King Creole

An unusual Elvis Presley vehical which actually gives him the opportunity to act. Elvis was a talented actor who was put in crap for most of his career. The Hollywood system always put him in films where he sings without doing much else. Its only when he worked with talented directors such as Michael Curtiz and Don Siegal that his abilities as an actor were fully used. King Creole(1958) is such a film where he is given the chance to act and he passes with flying colors. King Creole(1958) and the western, Charro(1968) are my two favorite Elvis Presley films because of their dark tone and the excellent acting performances by Elvis. One of the better directed Elvis films by veteran filmmaker and Casablanca(1942) director, Michael Curtiz. One of the people who wrote the story was Michael V. Gazzo, who would later play an important role in The Godfather Part 2(1974). Walter Matthaw is terrific in one of his pre Odd Couple and comedic roles. A musical Noir done during the final year of the genre before becoming extinct.

I had an epiphany tonight. 'King Creole' is a better film than 'Jailhouse Rock'. 'Jailhouse' may contain King's best acting but 'King Creole' is his best film. Why? I would say King's acting is only slightly less convincing in 'Creole' but two things make it a better film: the cast and the story. 'King Creole' boasts the finest cast by far of any Presley film. Only Ann-Margret is sexier than Carolyn Jones, Vic Morrow has that ferocious mouth, Dean Jagger is almost perfect as the beaten father and Walter Matthau is deliciously vile. Harold Robbins' novel 'A Stone for Danny Fisher' is gritty and at times hard to read. Although the screenplay (co-written by 'Frankie Five-Angels', Michael V. Gazzo) is quite a bit more tame it is still tough. Think about it: King plays a character who kills a man in an alley with a switchblade. Here he is not 'Jailhouse Rock's amoral Vince Everett. Instead he is, at times, IMmoral. Forget all you think you know about the icon, Elvis Presley, and watch his eyes when, as Danny Fisher, he tells his father 'you go to school. I'm goin' out to make a buck'. If you don't see it, if you don't see IT, you're just not looking.

Elvis Presley plays Danny Fisher, a misunderstood teenager who is forced to live in a neighbourhood frequented by hoodlums because his father's business went bankcrupt and lost their other house. Danny flunks out of high school and does several dead end jobs in order to make ends meet, but it is discovered that he has a talent for singing and he is hired by nightclub owner Charlie Le Grand. However, sadistic blackmailer and criminal Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau) also has corrupt designs on Danny's talent.

Probably one of Presley's finest movies with a fairly strong storyline and assured direction by Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz. The acting is good from Presley in one of his better roles and Matthau scores as the ruthless gang boss. The film is shot in gorgeous noir black & white and the memorable tunes include "King Creole", "Trouble" and "As Long As I Have You".

If LOVING YOU (1957) seemed to me at times to play like a lighter version of A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957), this reminded me of another Elia Kazan masterpiece, ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) which is quite appropriate since this is one of Elvis Presley’s better and most popular vehicles and one of the few with genuinely talented Hollywood craftsmen behind them.

This was one of the earliest film adaptations of Harold Robbins novels – the most notable of which would prove to be THE CARPETBAGGERS (1964), THE ADVENTURERS (1970) and THE BETSY (1978; which I have on VHS but have yet to watch) – but, Hollywood being Hollywood, it had its Chicago setting relocated to New Orleans; the screenplay was co-scripted by Michael V. Gazzo who was then still fresh from the Broadway success of A HATFUL OF RAIN (later filmed by Fred Zinnemann in 1957) but is nowadays perhaps best-known for his Oscar-nominated performance in THE GODFATHER PART II (1974).

Elvis is backed by a rather stellar cast: once again, lovely Dolores Hart is featured as his love interest – when he’s not being ensnared by long-suffering gangster’s moll Carolyn Jones, which doesn’t sit at all well with vicious kingpin Walter Matthau (effectively cast as the sleek heavy of the piece); the older generation is represented by Dean Jagger, appearing as Elvis’ submissive pharmacist father and Paul Stewart playing the owner of the “King Creole” establishment (who eventually hitches up with Presley’s older sister) and the only one who’s unafraid to stand up to Matthau’s control of the territory and who signs up “busboy”/failed graduate Elvis when he’s revealed to be a talented singer. Other cast members making notable contributions are Vic Morrow as Matthau’s chief lackey/thug and an uncredited Gavin Gordon as Jagger’s bossy superior.

At almost two hours, the film is slightly overlong but the meatier-than-usual plot line, the tawdry atmosphere of the Deep South (vividly-captured through exemplary noir-ish lighting by Russell Harlan), the star’s own instinctive performance (clearly modeled after his Method-trained heroes Marlon Brando and James Dean), dazzling musical interludes (whose sheer power remains undimmed) and occasional bouts of violence keep one watching. It is said that KING CREOLE was also Elvis’ favorite among his own movies and, having now watched it myself, I can easily understand why.

Elvis Presley can act! This is perhaps his best movie and certainly the one with the strongest plot. Based on the Harold Robbins novel ‘A Stone for Danny Fisher', Elvis plays Danny with that teenage angst you'd associate more with James Dean or the young Marlon Brando. The music too is exceptional, with the sexy title track alongside of such gems as ‘Steadfast, Loyal and True', ‘Crawfish' (that unusual of things, a duet between Elvis and Kitty White), ‘Hard Headed Woman', and ‘Trouble'.

The supporting cast is also eminently watchable – Dean Jagger, Walter Matthau, Vic Morrow, Carolyn Jones – and help to move the pace along. The look of the film in its non-musical moments is strictly noir, and the whole piece is slickly directed by Michael Curtiz.

‘King Creole', and a handful of other Presley movies, hint at the movie career that he could have had without his manager Col. Parker's constant greed to display his peacock client in an ever-grating role of innocence to make money.