Don't listen to the negative reviews

Don't Believe the Hype

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Julie Adams goes from the black lagoon to becoming the owner of a health club for supposedly well to do matrons who need to lose a few pounds. I don't see any flab on these gals, especially when they start shaking their tushes to Elvis Presley's hip rattling songs. Adams spots Elvis singing at a country dive while waiting for rodeo season to start, and soon he's created tension at the spa, especially with the "strictly business" Jocelyn Lane who obviously has the hots for him, as do the bevy of beauties who pop up to say a line here, bat their eye lashes there, and for the most part, showing that physical beauty doesn't always mean dramatic talent. While not a great actor, Presley has decent line reading but is basically playing himself. Adams, however, is both beautiful and talented, and makes her "boss lady" commanding, flirtatious, firm (both in temperament and in the physical sense as well), and delightfully funny. Not just a fan of hers for her movies, I found her a great scene stealer on the daytime soap "Capitol" where she took the focus away from the younger actors and made you notice her even when in scenes with the equally commanding Constance Towers, Marj Dusay (who flirted with Elvis in "Clambake"), Ed Nelson and Richard Egan, the star of Elvis's first film, "Love Me Tender". It's too bad she never got to work with Carolyn Jones ("King Creole"), tying Elvis in with 4 of "Capitol's" cast.The fact that Elvis's character supposedly knows who Jennie Lind was is a far fetched detail, but that leads to a very cartoon like flashback to the past and a ridiculous story involving stolen treasure. The film concludes with a farcial sequence in a haunted house that makes the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show look like Shakespeare. Elvis's songs, too, are mediocre, and he has absolutely zero chemistry with Lane, so it depends on the charm of the cast (which includes veteran character actress Connie Gilchrist and cult actresses Allison Hayes and Merry Anders) to rise above its preposterous story.

Elvis Presely was deemed to be about the only sure thing in movies as a bankable star when Allied Artists paid Elvis the the great salary of one million dollars to star in this film. Norman Taurog directs this film in a breezy style and the movie while a AA film was produced at nearby Paramount.Allied Artists was a boutique studio with films such as Love In The Afternoon, Friendly Persuasion, Soldier In the Rain, El Cid, and 55 Days At Peking, etc. AA had a small studio and no TV division and its fates rose and fell with its movies competing with giant studios such as MGM, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Some of the major film personalities that worked at AA were Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Ava Gardner, David Niven, and Sophia Loren. AA would go on to film Cabaret with Liza Minnelli, Pappillion with McQueen, and The Man Who Would Be King with Sean Connery. Directors such as William Wyler, John Huston and Billy Wilder contributed to the success of AA.

I have to admit this movie holds a special place in my heart as I saw in with the first girl I ever dated and fell in love with back in 1965. But all that aside, some 45 years later, I still enjoy the movie even if I haven't seen the girl in 40 years. Elvis as a singing rodeo cowboy gets sidetracked working at a dude ranch for young women wishing to look better and hooks up with Jocelyn Lane, possibly the best looking woman on the planet in 1965. The music, taken from some older Elvis LPs, fits fine. The songs "Dirty, Dirty Feeling" and "Slowly But Surely" are great songs on their own as is the opening sequence number, "Long Lonely Highway", which was released as a single. "Such An Easy Question", also released as a single in 65, is more of a romantic ballad and is quite good, tho it sounded better when it was released a couple years earlier on the "Pot Luck" album. They added some background orchestration to the movie version that is totally out of place. Julia Adams and "Wild" Bill Williams head up a stellar supporting cast. A good, solid Elvis movie and remember, these movies were not made to compete for Oscars.

While not receiving the same fanfare as some of Elvis' more renowned movies including Viva Las Vegas or Fun in Acapulco, this film is really very underrated and underscores the essence of Elvis flicks. Perhaps because Elvis is not cavorting with a well known star, such as Ann Margaret or Ursula Andress as in the aforementioned vehicles, this picture tends to always get underplayed. Most memorable is the ravishing English star, Ms. Jocelyn Lane, who absolutely lights up the scenery whenever she is around - what a stunner!