L'homme à tout faire

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.

Released the same year as Viva Las Vegas, Roustabout is often viewed as one of the lesser lights in Elvis' 1960s movie output. Which is a shame given that it has vitality in abundance, sees the King playing a two dimensional character, features the professional workings of Barbara Stanwyck and Leif Erickson and is beautifully staged and photographed (Lucien Ballard) amongst a Carnival backdrop.

Plot sees Presley as night club singer Charlie Rogers who has a big chip on his shoulder, getting into yet another fight he gets fired and via a motorcycle run in with Maggie Morgan (Stanwyck) and Joe Lean (Erickson), ends up working at Maggie's carnival operation while he waits for his bike to be fixed. He has his eyes on Joe's daughter, Cathy (Joan Freeman), but Joe, himself carrying a heavy burden, has a big dislike for the young upstart. With the bank closing in ready to close the struggling carnival, hope may come in the form of Charlie's singing attributes, but will he stay? Will he be lured away by a lucrative offer from a rival Carnie promoter? With Charlie struggling to ingratiate himself to the Carnie way of life, and him constantly failing to show his true emotions to win around a hard to convince Cathy, the odds against him staying seems short.

Well how do you think it's going to end? Exactly the way you expect it too of course. But there is great fun and frolics along the way and it is a true spirit raising finale. The clutch of songs are not the best, though the beautiful tenderness of "Big Love, Big Heartache" and the interesting take on "Little Egypt" are reason enough to be pleased with the musical contributions. Presley delivers a good turn, a nifty blend of rebel yell and housewives baby, the carnival atmosphere is well born out and crucially the film manages to not undersell the graft that carnival workers did to put on a show for the public's entertainment. It also opens up a game for spotters of future "names", see if you can spot Raquel Welch, Teri Garr and Richard Kiel in teeny tiny roles.

A lovely enjoyable Elvis film, foot tapping and smiles guaranteed, and the King, quite frankly, rocks in this one. 7/10

Hot-headed singer who's prone to getting into fights gets a hankering for the daughter of a woman who runs a traveling carnival, eventually finds himself with a guitar working the run-ways. Good Elvis Presley musical, although the King himself is awfully pouty throughout. He sings several mediocre tunes in-between romantic bouts with pretty but bland Joan Freeman (who resembles both Susan Dey and a young Dorothy McGuire). Barbara Stanwyck is typically mercurial as Freeman's no-nonsense mother, and she gives the movie some kick. There are the usual carnival rowdies, a dim sub-plot involving a missing wallet, but the cinematography is colorful and the rural locations are well captured. There's a sensational tracking shot at the end done in one take, with the camera up and over the heads of the crowd, down along the run-way with the attractions and then onto the stage. A brunette Raquel Welch has a bit part at the very beginning, and Teri Garr is one of the carny dancers. An enjoyable star-vehicle for E.P.'s fans. **1/2 from ****

Elvis plays a happy-go-lucky guy with a small chip on his shoulder. After his cycle is wrecked, he takes on a part time job at Barbara Stanwych's almost bankrupt carnival. Elvis' character sings a few songs and starts bringing crowds to the traveling show again. Joan Freeman plays the goody two shoes that for some reason has the new roustabout going in circles. Leif Erickson is a believable alcoholic, trying to protect his daughter. The soundtrack features "One Track Heart" "Big Love, Big Heartache" and "Little Egypt", plus several very short songs. Contrary of most of the songs being under two minutes long, this was a very popular album. A very pleasant movie directed by John Rich.

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!