Bagarres au King Creole

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.

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 ****

If LOVING YOU (1957) seemed to me at times to play like a lighter version of A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957), this reminded me of another Elia Kazan masterpiece, ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) which is quite appropriate since this is one of Elvis Presley’s better and most popular vehicles and one of the few with genuinely talented Hollywood craftsmen behind them.

This was one of the earliest film adaptations of Harold Robbins novels – the most notable of which would prove to be THE CARPETBAGGERS (1964), THE ADVENTURERS (1970) and THE BETSY (1978; which I have on VHS but have yet to watch) – but, Hollywood being Hollywood, it had its Chicago setting relocated to New Orleans; the screenplay was co-scripted by Michael V. Gazzo who was then still fresh from the Broadway success of A HATFUL OF RAIN (later filmed by Fred Zinnemann in 1957) but is nowadays perhaps best-known for his Oscar-nominated performance in THE GODFATHER PART II (1974).

Elvis is backed by a rather stellar cast: once again, lovely Dolores Hart is featured as his love interest – when he’s not being ensnared by long-suffering gangster’s moll Carolyn Jones, which doesn’t sit at all well with vicious kingpin Walter Matthau (effectively cast as the sleek heavy of the piece); the older generation is represented by Dean Jagger, appearing as Elvis’ submissive pharmacist father and Paul Stewart playing the owner of the “King Creole” establishment (who eventually hitches up with Presley’s older sister) and the only one who’s unafraid to stand up to Matthau’s control of the territory and who signs up “busboy”/failed graduate Elvis when he’s revealed to be a talented singer. Other cast members making notable contributions are Vic Morrow as Matthau’s chief lackey/thug and an uncredited Gavin Gordon as Jagger’s bossy superior.

At almost two hours, the film is slightly overlong but the meatier-than-usual plot line, the tawdry atmosphere of the Deep South (vividly-captured through exemplary noir-ish lighting by Russell Harlan), the star’s own instinctive performance (clearly modeled after his Method-trained heroes Marlon Brando and James Dean), dazzling musical interludes (whose sheer power remains undimmed) and occasional bouts of violence keep one watching. It is said that KING CREOLE was also Elvis’ favorite among his own movies and, having now watched it myself, I can easily understand why.

It's fair to say you've got a temper and it shows, but this time you're in a film that has some go, a great director takes your talent, a performance with great extent, after the reel flickers by, engagement grows. As Ronnie grabs your eye and you then flunk, to be expected of a 1950s punk, joining a gang you rob a store, this life is not within your core, then you land a job to realise your funk. But there's demand for all the wares that you present, and Maxie Fields' the kind of guy that holds resent, there are tricks and treachery, lives are lost, there's not much glee, in the end there's satisfaction and content.

Not the worst Elvis film you'll encounter.

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.