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Netflix's Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley revisits that period in Presleys career when he was at a crossroads. Converted seven years previously from singer to movie star at the behest of his influential manager, Colonel Tom Parker, Presley was dissatisfied and restless. Elvis Presley's movie roles had become plastic, fake, and unreal, and he yearned to get back to singing again. With Elvis having taken the musical world by storm in 1956, Parker had been quick to capitalize on his new cash cow's box-office looks and charisma and signed him up for his first movie, Love Me Tender.

The film was panned by critics, but adored by Presley's legion of devoted and mostly female fans. Three movies with Elvis Presley as an actor dropped over the next two years, culminating in King Creole in 1958, before Presley was drafted into the U.S. Army and shipped abroad.

The late pop star Elvis Presley continues to be one of the most iconic names in entertainment history. The singer was a memorable part of the late actress Teri Garr’s career, who appeared as a dancer in multiple films of the King of Rock and Roll.

Elvis Presley in Charro! | Credit: National General Pictures

Garr, who would later become known for her work in movies like Tootsie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Young Frankenstein, once reflected on working in Presley’s movies, candidly stating it’s no secret that his movies were bad.

Teri Garr’s Candid Reflection on Elvis Presley’s Movies

After starting her career as a dancer in the 1960s, Teri Garr started landing opportunities in Hollywood and was soon starring as a dancer in a string of Elvis Presley movies, including Fun in Acapulco, Kissin’ Cousins, Viva Las Vegas, Roustabout, and Clambake.

Viva Las Vegas...

Teri Garr, beloved actress and comic of stage and screen, is dead at the age of 79. In the last decades of her life, she became an inspirational figure for those, like her, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, tirelessly working to raise awareness of the disease as a frequent speaker at the annual Race to Erase Ms events.

As much as as she inspired people in her last years, she made people smile and laugh throughout her four-decade career on stage and screen as one of the funniest actresses of her generation, in films such as “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie.” She was one of the harder-working people in show business, coming up via true bit parts: She was a background dancer in 1964 teen-focused concert film “The T.A.M.I. Show” and even played the Statue of Liberty in a stage production at Walt Disney World when it opened in 1971.

The park’s entertainment coordinator Forrest Bahruth,...

Teri Garr, the Oscar-nominated actress who capitalized on her adorable flightiness in such films as Tootsie and Young Frankenstein before her career was derailed by multiple sclerosis, died Tuesday. She was 79.

Garr, who started out as a background dancer working alongside Elvis Presley in several 1960s party films, died at her home in Los Angeles “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer told The Hollywood Reporter.

Garr revealed that she had Ms, the chronic, degenerative disease of the nervous system, on Larry King’s CNN show in October 2002, and she survived emergency surgery to treat a brain aneurysm four years later. Her final onscreen appearance came in 2011.

Garr’s career breakthrough came as Gene Wilder’s comely Transylvanian lab assistant in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974). She received her supporting actress Oscar nomination for playing Dustin Hoffman’s insecure actress friend in Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie (1982).

Those films ranked Nos.

Elvis's film career declined due to his manager's focus on money rather than quality, but Change of Habit showcased his potential as an actor. Despite limitations, Elvis displayed charm and screen presence in his final film, relying on his own charisma to carry the movie. Elvis missed out on a potentially game-changing role in A Star Is Born, a missed opportunity that haunted him until his death.

Elvis Presley starred in 31 feature films of increasingly negligible quality between 1956 and 1969, beginning with the 1956 musical Western film Love Me Tender and ending with the 1969 crime drama musical film Change of Habit. Besides containing Presley's final feature film performance, Change of Habit is the only film in which Presley plays a professional character, in this case, a doctor. At the end of 1968, Presley, who was 34 when the filming of Change of Habit began in the spring of 1969, was at a crossroads in his career.

It’ll be good rockin’ tonight at HBO Max this awards season, as the streaming platform is ready to unleash lots of Elvis Presley as the Oscars approach. On Wednesday, March 1, they’ll be dropping Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” two documentaries, two concert films and three of Elvis’ movies on the streaming site for a two-week period. Those two weeks begin on the eve of final Oscar voting and run through the Academy Awards show itself, where “Elvis” is nominated in eight categories, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Austin Butler.

In honor of those eight nominations – and to give voters a boost if they’re considering the film, Butler, cinematography Mandy Walker, production and costume designer Catherine Martin or any other “Elvis” nominees – HBO Max has chosen eight different Elvis Presley projects, from movies featuring him to documentaries and a feature about him. Those eight projects together comprise...

The stars of the excellent new comedy doc Joy Ride discuss some of their favorite two handers with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Graduate (1967) – Neil Labute’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Cocoon (1985)

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (1964)

Police Academy 3: Back In Training (1986)

Crooklyn (1994)

Call Me Lucky (2015)

Shakes The Clown (1991)

A History Of Violence (2005)

You Only Live Twice (1967)

Artists And Models (1955) – Tfh’s global trailer search

Joy Ride (2021)

Joy Ride (2001)

Stay (2005)

Sleeping Dogs Lie (2006)

Capturing The Friedmans (2003)

Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s review

Sleepless In Seattle (1993)

The Producers (1967) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

My Friend Irma Goes West (1950)

Delicate Delinquent (1957)

Keyholes Are For Peeping (1972)

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Charlie...

Sam Riddle, an original “Boss Radio” DJ on Khj Los Angeles who also produced and narrated Star Search and many other TV shows, died Monday at his home in Palm Desert, CA. He was 85. Riddle’s family said had been battling Lewy body dementia.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery

Riddle was one of Khj’s original Boss Jocks during the mid-1960s and went on to host local TV shows including Hollywood A Go Go, 9th Street West, Boss City and Sounds of Now. He also co-hosted Get It Together with Mama Cass and Sam Riddle at the turn of the 1970s. The 2021 HBO documentary Tina includes Riddle announcing the first big TV appearance of Ike and Tina Turner.

Born on December 12, 1937 in Fort Worth, Texas, Riddle served in the Air Force reserves during the Vietnam War. He got his radio start with DJ gigs in Texas,...

A collection of songs Glen Campbell originally recorded as a demo singer for Elvis Presley to hear will soon see the light of day, as the lost album Sings for the King will be released November 16th via Capitol/UMe.

In the years between 1964 and 1968, during which he’d score his first hits as a solo artist, Campbell recorded studio versions of songs written with Presley as the intended artist, as he could skillfully imitate Presley’s delivery. Many of those songs were penned by songwriters Ben Weisman and Sid Wayne,...

HBO’s two-part documentary “Elvis Presley: The Searcher” covers lots of ground and talks to lots of people who were close to Elvis. But according to director Thom Zimny and producer Jon Landau, a key to the film came from one of the last people they interviewed: Tom Petty, who sat down to talk about Elvis in March 2017, less than seven months before his unexpected death.

“What Tom did, perhaps more than anybody, was tell the story that we were trying to tell,” said Landau, the longtime manager of Bruce Springsteen, who is also interviewed in “The Searcher.” “Tom started talking about the later part of Elvis’ career, which is typically dealt with dismissively. He said, ‘Yeah, but when you put all the craziness aside, there is still this incredible singer, surrounded by this incredible band.’...

Fans of special effects icon Ray Harryhausen should rejoice at the remastering of 1961’s Mysterious Island, a sequel of sorts to Jules Verne’s more celebrated 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had been memorably adapted by Richard Fleischer in 1954. Director Cy Endfield takes the reigns on this big budget spectacle which tends to suffer from a bout of sequel-itis as regards the bombastic fervor of gigantic, menacing creatures taking precedence over characterization or narrative energy. Still, the production quality does display the same sense of movie magic specific to a certain period of cinema where Harryhausen’s signature Dynamation would influence generations of future filmmakers.

During the 1865 siege of Richmond, Virginia, a handful of soldiers, both Union and Confederate, escape the stockade via a hot air balloon, ending up somewhere on a strange island in the Pacific Ocean. Captain Cyrus Harding (Michael Craig) more or less resumes control of the men,...

Elvis Presley made 31 movies between 1956-69, and while his celluloid career will never be as celebrated as his musical output, it’s hard not to crack a smile when thinking about good-time movies like Viva Las Vegas, Blue Hawaii and, of course, Clambake. Throughout May, Encore will have those titles during an event the network has dubbed The Elvis Collection: Whole Lotta Elvis, which will feature 24 of the King’s films, with one airing each night. The event includes the 1981 docudrama This Is Elvis (May 14), as well as an all-day marathon of Elvis movies May 25. In addition [...]

The post Elvis Presley on Encore: Network shines the spotlight on The King’s movies all month long appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.

Randy’s got a six-string.

“The Fastest Guitar Alive” is one of those rock’n'roll movies that rock’n'roll would probably like to disown. In fact, it may have driven rock’n'roll to drink – and it was doing all right in that department before this film came along in 1967.

It’s Roy Orbison’s only acting role – for a clue as to why, see the movie. Fortunately, he didn’t give up his day job so he could sit in a Hollywood apartment waiting for his agent to call with that next big offer. According to Tfh guru Allison Anders, Elvis Presley had first crack at this gem and turned it down. Elvis must have already read the script for “Clambake” and decided that his Oscar was waiting to be picked up.

Roy Orbison – a great musical artist – lacks any sort of Elvis-esque charisma, a quality that just might have...

Randy heads to N’awlins with The King, King Creole.

Even some hardcore Elvis Presley fans find his movies a bit tedious to watch. He’s singing, he’s fighting, he’s singing, he’s kissing, he’s singing while fighting… that’s pretty much the script rundown for a lot of his films.

I hear that “Clambake” was E’s personal favorite of all his movies, but he liked the character of Danny Fisher in “King Creole” the best. The critics also seem to favor the two-fisted, hard-headed, dropout, nightclub singer of the 1958 classic.

While trying to choose a wine for “King Creole,” my mind immediately played the Wwed card – What Would Elvis Drink?

The King may be more closely associated with stuff a little harder than alcohol. He didn’t seem to be much of a social drinker, but he didn’t really seem very social anyway. I...

This year on January 8, Elvis Presley would have celebrated his 75th birthday. The occasion was commemorated with a huge party in Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie went before a throng of fans during record-breaking cold weather to cut a lovely cake baked especially for the King. Vans traveled furiously up and down Elvis Presley Boulevard delivering hundreds of fervent Elvis followers to their Mecca: Graceland. There were cameras and news crews, along with minor celebrities attending the event that had known or even worked with Elvis himself. The whole occasion was a rather big deal for Elvis fans. One would think that with all of this hullabaloo going down, 20th Century Fox and MGM would have acquired some footage of the birthday scene for their recent DVD release: Elvis – The 75th Birthday Collection 7 DVD set.

The DVD could include some commentaries by the many Elvis...

DVD Playhouse—June 2010

By

Allen Gardner

The White Ribbon (Sony) On the eve of Ww I, a small village in Germany is struck by a series of tragic, seemingly unconnected events until the townspeople, and the audience, start to connect the dots. Shot in stark, beautiful black & white, director Michael Haneke has fashioned a haunting metaphorical drama that is as coldly chilling as anything made by Ingmar Bergman, and darkly unsettling as anything from the canon of David Lynch. A rich, tough, brilliant cinematic experience you’re not likely to forget. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bd bonuses: Interviews with cast and crew; featurettes. Widescreen Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.

Alice In Wonderland (Disney) Tim Burton’s take on the Lewis Carroll classic finds young Alice (Mia Wasikowska), a 19th century girl who finds herself in an unhappy engagement to a boorish suitor, tumbling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, where she encounters magical cakes,...

Chicago – Attention Elvis Presley fans. Coming out a few months after what would have been his actual birthday on January 8th is the “Elvis 75th Birthday Collection” from 20th Century Fox, which includes seven of the King’s films in one set. With a few hits and a few more unheralded gems, the “75th Birthday Collection” has a very low price point (under $6 a movie) that might make it the perfect Father’s Day gift choice for the patriarch in your family.

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

With no special features and standard video/audio quality, the only notable thing about the “75th Birthday Collection” is the chance to have seven films from Presley’s career in one affordable set. With only the films that Elvis made under the MGM banner available, instantly recognizable hits like “Jailhouse Rock,” “Viva Las Vegas,” and “Girl Happy” are not included (but will be in a massive,...

Elvis Presley holds the throne as “The King” of rock n’ roll. Music was his forte, but he did dabble in film for awhile and the results were a mixed bag. In honor of his 75th birthday which he won’t be able to celebrate for himself (unless you’re an Elvis Lives conspiracy theorist), Fox has released the Elvis 75th Birthday Collection. Presented in 2.35:1 Widescreen (save for Kid Galahad in 1.85:1 and Frankie and Johnny in 1.66:1), the collection shows its age in a few places as Fox seems to have done little to remaster these classics, but overall it’s a nice look at the musician who would be an actor, even if the selection of films leaves a lot to be desired. If the set is good for anything it’s for showing his progress as an actor from his first film ever, Love Me Tender,...

Milwaukee - Henry Winkler is not the Fonz.

He played the coolest guy on Happy Days for eleven seasons. But he doesn’t wear a leather jacket, ride a motorcycle or fix things by bumping them with his elbow. He’s not even Italian. He’s got a life that has gone beyond the Fonz. There’s probably a generation that knows him better for Adam Sandler movies and Arrested Development. On a May evening at the Quail Ridge bookstore in Raleigh, there is a group of kids under 12 years old that know him as the author of the Hank Zipzer books (along with co-writer Lin Oliver).

Many stars of the ’70s sell their tawdry memoirs of behind the scenes perversions. Winkler created a young adult book series that taps into grade school life instead of the action in Arnold’s bathroom. We’ll have to wait for lurid tales of the Hooper triplets.