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Elvis Presley‘s “Do the Clam” is one of the most infamous songs in the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll‘s discography. Its reputation is understandable, but it might be unwarranted. While “Do the Clam” is incredibly easy to mock, it has some redeeming qualities that go unnoticed. Here’s a very modest defense of one of the biggest punchlines in the 1960s rock canon.

Elvis Presley’s ‘Do the Clam’ is great because it’s bad

“Do the Clam” is a rock song were Elvis implores his audience to do a novelty dance called The Clam that never caught on. It has a fun beat, and Elvis’ vocals are as good as ever. However, the lyrics of the song are so ridiculous that many listeners can’t enjoy it.

Here’s the paradox: “Do the Clam” is good because it’s so oddball and undignified. It’s the pinnacle of so-bad-it’s good music.

Elvis Presley‘s “Rock-a-Hula Baby” was released alongside one of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll‘s most famous songs. “Rock-a-Hula Baby” suffers by comparison, but it also fails on its own. It’s a strange fusion that never quite comes together. Here’s a look at why it a B-movie actor wrote the track.

Elvis Presley’s ‘Rock-a-Hula Baby’ was part of a forgotten trend

Elvis’ Blue Hawaii typified a specific point in American history. Hawaii became a state in 1959. Around that time, the rest of the United States showed a strong interest in Hawaii. The late 1950s and 1960s gave us Gidget Goes Hawaiian, the Christmas song “Mele Kalikimaka,” and a lot of tacky tiki bars. Elvis jumped on the bandwagon with a trio of movies: Blue Hawaii, Girls! Girls! Girls!, and Paradise, Hawaiian Style.

According to Elvis Australia, songwriter Ben Weisman revealed the origin of “Rock-a-Hula Baby.

A B-movie actor wrote an infamous song for Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii. She tried to write a title song for the film, but that never happened. Regardless, she gained some celebrity as her films became infamous.

Elvis Presley’s ‘Blue Hawaii’ includes a song by director Ed Wood’s girlfriend

Dolores Fuller was an actor who had a relationship with Ed Wood, the director of Plan 9 from Outer Space. That film is widely considered one of the worst movies ever made, though it has a strong cult following among people who like camp classics. Fuller appeared in secondary roles in some of Wood’s films, such as Glen or Glenda and Bride of the Monster.

During an interview with Elvis Australia, Fuller discussed her songwriting career. “Well I have to attribute my break in getting into songwriting for [movie producer] Hal Wallis,” she said. “He was an old friend of mine,...

Chances are, if you’re familiar with the name Edward D. Wood, Jr., it’s thanks to Tim Burton’s delightful biopic, Ed Wood. Certainly, people were aware of the eccentric writer-director prior to the 1994 film, but Burton cast Wood in a whole new light, turning the quote-unquote “worst director of all time” into a lovable dreamer who wouldn’t let puny budgets, bad actors, or obnoxious producers impede his goals. Ed Wood gave us a reason to appreciate a man for whom making movies was the ultimate gratification, quality be damned. Settle into your favorite angora sweater, because we’re going to find out What Really Happened to Ed Wood.

To start off with the obvious, Wood’s real life wasn’t quite as peachy keen as the movie portrays. Tim Burton didn’t want to make a traditional biopic about the man, nor did the screenwriters, who based...

Elvis Presley songs weren’t always great. For example, he recorded a track about talking shrimp. He also released a song where he humiliated a man for eating too much.

Elvis Presley | Archive Photos / Stringer 5. ‘Song of the Shrimp’

Elvis’ movie Girls! Girls! Girls! is less than inspired. It features one great song: “Return to Sender.” Sadly, the track is clumsily employed in the film, where it plays over a suspenseful scene even though it’s a bright pop song.

The other notable song from Girls! Girls! Girls! is “Song of the Shrimp.” It’s a song about talking shrimp. It’s a bad song, partially because there’s no way anyone could write a good song about talking shrimp. Strangely, it sounds a tad like “Kiss the Girl” from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Elvis recorded songs in many genres but calypso was out of his range. The fake accent here is so offensive.

Baz Luhrmann’s movie Elvis became a smash hit. Despite this, it wasn’t the first or only movie with a similar style or subject matter. Here are a few films you might want to watch if you loved the movie.

Elvis Presley | Gab Archive / Contributor 5. ‘The King’

Luhrmann’s Elvis is celebratory in many ways. It also portrays the subject of Elvis and race in the most positive light possible. That’s to be expected given that the film was produced by Priscilla Presley.

The King is a documentary that looks at Elvis and race from a more critical perspective. It uses the “Can’t Help Falling in Love” singer’s legacy as a metaphor for the history of the United States. It features interviews with many notable figures, including Van Jones, Chuck D from Public Enemy, and others. The King didn’t get much attention upon release, but it...

This Civil War thriller has so much truth to say about War, Patriotism and combatant-vs.-civilian terror that we can hardly believe it was released in 1954. It’s based on a true event from 1864, a daring undercover mission that hit the Union far away from the conventional fighting. Van Heflin is the vengeance-seeking advance agent, Anne Bancroft a war widow, Richard Boone a maimed Union veteran and Lee Marvin a loose cannon with a hair trigger. The anti-war message is stronger than anything from the Vietnam years! The 20th-Fox release is not on quality home video, and is in great need of restoration.

The Raid

Not on Home Video

CineSavant Revival Screening Review

1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 83 min.

Starring: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, Tommy Rettig, Peter Graves, Douglas Spencer, Paul Cavanagh, Will Wright, James Best, John Dierkes, Helen Ford, Lee Aaker, Claude Akins, John Beradino, Robert Easton,...

In June 1970, Elvis Presley made the trip east from his Graceland home in Memphis to Nashville, where he holed up in RCA Studio B on Music Row for five days of recording. Presley, who was in the midst of his Las Vegas comeback at the International Hotel, was joined by Music City sessions players like Charlie McCoy and Norbert Putnam — the legendary “Nashville Cats.” The result came to be known among fans as the “marathon sessions.”

Now, a new four-disc compilation assembles the masters from those halcyon days and captures Presley at his energetic best.

Teresa Wright ca. 1945. Teresa Wright movies on TCM: 'The Little Foxes,' 'The Pride of the Yankees' Pretty, talented Teresa Wright made a relatively small number of movies: 28 in all, over the course of more than half a century. Most of her films have already been shown on Turner Classic Movies, so it's more than a little disappointing that TCM will not be presenting Teresa Wright rarities such as The Imperfect Lady and The Trouble with Women – two 1947 releases co-starring Ray Milland – on Aug. 4, '15, a "Summer Under the Stars" day dedicated to the only performer to date to have been shortlisted for Academy Awards for their first three film roles. TCM's Teresa Wright day would also have benefited from a presentation of The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956), an unusual entry – parapsychology, reincarnation – in the Wright movie canon and/or Roseland (1977), a little-remembered entry in James Ivory's canon.

Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...

The Creep Behind The Camera

Written and Directed by Pete Schuermann

USA, 2014

After Tim Burton’s Ed Wood was released, Sarah Jessica Parker remarked in interviews that she had just played the worst actress of all time. Delores Fuller, Wood’s ex-wife and would-be starlet, responded, albeit quietly, merely stating, “That hurt” on a Plan 9 From Outer Space DVD.

The Creep Behind The Camera, Pete Schuermann’s docu-drama surrounding the making of 1962′s The Creeping Terror, retains as much class and care for its subjects are Parker did for Fuller. When it isn’t a straightforward documentary portrait of the swindling, scamming and whoring director A.J. Nelson did to put together a film considered one of the worst of all time, it’s using what could kindly be referred to as high-end Unsolved Mysteries re-creations.

Moving out to Hollywood to make the “best monster movie of all time,” director and star Nelson (a.

Jim Knipfel Oct 10, 2019

Stop calling Ed Wood "The Worst Director in History." His films have a unique energy and charm that should be appreciated.

Ed Wood is an easy target, a no-brainer cultural reference for people who’ve likely seen, at most, one or two of his films. Beginning with the 1980 publication of Michael Medved’s The Golden Turkey Awards, Wood was unquestionably and for time immemorial declared "The Worst Director of All Time," and his 1959 picture Plan 9 From Outer Space the Worst Film Ever Made. People have been parroting the party line ever since.

Everybody says it, so it must be true. There’s no reason to even bother with watching the films anymore so long as we’ve been given the answer. You could stick Wood’s name on the credits for, say, Touch of Evil or Rashomon and people would still laugh at the films, because they...

Jim Knipfel Oct 10, 2018

Stop calling Ed Wood "The Worst Director in History." His films have a unique energy and charm that should be appreciated.

This article first ran in 2013, but it's Ed Wood's birthday, so we need to pay tribute to him again.

Ed Wood is an easy target, a no-brainer cultural reference for people who’ve likely seen, at most, one or two of his films. Beginning with the 1980 publication of that asshole Michael Medved’s The Golden Turkey Awards, Wood was unquestionably and for time immemorial declared The Worst Director of All Time, and his 1959 picture Plan 9 From Outer Space the Worst Film Ever Made. People have been parroting the party line ever since.

Everybody says it, so it must be true. There’s no reason to even bother with watching the films anymore so long as we’ve been given the answer. You could stick Wood’s name on the credits for,...

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp make the world's worst director look charming, despite some historical fact-bending

Director: Tim Burton

Entertainment grade: A–

History grade: B+

Edward D Wood Jr made low-budget Hollywood films in the 1950s, including Jail Bait, Night of the Ghouls and Plan 9 From Outer Space. In 1980, Plan 9 was voted the worst film of all time in the Golden Turkey awards. Wood was posthumously voted worst director.

Talent

It's 1953, and aspiring film-maker Eddie Wood (Johnny Depp) is thrilled to hear that a producer is filming the story of a famous transsexual. The reason? Wood himself loves wearing women's clothes, particularly angora sweaters. He pitches himself as writing, directing and starring – "just like Orson Welles did in Citizen Kane". The result – Glen or Glenda? – fell slightly short of the critical acclaim bestowed upon Welles's movie. The New York Times said "It isn't quite a camp classic, although...

There was only one Ed Wood. To call the man different is a bit of an understatement. One thing is for sure though ... for better or worse, Ed has become a legend, and a new box set is on the way that celebrates the very best (and worst) from the world's most infamous filmmaker.

From the Press Release

Ed Wood was an American screenwriter, director, producer, actor, author, and editor who often performed many of these functions simultaneously. In the 1950s, Wood made a number of cheap genre films (and attempted a number of failed TV pilots), now enjoyed for their technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, large amounts of ill-fitting stock footage, idiosyncratic dialogue, eccentric casts and outlandish plot elements, although his flair for showmanship gave his projects at least a modicum of critical success.

Wood's popularity waned soon after his biggest "name" star, Bela Lugosi, died. He was able...

Hollywood actor known for her roles in the so-bad-they're-good films of Ed Wood

There are artists in various fields whose fame rests solely on how bad their work is alleged to be. Among them are the poet William McGonagall, the novelist Amanda McKittrick Ros, the soprano Florence Foster Jenkins and the film director Ed Wood. The latter's reputation as the world's worst film-maker rubbed off on Dolores Fuller, his muse, lover and leading lady, who has died aged 88.

It would be unfair to pick on Fuller for her stiff posture and stilted delivery in Wood's movies when the others in the casts were equally awkward, mainly because of the minimum amount of takes and the lack of strong direction. The "peak" of Wood and Fuller's collaboration was the camp classic Glen or Glenda (aka I Led Two Lives, 1953), an unintentionally hilarious, well-meaning film on transvestism. The theme was particularly close...

Dolores Fuller, the muse to the “worst director of all-time” Ed Wood, passed away on Monday from complications of a stroke, according to the New York Times. She was 88. Fuller had been a small-time television actress when she answered a casting call from an unknown director in the early 1950s. Wood was immediately smitten by her beauty — and her angora sweater — and the couple went on to live together for four years, during which the cross-dressing filmmaker turned his fetish into the film, Glen or Glenda. “The first time I saw the whole film, I wanted to crawl under the seat,...

Eccentric moviemaker Ed Wood's muse has died in Las Vegas, aged 88.

Dolores Fuller, who was portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker in Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's 1994 Wood biopic, was the cross-dressing director's one-time girlfriend and star of his most famous 1950s films Glen or Glenda and Jail Bait.

The Indiana-born actress, who was a former model, met Wood at a casting call while she was working as a stand-in for Dinah Shore on the entertainer's TV show in 1952. He cast her as his leading lady in 1953's Glen or Glenda and the couple became lovers.

They split in 1955 after Wood cast another actress as the lead in his Bride of Frankenstein film - and she moved to New York to study under acting guru Stella Adler.

She also impressed as a songwriter, co-penning Elvis Presley's Rock-a-Hula Baby for his 1961 movie Blue Hawaii.

The success inspired her to write more hits for Presley films and standards like Someone to Tell it To and Losers Weepers.

Fuller also launched Johnny Rivers' recording career.

She chronicled her life in her 2009 autobiography, A Fuller Life: Hollywood, Ed Wood and Me.

Let's all take a moment to remember the late Dolores Fuller, the B-movie actress whose soft angora sweaters brought out the best in filmmaker boyfriend Ed Wood. Portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, Fuller starred in Wood's early films Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait, and Bride of the Monster, and later enjoyed a successful career as a songwriter.

"Lu Chuan's City of Life and Death has the title and the feel of a monument," writes J Hoberman in the Voice. "This widescreen, austerely monochromatic, two-hour-plus collective drama — depicting the worst indignity inflicted by foreigners on modern China, as well as the most terrible atrocity in the run-up to World War II — might have been hewed from rock and colored by soot."

Further in, he notes that the film "frequently, if superficially, adopts a Japanese point of view, something that evidently infuriated a sizable chunk of the Chinese audience. (The movie would have been pulled from theaters after one week were it not for the protection of the Communist Party's chief propagandist; although a popular hit, it received no official awards.) On the festival circuit since 2009, the film has been well-received by foreign critics, recognizing a historical epic in the Griffith-Lean-Spielberg tradition."

This reception bugs Michael Joshua Rowin, writing...

The Los Angeles Times reports that actress Dolores Fuller, the angora-clad muse of legendarily bad director Edward D. Wood Jr., died in her home on Monday after a long illness, at the age of 88.

Fuller was a successful model and TV actress (she appeared regularly on "Queen For a Day") when she met Wood at a casting call. From The Times' obituary:

"When I got to the casting call and first laid eyes on the young Edward, I just thought he was extremely handsome, and his personality was bubbly and fun," Fuller recalled in a 1994 interview with Tom Weaver for Fangoria magazine. "Then when I found out he was also a director and writer as well as a producer and actor, I was very impressed. ... I knew immediately that he liked me, too."

Wood cast her as the lead in his infamous first film, "Glen or Glenda" (1953). The deeply personal (and,...

Best known as Ed Wood.s girlfriend and co-star of his films Glen Or Glenda (1953), Jail Bait (1954), and Bride Of The Monster (1955), Dolores Fuller had a bit part opposite Clark Gable in It Happened One Night (1934) and co-starred in the cult fave Mesa Of Lost Women (1953). When she attended horror movie conventions, she always brought her white angora sweater that she wore in Wood.s films and let fans wear it for photos. Less-known about Ms Fuller is that she was an accomplished and prolific songwriter. She wrote for Elvis and penned songs that were featured in twelve of his films (!), the most famous being Rock-a-Hula Baby from Blue Hawaii. Fuller was 88, led quite a life, and was known as a warm human being.

Fuller hated the way Sarah Jessica Parker played her in Tim Burton.s Ed Wood bio-pic in 1994. Here.s an interview with her where she discusses...

Filed under: Columns, Cinematical

Welcome to Adventures in B-Movie Land, the monthly column where I take a look at some of the strangest, cheapest and worst films ever made ... and explore why you have to see them. Look for new entries during the second week of every month.

The Motion Pictures:

'Glen or Glenda' (1953), 'Jail Bait' (1954), 'Bride of the Monster' (1955), 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' (1958) and 'Night of the Ghouls' (1959).

Also Known As...

'I Led Two Lives,' 'He or She?,' 'I Changed My Sex,' 'The Hidden Face,' 'Bride of the Atom,' 'Graverobbers From Outer Space' and 'Revenge of the Dead.'

Featuring the Talented...

The legendary (and at the time, completely forgotten) Bela Lugosi, the incomprehensible Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson, the incredibly inaccurate psychic Criswell, Wood's long-suffering girlfriend Dolores Fuller, Ed Wood himself...

Filed under: Columns, Cinematical

Welcome to Adventures in B-Movie Land, the monthly column where I take a look at some of the strangest, cheapest and worst films ever made ... and explore why you have to see them. Look for new entries during the second week of every month.

The Motion Pictures:

'Glen or Glenda' (1953), 'Jail Bait' (1954), 'Bride of the Monster' (1955), 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' (1958) and 'Night of the Ghouls' (1959).

Also Known As...

'I Led Two Lives,' 'He or She?,' 'I Changed My Sex,' 'The Hidden Face,' 'Bride of the Atom,' 'Graverobbers From Outer Space' and 'Revenge of the Dead.'

Featuring the Talented...

The legendary (and at the time, completely forgotten) Bela Lugosi, the incomprehensible Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson, the incredibly inaccurate psychic Criswell, Wood's long-suffering girlfriend Dolores Fuller, Ed Wood himself...

The IMDb250. A list of the top 250 films as ranked by the users of the biggest Internet movie site on the web. It is based upon the ratings provided by the users of the Internet Movie Database, which number into the millions. As such, it’s a perfect representation of the opinions of the movie masses, and arguably the most comprehensive ranking system on the Internet.

It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case we is myself and Barry) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list. We’ve frozen the list as of January 1st of this year. It’s not as simple as it sounds, we are watching them all in one year, 125 each.

This is our 38th update, my next five films watched for the project. You can find all our previous week’s updates here.

Moronic Mark feeds his cat and realizes that it's probably time to take on Corpse Grinders 2. Now, the original Corpse Grinders (which was also done by Ted V. Mikels) was a fun little drive-in novelty from the early 70's about greedy businessmen who make cat food out of human flesh using a, um, corpse grinder. Corpse Grinders 2 is the shot on video sequel which features the nephews of the original businessmen and a whole bunch of crap. There's a totally unnecessary plotline thrown in about cat aliens (who of course fight dog aliens in a space battle which features the worst computer graphics since Commodore 64) since, I guess, Star Wars Episode One came out around the same time (and features another dumb men in black subplot since, well, Men In Black came out a few years before that too). Plus, it features a cast dozens of senior citizens since Mikels...