When Elvis had arrived at the airport thousands with fans had gathered, some of them holding up banners that will proclaimed, “Elvis for President” but that’s only the tip in the iceberg and every single day fans and journalist lay siege on the film studios. Security was set at an all time high – Elvis was at town and no one in Hollywood, no unfamiliar person to big stars, had ever seen anything that can compare with it.

The first recording session for the soundtrack took place on the second morning of filming. That first day Elvis cut the ballad that was to become a running theme throughout the movie. The song was a rewrite in the Civil War ballad, “Aura Lee” and everyone was amazed at the way Elvis nailed it – at that point he was known for belting out stone songs and the tenderness with which he sang this beautiful little number was refreshing. The song, Love me Tender, would end up being the name of the movie following your original Reno Brothers indicate was dropped.

In the event the film was released the critics weren’t impressed – “Elvis is an obscene child. ” Cried out this Hollywood Reporter while Period famously compared him to a goldfish and a chicken. The New York circumstances were also under whelmed through the film but impressed while using the vigor of the small singer, saying that he proceeded to go at his role as if it were Gone along with the Wind. In fairness the film is no worse than a lot of B-western made around the time and much better than most. Presley, while quite often awkward on screen, proved his ability in several key scenes.

Elvis had been quickly into his 2nd movie and this time it would be better suited to his image. Loving you, 1957, was a thinly veiled autobiography with the actual Elvis story. Inside movie Elvis plays Deke Canals, a singer who is manipulated in the top by his press agent, Miss Glenda, played with relish by Lizabeth Scott. Colonel Tom Parker has been furious when he saw some of the dailies, feeling that this press agent was a deliberate swipe at themself. However Elvis’s screen administrators would all follow the following blueprint. In Jailhouse Stone, his cellmate tricks him into singing away fifty per cent of all future profit. In the dismal Fun in Acapulco, a 12-year-old character gets share of the singer’s earnings for securing spots at a nightclub. And in Queen Creole, arguably the singer’s very best film, Walter Matthau plays a darker version in the Parker/Svengali figure.

Jailhouse Pebbles followed in 1957 and with this grim prison melodrama Elvis hit his stride and was given some meaty material to play around with. The result was the most effective Elvis acting experience to date.

“A dreadful film. An unsavory nauseating, queasy producing film, to turn even probably the most insulated stomachs. ” Said the uk newspaper, The Daily Reflector.

The newspaper missed the purpose though. All the people are sleazy, no the first is wholly good and everyone has a hidden agenda. But that is the point in this grim and gritty movie, which could in face be termed, Rock and Roll Noir. Tony Curtis Movies, Tony Curtis Films, Tony Curtis DVDs