3 gars, 2 filles et... 1 trésor

Easy come, Easy Go was released in 1967, two years before Elvis' last feature film, "Change Of Habit." Elvis plays a frogman who is about to complete his time with the U.S. Navy. He stumbles onto a sunken treasure on his final dive. One big problem..... someone else has made the same discovery. This makes for a fairly compelling story line.

Of course there are plenty of pretty girls. The cast was wonderful. Dodie Marshall, the beautiful Pat Priest, and the wonderful Frank McHugh who played the (frightened of water) Captain Jack. The whole cast was great.

The photography was stunning. Hats off to William Margulies for his incredible Cinematography. The scenery and settings were wonderful. The underwater scenes were very well done. This was a tough shoot. The credit goes to underwater photographer Michael J. Dugan.

The drawback in this film was the Yoga scene. This has to be one worst scenes ever shot in film history. What was John Rich thinking? For that matter what was film editor Archie Marshek thinking. This was a no brainer. That scene should have been cut. I really believe that if it wasn't for that one scene, This would be one of Elvis' best. It was really that good. Well acted and Elvis looked like he really cared. If you can overlook the (Yoga) scene, this film is well worth watching.

"Easy Come, Easy Go" is hardly the King's best - but still, it ain't that bad. I certainly prefer it to "Harum Scarum."

And it does have a few killer songs, including "The Love Machine" & the irresistible "I'll Take Love," performed as the finale (it should have been a hit single).

But having said that, Elvis looks bored at various times. As he put it, by then he was tired of beating up the bad guys and then singing to them.

It's too bad that he never got a role in a truly serious film directed by a truly serious director later in his career because I believe he could have been taught, encouraged and coaxed into some truly terrific serious dramatic performances - and not just the brooding, pouting youth roles a la "Wild In The Country" or "Jailhouse Rock." Perhaps in a smaller serious role.

Imagine him as naive good old boy male prostitute Joe Buck in Jon Voight's shoes in "Midnight Cowboy"? I really think he could have done something special with a serious role like that in a serious film. Roles such as that could have changed his entire career - and how people viewed him.

Well, I'll give Easy Come, Easy Go this - it's not as unwatchable as Harum Scarum.

Watching Elvis films is a bittersweet experience. I love seeing him - he had such an incredible voice, presence, and energy, but what a waste as far as his films. Had he not been tied to Colonel Parker, film-wise, he could have done some interesting roles.

I'd say let's not dwell on the past, but unfortunately, with Elvis, it's all we've got. "Easy Come, Easy Go" was one of his last films, and it was made during the hippie movement, so Elvis has to deal with a lot of free spirits. He's after some underwater salvage, and he has competition. There's the story right there.

There is a yoga class headed by Elsa Lanchester who sings a little song - I guess at this point, they threw everything but the kitchen sink into these films to make them bearable.

Frank McHugh turns in the best performance of the film. He's wonderful and very funny in what would be his last film.

Elvis is charming, of course, although by 1967, doing these films was a painful and angry-making experience for him.

The songs are terrible - my understanding is that Colonel Parker figured out by the mid-60s that the lower the budget, the more money he made, so apparently, there were no songs written expressly for the movie.

Elvis could have been in "Midnight Cowboy" or the Streisand remake of "A Star is Born" but the Colonel was afraid of losing control of him, and Elvis was afraid to leave. Colonel Parker was his lucky charm. Colonel Parker had given him all his success.

Colonel Parker was taking 50% of everything Elvis made. Colonel Parker made Elvis a slave to the Hilton Hotel because he kept telling the management to take his gambling debts out of Elvis' deal.

Colonel Parker wouldn't look at Elvis' dead body, but took Vernon aside and made him sign a document that the court later negated since it was detrimental to Lisa Marie's inheritance.

Yes, Colonel Parker was a prince. This movie is just one example of everything he did for Elvis.

Anything that was associated with Elvis Presley was one of those Hollywood pictures where Elvis just did naturally....pop up in some strange town,sing his heart out,have the kids dancing to the music,or in other cases, gets the girl and saves the day.

This was one of his films had that authenticity. Even though it would be the last association with producer Hal Wallis(who would take over production at Universal) and the last film he would do for Paramount Pictures before he would go into his next feature film.

The basic formula was simple: Any feature that starred the King of Rock and Roll would bring box-office success,and that was what "Easy Come,Easy Go" was just that. I had the chance to see this film on Encore just the other day,and I thought it was well enjoyable by all aspects. You have an action-packed adventure yarn that is filled with the music of the sixties that is swinging and grooving.

Check out the co-star of Pat Harrington(who was Schinder on TV's "One Day at a Time"),as his mate in search of buried treasure and a beau of lovely dames in distress.

Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)

** (out of 4)

Elvis plays a former Navy frogman who discovers a buried treasure and must try and reach it before anyone else can. This is a pretty bad and stupid film but it thankfully enters into the camp territory and gets a few laughs along the way. The story is pretty bland and something we haven't seen in countless other films and lets not forget the subplot of Elvis and his women, which we've also seen in countless other films of his. As for Elvis, he isn't horrible here but there's not too much to the performance. He seems a bit livelier here than in the previous picture I watched but he's still a long way off from an actual good performance. The title track and "The Love Machine" are pretty good tunes but "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" is pretty embarrassing. "I'll Take You", written by Ed Wood's former lover Dolores Fuller, isn't too bad and Ray Charles' "Leave My Woman Alone" comes off fairly good.