Easy Come, Easy Go

A frogman (Elvis) working for the Navy discovers treasure in a sunken ship and once he becomes an ordinary citizen he sets out to retrieve it; but he's got competition for it.

One of Elvis's later entries; quite shallow and cheesy but fairly enjoyable. The slapstick humor works OK in parts and there's an underlying comic jab at the hippie lifestyle that's well played out. There are also some impressive underwater sequences here; "Easy Come, Easy Go" is a little more visually compelling than other Presley flicks around this time.

The songs are few but pretty good (6 in total) and many have commented on "Yoga is as Yoga Does" as Elvis's most embarrassing moment on film. Personally I think nothing can top his singing to the dogs in "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" but I also think the Yoga moment here is pretty funny and the song OK; in a cheesy sort of way. You gotta admire how the King was a professional through and through and pulled this off and manages to be funny as well in his bungled Yoga attempts.

"Easy Come, Easy Go" is hardly the King's best - but still, it ain't that bad. I certainly prefer it to "Harum Scarum."

And it does have a few killer songs, including "The Love Machine" & the irresistible "I'll Take Love," performed as the finale (it should have been a hit single).

But having said that, Elvis looks bored at various times. As he put it, by then he was tired of beating up the bad guys and then singing to them.

It's too bad that he never got a role in a truly serious film directed by a truly serious director later in his career because I believe he could have been taught, encouraged and coaxed into some truly terrific serious dramatic performances - and not just the brooding, pouting youth roles a la "Wild In The Country" or "Jailhouse Rock." Perhaps in a smaller serious role.

Imagine him as naive good old boy male prostitute Joe Buck in Jon Voight's shoes in "Midnight Cowboy"? I really think he could have done something special with a serious role like that in a serious film. Roles such as that could have changed his entire career - and how people viewed him.

Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)

** (out of 4)

Elvis plays a former Navy frogman who discovers a buried treasure and must try and reach it before anyone else can. This is a pretty bad and stupid film but it thankfully enters into the camp territory and gets a few laughs along the way. The story is pretty bland and something we haven't seen in countless other films and lets not forget the subplot of Elvis and his women, which we've also seen in countless other films of his. As for Elvis, he isn't horrible here but there's not too much to the performance. He seems a bit livelier here than in the previous picture I watched but he's still a long way off from an actual good performance. The title track and "The Love Machine" are pretty good tunes but "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" is pretty embarrassing. "I'll Take You", written by Ed Wood's former lover Dolores Fuller, isn't too bad and Ray Charles' "Leave My Woman Alone" comes off fairly good.

By 1967 Elvis Presley had long since had enough of the formula of his movies, where he would triumph over the bad guys, kiss the girls and sing songs to all and sundry. Even when a good Presley movie surfaced, and there are a few bona fide good ones, casual film fans are required to be in a light and unforgiving mood to enjoy the malarkey on offer. Easy Come, Easy Go is pretty average stuff, both in quality of narrative and performances and that of the tunes within. Dialogue is unleashed in scattergun fashion without due care and attention for dramatic worth, there's no strong female lead for Presley to bounce back and forth from, and the humour is tired and weary.

Yet for all of the evident problems, it's a safe enough recommendation to those after a time filler who are armed with the knowledge this isn't going to tickle the cranium! It's all very colourful with nice exterior work at Long Beach Naval Station, Presley looks just terrific in uniform and the cast is spruced up by the presence of Elsa Lanchester and Jack McHugh; the former of which sings a bit and gets the giggles as a hippie type yoga teacher who ties "The Pelvis" in knots. Stand out tune is I'll Take Love, while the race for buried treasure plot remains airy enough to let the adventure yarn breathe.

Foot tapping assured and unintentional giggles, too, set the dial for family friendly fodder and wallow in the froth. 6/10

In this movie Elvis plays a Navy Seal. This is not one of my favorite Elvis movies. It's not the worst movie that he did, but it is the best of the worst. There were some good scenes, and having Pat Priest in the movie made it worthwhile. There were some funny scenes but nothing great.