Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.
As said many times, a lot of Elvis' early efforts were decent or more, his five best films overall being 'King Creole', 'Flaming Star', 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Viva Las Vegas' and 'Loving You'. It was from 'Kissin' Cousins', his first real mediocre at best effort, onward when his films became hit and miss or worse. While Elvis certainly did worse, like 'Harum Scarum', 'Double Trouble' generally is down there with his weakest.
Regarding Elvis himself, there is more of the relaxed charisma and the enthusiastic charm than in most of his 1965-7 output (most of which he looked utterly disinterested in), the role really doesn't require much but he does his best and while he has looked in better shape he still sounds good. A few of the songs are decent, "Long Legged Girl" is the best of the lot and for a song from an Elvis film from this period is good. "City of Night" and "Could I Fall in Love" also fare well.
Some of the supporting cast also don't fare too badly considering what they were given to work with. Fun Leon Askin, lovable Norman Rossington, urbane John Williams and sultry Yvonne Romain come off best. Chips Rafferty is quite good too.
However, not all the supporting cast and songs work. Annette Day's acting inexperience comes through loud and clear in a performance that neglects any acting ability of any kind. She shares very little chemistry with Elvis either. Michael Murphy, in his screen debut, does his best and gives a creepiness at times but in a way where the darkness doesn't balance particularly well with the rest of the film. Stanley Adams and Walter Burke try too hard in bumbling roles more at home in a sitcom and the Wiere Brothers are just annoying and don't fit.
Apart from a few songs, the rest of the soundtrack suffers from being very forgettable, very sloppy lip-synchronisation (very rarely in time) and from being poorly recorded, almost like the equipment used was on its last legs and on the verge of breaking down any second. Only one of them reaches risible level though and that's "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", even Elvis himself looks embarrassed.
Norman Taurog's, a wildly variable director dependent on the material, direction is all over the map. As is the corny (even for an Elvis film) and wildly disjointed script, that is far too busy, and a story that is a mess of style, structure and tone, again trying to do too much and very little of it comes together (just didn't see the point of the diamond subplot especially considering how barely remembered it is in the film).
Overall, not awful but messy. Really strictly for the fans, and most likely even they will be pining for a film that lives up to Elvis' considerable talents rather than working against them. 4/10 Bethany Cox
