Fun Film, but a Weak Elvis Vehicle

I watched this yesterday and while it was not one of Elvis' best, probably in the bottom 10, it was still fun. If you look up Elvis' filmography, it shows him pushing out three movies a year from 1960-1969. This was the third film of 1966 and it shows. Elvis performance is lackluster and he doesn't seem to be having any fun doing it.

Elvis plays Mike, a singer (surprise!) and race car driver. He finds himself on the romantic radar of three disparate women, all with designs on making him a husband. The lovely Shelley Fabares plays Cynthia, an heiress who thinks daddy can buy her anything, including Mike. Diane McBain gave off a sultry vibe as Diana, an author of guidebooks for women on how to land husbands (think Ginger from Gilligan's Island). Finally, Deborah Walley plays Les, the drummer in Elvis' band who has been pining for him for years, but he only sees her as one of the guys. The majority of the movie is about Mike's attempts to dissuade these women from wanting him, a kind of novel idea for an Elvis movie.

The songs are not great. I did enjoy Adam and Evil and Smorgasbord. The song Beach Shack was kind of silly, but the dance number with a bunch of 1960s girls jiggling in bikinis had its allure. My wife actually came into the room and started dancing and jiggling like she was in the movie. That was pretty alluring in and of itself.

The supporting cast is what really props up the movie. The three aforementioned ladies do their part, but Carl Betz as Howard Foxhugh, Cynthia's rich daddy, and Will Hutchins as Officer Tracy make for interesting foils for Elvis's Mike. On the other side of the coin, Warren Berlinger's Philip Short, Howard's assistant and suitor for Cynthia, is a buffoon. His character is a one dimensional goofball and he really messes up the tone of the film.

The big race at the end of the movie is embarrassing when compared to racing movies of today. Remember it was 1960 and just go with it.

With all the films Elvis was making, maybe they should have called this movie, Burnout. Still, it was a nice way to pass a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.