Bagarres au King Creole

Adapted from the book "A Stone for Danny Fisher", Elvis Presley plays a rebellious kid with a wimp of a father (Dean Jagger) who quits school and takes up singing at a night club in New Orleans, only to get mixed up with a group of thugs (headed by Vic Morrow) and their crime boss (Walter Matthau). Elvis considered this melodrama his best film and I happen to agree. It's nicely photographed in noirish black and white and directed by Michael Curtiz, featuring Elvis' most cultivated performance. It's a good story too, complimented by good actors in their roles. Walter Matthau is ideal as Maxie the heavy, who practically owns the whole town. Carolyn Jones is properly pitiful as his pathetic tramp, and Vic Morrow does well as the lead hoodlum who caters to Matthau. The songs Presley sings fit nicely into the action and are pleasant, though I don't believe any of them were signature biggies for Presley outside of, possibly, "Hard Headed Woman," and "King Creole" itself. It's a real shame that the best hit rocker, "Hard Headed Woman," is really given a raw deal as we only get to hear the end of it within the movie. The best music performance is Elvis' rendition of "Trouble" as he dominates the nightclub stage with authority and toughness while fearlessly singing it at Maxie. *** out of ****

Elvis Presley can act! This is perhaps his best movie and certainly the one with the strongest plot. Based on the Harold Robbins novel ‘A Stone for Danny Fisher', Elvis plays Danny with that teenage angst you'd associate more with James Dean or the young Marlon Brando. The music too is exceptional, with the sexy title track alongside of such gems as ‘Steadfast, Loyal and True', ‘Crawfish' (that unusual of things, a duet between Elvis and Kitty White), ‘Hard Headed Woman', and ‘Trouble'.

The supporting cast is also eminently watchable – Dean Jagger, Walter Matthau, Vic Morrow, Carolyn Jones – and help to move the pace along. The look of the film in its non-musical moments is strictly noir, and the whole piece is slickly directed by Michael Curtiz.

‘King Creole', and a handful of other Presley movies, hint at the movie career that he could have had without his manager Col. Parker's constant greed to display his peacock client in an ever-grating role of innocence to make money.

An unusual Elvis Presley vehical which actually gives him the opportunity to act. Elvis was a talented actor who was put in crap for most of his career. The Hollywood system always put him in films where he sings without doing much else. Its only when he worked with talented directors such as Michael Curtiz and Don Siegal that his abilities as an actor were fully used. King Creole(1958) is such a film where he is given the chance to act and he passes with flying colors. King Creole(1958) and the western, Charro(1968) are my two favorite Elvis Presley films because of their dark tone and the excellent acting performances by Elvis. One of the better directed Elvis films by veteran filmmaker and Casablanca(1942) director, Michael Curtiz. One of the people who wrote the story was Michael V. Gazzo, who would later play an important role in The Godfather Part 2(1974). Walter Matthaw is terrific in one of his pre Odd Couple and comedic roles. A musical Noir done during the final year of the genre before becoming extinct.

King Creole is not only a great Elvis Presly movie, it's a great movie period. Elvis is simply terrific as hard-edged Danny Fisher, a street wise punk who hits it big time as a singer in a flashy New Orléans club, run by sleazy Matthau. The overall look of the film is excellent, it's fast paced and gritty, moody and athmospheric, and directed by the same man who brought us Casablanca. The dialouge is good and seems authentic enough, Presley is excellent and Matthau is great (as always). Plus, the songs are good. 9 out of 10.

I had an epiphany tonight. 'King Creole' is a better film than 'Jailhouse Rock'. 'Jailhouse' may contain King's best acting but 'King Creole' is his best film. Why? I would say King's acting is only slightly less convincing in 'Creole' but two things make it a better film: the cast and the story. 'King Creole' boasts the finest cast by far of any Presley film. Only Ann-Margret is sexier than Carolyn Jones, Vic Morrow has that ferocious mouth, Dean Jagger is almost perfect as the beaten father and Walter Matthau is deliciously vile. Harold Robbins' novel 'A Stone for Danny Fisher' is gritty and at times hard to read. Although the screenplay (co-written by 'Frankie Five-Angels', Michael V. Gazzo) is quite a bit more tame it is still tough. Think about it: King plays a character who kills a man in an alley with a switchblade. Here he is not 'Jailhouse Rock's amoral Vince Everett. Instead he is, at times, IMmoral. Forget all you think you know about the icon, Elvis Presley, and watch his eyes when, as Danny Fisher, he tells his father 'you go to school. I'm goin' out to make a buck'. If you don't see it, if you don't see IT, you're just not looking.