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THE CULTURAL GOOFBALLS ON WHICH I AM CURRENTLY HOPPED UP

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

ELVIS in DOUBLE TROUBLE (1967)



I was listening to this soundtrack and somehow got it into my head that this was gonna be the secret GREAT Elvis movie. But I was wrong. It doesn't even have two twin brother Elvis', as the title and record cover would suggest. It's just Elvis playing a singer named Vince Montana or something, getting followed around Europe by an annoying British schoolgirl. And there's some wacky jewel thieves and other bullshit in there I can't be bothered explaining. Elvis' character spends pretty much the whole movie being grumpy and exasperated, which is lucky since the Real Elvis was pretty goddamn jack of making all these stupid movies by this stage. It was his 24th movie in a row, and it came out only 13 days after his 23rd movie. The real sad thing is seeing Elvis jet setting around all these different European locales, knowing that aside from his stint in Germany in the army he never left America. He does get to show of his karate at one stage though, i'm sure that would have pleased him.

The music scenes almost bring a tear of to the eye, with his swinging London style backup band The Geordie Gents (or something like that) doing their best mod rave-up moves and Elvis shuffling wanly around the stage, not really knowing what to do except the odd fingerclick and half smile. Some of the songs are pretty great though, Long Legged Girl With the Short Dress On really does rave it up, and City By Night has a good warbled smokey jazz thing going on. I love the way he says "picturesque cafes..." Even the version of Old McDonald Had a Farm which annoyed him so much is pretty cooking, and i love the way he sweats his way through the awkward, stupid lyrics.

To sum up, as a movie, this movie really sucks. In that really lame-ass hollywood pop movie of the 60s way of sucking. But it has Elvis in it, so I still kind of enjoyed it.

The into sequence is pretty boss too, dig that 60s style!








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