Elvis Presley - The Signature Collection (It Happened at the World's Fair / Speedway / Spinout / Harum Scarum / Jailhouse Rock / Viva Las Vegas)
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Avg Rating
[4.5 Stars]
12 Reviews
Pub. 24-Aug-2004;
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B0002OXVE6
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$49.98
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Box set;
Closed-captioned;
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NTSC;
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Product Description
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Two indisputable Elvis classics bolster this six-pack of Kingly films, with special emphasis on Elvis as race-car driver (three pictures feature this fave filmic occupation). Everybody loves Jailhouse Rock, the third movie in the Presley filmography. It's a kicky tale about a jailbird who learns to be a rock & roll singer in prison (a plot not at all crazy by later Elvis standards). The film catches Elvis in the freshness of being the New Thing, and his rave-up to the title tune is an exultant announcement that rock and roll just bashed down the front door of popular culture. It Happened at the World's Fair jumps ahead five years, the Elvis formula set. Location shooting at the futuristic Seattle World's Fair of 1962 lends a quirky backdrop, and check out the young Kurt Russell (future inhabitor of the Elvis persona) kicking the King in the shins. Viva Las Vegas is the other consensus classic: EP plays a race-car driver waiting tables in Sin City, sparking big time with Ann-Margret. The two stars generate some heat, and the theme song has inspired many a road trip. No such trip will be inspired by Harum Scarum, a mad comedy set in the Middle East. Elvis is kidnapped while touring, and a lame spoof of Rudolph Valentino movies ensues. It's back to the race track for the remaining pair. Spinout places the King in the direct path of three marriage-minded women, but he prefers his car and his guitar. Dumb plot, but the songs at least are agreeably rocking. Speedway has a slimmed-down Elvis and a groovy nightclub hangout, plus the ineffable Nancy Sinatra--there's some terrific kitsch value in this one. --Robert Horton
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Elvis movies. Remember that feeling from the 60s of going to a new release and really loving Presley and desperately hoping that this movie - please, this movie - would be better than the last one? By the early 60s Elvis himself realised that Colonel Tom Parker had boxed him into a contract that was geared around quickie B-flicks with little if any regard to script quality. According to the excellent Guralnick biographies, Presley felt really angry and frustrated by the situation.
His low point was Harum Scarum, shot quickly and with little care, and with very poor scripting, around an old 1925 DW Griffiths movie set. What upset Presley further was that the songs were really second rate as well. According to Guralnick, Presley gave a signed photo to the director and scrawled the message: "Maybe next time we can make something good." (I'm paraphrasing - but it was along these lines.)
With the release of Speedway, which tanked at the box office, it was going to take a miracle to rescue Elvis' career.(Of course, months later the 68 Comeback Special was just that miracle - a show that pioneered with its "unplugged" segment to present the real Elvis we still loved.)
But Harum Scarum and Speedway are among the most dispiriting performances in the Presley catalogue and I can see why they threw these into a boxed set.
But if these DVDs (and I'd personally add Spinout) are there to pad out this boxed set, the price of admission is still worth it for Elvis fans. Two reasons. First: Jailhouse Rock still has the raw energy that propelled Elvis to fame, and features his all time favourite music sequence from any of his movies - the classic silhouetted Jailhouse Rock sequence. This is delicious to watch.
Second: for on-screen chemistry, in Via Las Vegas Ann Margret and Elvis absolutely spark off each other. According to Guralnick, Tom Parker was livid that Ann was getting so much attention - basically a co-Top-Billing - but the movie stands up as one of the really magic Elvis performances. For once, some would argue for the last time in any of his B Movies, Elvis really worked hard at his performance. (He just walks through Harum Scarum and Speedway.) This is magic. Great music. Good acting. Fair enough script. Great use of location. And the DVD's picture quality (all these are in original widescreen format) is dazzling.
I was in two minds about It happened At The World's Fair. Here the script has not dated at all well - basically a stranger leaves an 8 year old girl in the hands of unemployed air-pilot/drifter Elvis and his buddy - (those were innocent times) even while Elvis tries to date an attractive nurse he has met. Yet through this souffle the performances are all quite winning, Presley's good humour is still intact and the direction nice and tight. An enjoyable movie.
Spinout? no, this one didn't do it for me. Maybe I always was a petrol-head, but I couldn't watch this or Speedway without my old feelings as a 10 year-old Elvis fan welling up. The motor racing footage was just so bogus and I remember as a kid thinking, even then, that these movies were real clunkers.
So what's the verdict? I average out with three stars for this boxed set - but with a recommendation to buy. The price is great, and Elvis fans always were tolerant of a bit of B-grade celluloid just to see Presley.
I found watching the boxed set an interesting process of re-evaluating my own personal Elvis journey: including those awful mixed feelings during the period of his worst movies and the ascendency of the Beatles, the Byrds etc. When you see him here, singing his light little "Sandman" song in World's Fair you see a charismatic talent who could make any little confection feel like a special shared moment.
While watching these films each night, I kept my Peter Guralnick book on hand, ([[ASIN:0316332976 Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley]] and it was juicy to read up more background and context to each movie. In that respect, I wish the liner notes on this set of 6 DVDs were way more comprehensive. They keep to the spirit, I guess, of the original release blurbs - but us kids are bigger now, and can handle some better discussion about an artist who not only made some magic but also survived with more class a string a celluloid trainwrecks that would have destroyed many others. ;
[Rating: 3 Stars]
Shouldn't review this product. I remember the movies from when I was young and beautiful and in love with Elvis. I'm 72 now and wanted to have the movies I saw way back when to have forever.;
[Rating: 5 Stars]
I ORDERED MY DVD'S ON CHRISTMAS DAY AND RECEIVED THEM IN 3 DAYS. I WAS AMAZED AND DELIGHTED AT HOW QUICKLY MY ORDER WAS PROCESSED AND SHIPPED TO ME.
THEY ARE ALL EXCELLENT IN QUALITY IN EVERY WAY. I HAVE BEEN AN ELVIS LOVER SINCE 1956 AND THESE MOVIES BRING BACK SO MANY MEMORIES.
MY HUSBAND BOUGHT ME A 40 INCH HIGH DEF. TV AND OMG, I FEEL LIKE ELVIS IS RIGHT IN MY LIVING ROOM WITH ME--I AM IN ELVIS HEAVEN.
I AM HOPING AND LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE ELVIS DVD'S FROM YOU. I WILL CERTAINLY ORDER EVER SINGLE ONE YOU PUT OUT.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR THIS WONDERFUL GIFT FOR ME.
SINCERELY,
CINDY BELLONI;
[Rating: 5 Stars]
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