July 16, 2024: ElvisStudying: Elvis Films

[July 19thwas a doubly significantday for Elvis Presley: on July 19, 1954, his debut single was released; andon July 19, 1977, what would be his final album dropped. So this week I’llAmericanStudy a handful of layers to the Elvis mythos, leading up to a specialpost on cultural representations of Presley!]

OnAmericanStudies takeaways from three stages in Presley’s iconic film career.

1)     Love Me Tender (1956): Justtwo years after his first single dropped, and a couple months before the famouslyscandalous Ed Sullivan Show performance, Presley made his film debut in thismusical Western. Although the film was named after Presley’s ballad (whichhad been released in August 1956, and a performance of which was included inthe film), he didn’t receive top billing, reflecting his far-from-establishedconnection to the movie business in this very early moment. But by far the mostprominent aspect of the film (SPOILERS) was that Presley’s character is killedin its climactic shootout, a storytelling choice that literally led to a fan protestat the film’s premiere and a subsequent re-releasewith an alternate ending. Even in his film debut, Elvis was causing a commotion.

2)     A Billion 1960s Films: Okay, not a billion,but: every year between 1962 and 1969 Presley starred in three films, for atotal of 24 films released in that period (with another two each in 1960 and1961, so 28 total in the decade). I know there were a lot more films being madeand released in general in that era than in our 21st century moment(and that they took much shorter to make than do today’s), but it’s hard for meto believe any major performer appeared in more 1960s films than that. And asyou might expect, quantity did not necessarily lead to quality, to the pointthat, according to his wife Priscilla’s 1985 memoirElvis and Me, Elvis was quite miserable with his film career’sdimishing returns, believing for example that 1967’sClambake represented a career low.

3)     Charro! and Change of Habit (both1969): Fortunately, Elvis was a big enough star that we had able to help changethat narrative, and he did so especially with two of his final three dramaticfilm performances (along with the still-more-perfunctory The Trouble with Girlsfrom the same year). Charro!was another Western and not dramatically different from any of his othersin that genre, but importantly was the only film in which Elvis did not sing onscreen, reflecting his desire to develop his acting talents and career (as, perhaps,does his character’s beard, the only in his entire filmography). And he did so evenmore overtly and successfully in his final dramatic role in Change of Habit, inwhich Elvis plays inner-city doctor (!) John Carpenter alongside Mary Tyler Moore (!!) asa nun who becomes his love interest (!!!). As with so many things Elvis Presley,it would have been very interesting to see where film career might have gonefrom here if not for his tragic death a few years later.

NextElvisStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other takes on Elvis?