nicely made with few little quiet jokes and generally good fun with a cameo from Elvis's father, Vernon. Lively entertainment thats better than Star Wars.

I've been an Elvis fan for 10 years now, and I've seen most of his 60's movies. For some reason I didn't rent this one till recently- I think it's because I had it confused with "The Trouble With Girls", which I have no desire to see. Anyway, we rented this because we saw it had "A Little Less Conversation" in it and liked it so much we ended up buying it.

Elvis plays Greg Nolan, a photographer who..ok, there's not much of a plot to describe here. The storyline consists of a girl he meets who keeps changing her name (Bernice/Betty/Suzie/Alice) and personality, spending most of the movie alternately screwing with Elvis' mind and coming on to him. Meanwhile, Elvis gets two jobs for girlie-type magazines in the same building- one of them is called "Classic Cat Magazine" (or maybe it's Classy Cat) being a photographer and pretends at both that he only works for that magazine, while he literally runs back and forth between the two jobs, changing clothes and trying not to have one boss find out about the other. Red West makes his usual cameo as a guy in a fight scene whose ass Elvis ends up kicking (always fun to watch).

This is a pretty fun Elvis movie, and since it was filmed in '68, right around the time Elvis did the comeback special, the King was in great shape, looking pretty sharp with his sideburns and tan. He also looks like he's having fun, and doesn't feel too stupid. "Spinout" is entertaining, but half the time Elvis looks pretty unhappy. One of my Elvis trivia-type books said this movie has the distinction of being the only one he ever has sex in (offscreen, of course) but I think the only way you could tell this is by him waking up in a girl's bed. His co-star, who looks like a cross between Sharon Tate and how Liz Taylor looked in the 60's, was kind of annoying (though not as bad as some of the actresses he's worked with, and at least she has a great wardrobe. It was mainly the fact that she had this kind of whispery voice like Taylor. The clothes and hair are all really cool. There are only 4 songs in the movie, but two of them are especially good. I loved "The Edge of Reality"-Elvis has this trippy dream because Bernice/Betty/Suzie/Alice has been messing with his mind so much. The song is great, and Elvis wears this tailored set of pajamas that look more like a blue sharkskin suit. I think whoever designed and choreographed the dream sequence might have paid a little visit to Dr. Nick's, if you know what I mean, but it's pretty cool. The highlight of the movie for me was definitely "A Little Less Conversation", which Elvis sings to a hot babe at a swinging cocktail party as he's getting her to leave with him. Watch for the male red-haired go-go dancer that they pass who dances so furiously and wildly that his gyrations actually make him upstage Elvis for a few seconds, which is no small feat. As he and the chick are leaving, they pass other go-go dancers, saunter out the door of the cool 60's pad, and hop in Elvis' Cadillac that the valets just happened to have pulled up in front at that second, while Elvis smoothly never misses a beat and manages to make the whole thing look like he does it every night. Now that's how you leave a party!

One of Elvis' better flicks from the 60's, and definitely my favorite movie of his to watch from the late 60's.

And the truth is that this is a good film. It's a very atypical film, as were all of Elvis' last few scripted movies in one way or another. Actually, it's a somewhat weird film, and probably the most unusual that Elvis did in terms of being 'out there' a way. It wasn't even released in the UK -- if so, it's a pity, because people who'd finally grown tired of the '60s musicals might have found redeeming value in this one.

Here we have Elvis playing an adult for one of the few times in his career, complete with more coarse language than he'd been given before, a lot more innuendo, and even a bed-sharing with his female co-star. It's an interesting piece and one that was largely missed by many as Elvis' '60s film formula began to lose its successful appeal around the time of "Easy Come, Easy Go," "Clambake," and "Speedway." Elvis himself was probably more interested by this point in projects more dear to him -- the legendary 1968 television special , announced a couple of months before shooting began on this movie, was shot three months after this film. He'd also recently returned to the studio with new vigor to produce some excellent non-soundtrack songs . Still, he does a great job in his role as a news and fashion photographer and manages to squeeze in a great knock-down, drag-out fight with a couple of men (played by bodyguards Red and Sonny West, two-thirds of the 'insiders' who contributed to a 1977 tell-all book that broke the dying king's heart...nice to see them belted around, actually). He even decks Dick Sargent, the 'second Darrin' from "Bewitched." It was probably a toss up whether Elvis enjoyed the fight scene or his wild driving more.

The movie's pacing leaves something to be desired, especially during the second half, and it could definitely have been much better -- kind of a recurring refrain for almost all of Elvis' post-1967 movies. It's not the most exciting story, but Elvis is great -- he looks supercool, he runs through a fair few emotions quite convincingly, and he's generally one groovy cat. Michele Carey is supremely sexy but her character is tremendously annoying. I don't know what kind of mental problems she's supposed to have -- she's portrayed as functionally, if not actually, a multiple-personality type -- but I suppose that some of her ephemeral nature and far-outness reflects the pop culture of the times. As Elvis said, "Nuts. Absolutely nuts." She even feeds Elvis a pill that keeps him asleep for days. Speaking of drug references, whoever designed the "Edge Of Reality" dream sequence must have been on some interesting substances at the time. Far out, man. Anyway, Ms Carey's bodacious Bernice (or whatever she wants to call herself) gets on my nerves, as it does on Elvis' Greg Nolan, and as I suspect it would on just about anybody. The problem is that it's to an extent that's detrimental to the film. Maybe they could have toned her back a bit -- she is good at the role, though, and also provides some comic relief (albeit sometimes exasperating). The chemistry between her and Elvis is spot-on, too.

It's fun to see familiar Los Angeles landmarks, even though I first came to that city almost 20 years after this film was shot. Elvis spent a lot of time in L A and there's just something fundamentally weird, for me, about seeing him driving around the city that a couple of decades or so later I'd be tooling around. Maybe coming to the US from another country helps emphasize that weirdness. By the way, Elvis' father is seen sitting at a table at the LA Music Center. Speaking of family, Albert, the Great Dane, is played by Elvis' dog, Brutus (Elvis had two Great Danes at the time -- the other was Snoopy). I must say that I find this amateur dog's acting very impressive.

Among the human supporting cast are Don Porter, as a Hugh Hefner type, and Rudy Vallee. Both are perfect in their roles and it's cool to see Elvis with Rudy Vallee, the singing idol of an earlier generation. Also of note is the girl who played the mermaid model, Susan Henning, who also showed up on the 1968 TV Special as an 'intimate' of Elvis' "Guitar Man" and who had a torrid real-life romance with him. I think that one or two of the other models in this film showed up on Elvis' TV special, too.

All of Elvis' last few movies, after "Speedway" (filmed during the summer of 1967) featured fewer songs than most of those that had come before. This film has only four songs: the happy "Wonderful World" (somewhat ironic for the time, just after the Tet Offensive and just before Martin Luther King's assassination), the dramatic (and overlooked) "Edge Of Reality," the funky "A Little Less Conversation," and the lounge-singerish "Almost In Love." The impetus for me revisiting this film was that a remixed version of "A Little Less Conversation" has just -- yesterday -- topped the US pop charts, 25 years after Elvis' death. As I write, Elvis has been #1 in the UK for a phenomenal three consecutive weeks (maybe four, by the time this is posted), has spent three weeks on top of the Irish charts, and spent at least a week or two (so far) at #1 in each of Japan, Hong Kong, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Australia, Canada, and Mexico. He's currently Top-5, Top-10, Top-20, and Top-40 in a bunch of other countries around the world. With the success of this single, Elvis broke the tie that had him and the Beatles matched for British #1 hits -- now he has 18 to his credit to their 17. Pretty amazing, and particularly ironic that a fairly obscure '60s movie song was the one that did the trick.

After the Doris Day/Rock Hudson era, America was moving into the era of the psychedelic sixties. Relationships in movies were less about playing the games of the fifties and more about being direct. So, you are more likely to see a woman be the aggressor in the later sixties. The female lead in this movie chases Elvis until he catches her. The dream sequence is less like a Dali painting than those in the fifties and more psychedelic in lighting. Some seem to equate "kooky" with the sixties, perhaps due to the influence of drugs, and that carries through in this plot and the characterization of the female lead. One might call this film a sex farce set midst the California lifestyle.

I enjoyed this film. Though the story was silly, the energy of the film was upbeat and fun. The women were beautiful, the music was consequential and Elvis actually seemed to be enjoying himself at times (did you ever notice how he seldom smiles in some of his films?). Yes, there are plenty of cinema clichés and some throwaway scenes, but I enjoyed the kooky chemistry between Elvis and Bernice. Injecting the obligatory Elvis fistfight does not help the story or the pacing, but Elvis manages to move the story along with his personality. See Viva Las Vegas for a film with real magnetism between the stars.

Nothing about the movie plot here, just the music and the newly revived Elvis. His sideburns were back, his body was slender and more muscular, looking better than he had looked in a movie since "Blue Hawaii". Michelle Carey is his costar, a buxom slightly kooky girl full of energy. There are only about three songs in the movie, but all are first rate, beginning with "Edge of Reality", which came out on a single as the flip side of "If I Can Dream", the single that came from Elvis' 68 comeback TV special. "Edge" is a very good off beat song that to many fans was better than "Dream" and helped make the record a double sided hit. The next is "A Little Less Conversation", an up tempo number that, as you all know by now, was remixed and re-released a couple of years back and became Elvis' 31st number one hit. Then there is "Almost in Love", a great quirky love ballad that is one of his better songs ever. This is a highly enjoyable movie and better than many of his others. See it.