I can't believe that I have over 4,500 reviews on IMDb thus far and this is my first for an Elvis film. I watched lots of his films as a kid, when they would air them on TV during the school holidays, but haven't seen any since I started reviewing. I remembered King Creole as being one of the best and figured it would be a good place to start over...
Directed by seasoned pro Michael Curtiz (Casablanca and White Christmas), King Creole is a gritty affair, unlike Elvis's later, candy-coloured, family-friendly cinematic offerings. Combining hard-edged drama, violence and tragedy with sexually charged musical numbers (just watch those women swoon), and with Presley exuding rebelliousness with every shake of his hip, King Creole is a masterpiece of the misunderstood youth genre, its star giving a perfectly nuanced, iconic performance to rival James Dean at his best.
When Danny Fisher (Presley) fails to graduate from high-school for a second time, he graduates from the school of hard knocks instead, at first falling in with a gang of youths led by hoodlum Shark (Vic Morrow), but later becoming mixed up with gangster Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau), who wants him to quit his singing job at Charlie LeGrand's bar King Creole to come and work for him - and Maxie doesn't take no for an answer. Pushed to the limits over an incident involving his father, Danny loses his cool and gives Maxie a well-earned pasting, which leads to him being hunted by Maxie's men all over town; sexy floozy Ronnie (Carolyn Jones) tries to help Danny, but puts herself in the firing line in doing so.
It's not often that not one of a cast puts a foot wrong, but everyone here is excellent, with particularly memorable turns from Morrow and Matthau, who are both delightfully loathesome, and from Jones (better known as TV's Morticia Adams) as the tart with a heart. But this is Elvis's show, and the king has never been better: tough, sensitive, hot-headed, well-meaning, reckless, and, of course, cooler than Fonzie in a deep freeze, no more so than when he is belting out the film's numerous songs, all of which are great.
9/10. He's not called 'the king' for nothing.
Directed by seasoned pro Michael Curtiz (Casablanca and White Christmas), King Creole is a gritty affair, unlike Elvis's later, candy-coloured, family-friendly cinematic offerings. Combining hard-edged drama, violence and tragedy with sexually charged musical numbers (just watch those women swoon), and with Presley exuding rebelliousness with every shake of his hip, King Creole is a masterpiece of the misunderstood youth genre, its star giving a perfectly nuanced, iconic performance to rival James Dean at his best.
When Danny Fisher (Presley) fails to graduate from high-school for a second time, he graduates from the school of hard knocks instead, at first falling in with a gang of youths led by hoodlum Shark (Vic Morrow), but later becoming mixed up with gangster Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau), who wants him to quit his singing job at Charlie LeGrand's bar King Creole to come and work for him - and Maxie doesn't take no for an answer. Pushed to the limits over an incident involving his father, Danny loses his cool and gives Maxie a well-earned pasting, which leads to him being hunted by Maxie's men all over town; sexy floozy Ronnie (Carolyn Jones) tries to help Danny, but puts herself in the firing line in doing so.
It's not often that not one of a cast puts a foot wrong, but everyone here is excellent, with particularly memorable turns from Morrow and Matthau, who are both delightfully loathesome, and from Jones (better known as TV's Morticia Adams) as the tart with a heart. But this is Elvis's show, and the king has never been better: tough, sensitive, hot-headed, well-meaning, reckless, and, of course, cooler than Fonzie in a deep freeze, no more so than when he is belting out the film's numerous songs, all of which are great.
9/10. He's not called 'the king' for nothing.