I'm going to go against what I said in a previous review - Blue Hawaii - where I stated that 1960's Wild In The Country would be the last serious role Elvis Presley would play until 1968's 'Charro'. 'Kid Galahad' can hardly be described as "silly" or "lightweight musical comedy". In it, The King plays Walter Gulick - like in Blue Hawaii fresh from 2 years military service - and returns to his hometown to buy a Garage. In the meantime, he needs money, and after boxing for the Army, joins the local boxing academy where his steel jaw and canon fist makes him an asset and sets him off on the road to fame and fortune, and ultimately his own business and a future with fiancée Joan Blackman - his co-star from 'Blue Hawaii'. Once again 'Kid Galahad' showcases Elvis' talents as a serious actor with top actors around him, in this case veterans Gig Young and hardman Charles Bronson. Mushy Callahan trained Elvis for six weeks prior to filming and was impressed with his boxing ability, apparently due to the Karate that Elvis had been studying for 3 years by this point. One amusing story from behind the scenes was during filming and the talk of boxing and karate came up and Elvis in impressing the crew performed an act involving splitting a board in two with one punch, much to Charles Bronson's displeasure...Bronson was then encouraged to show he could do the same...but couldn't! An MGM exec claims "we heard the sound of something breaking but it was not the board..." Of course 'Kid Galahad' isn't in the same class as 'Raging Bull' or 'Rocky' but is arguably better than recent boxing flick 'Grudge Match' if only for it's seriousness, which is improved even further for the sub plot involving Academy School owner Gig Young's financial problems and corruption which leads to threats and scenes of intimidation in the movie. All in all, an enjoyable Movie, a few decent Elvis songs thrown in (only 6 though, less than half the amount that appeared in 'Blue Hawaii') I give 'Kid Galahad' a strong 6 out of 10.
Review of Kid Galahad
