Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Sunday Double Feature

 

Viva Las Vegas

Over the years, I have had to make a lot of choices as to how to spend my movie time. When I was a kid, if an Elvis movie was on tv on a Friday or Saturday, that is what I watched. I loved the King and was not very discriminatory about the quality of the films. I know I saw parts of this movie when I was younger, but I was not sure I'd seen the whole thing. In the more recent past, I missed a chance to see this on the big screen at the TCM Film Festival. Last Sunday helped me remove my doubts, I had seen the movie, and just forgotten parts of it. One of the Paramount Staff (Zack I believe) told the programmer, Steven Janise, that after watching all of the Elvis movies in a recent binge, that "Viva Las Vegas" was the best. I seem to remember thinking "Jailhouse Rock" was pretty good, but after our screening Sunday, I would not disagree with the "Viva Las Vegas" rating, it is terrific entertainment.

The story of course does not matter, this is not really a drama, and it barely counts as a romantic comedy. The value of the film is in the musical numbers and the pairing of Elvis with the great Ann-Margaret. The two of them have great on screen charisma, and even some romantic chemistry, but the dramatic elements are unimportant and the script does little to address that. There are at least ten musical sequences that are held together by the slim fabric of the story, and those are the things you come to a movie like this for.

The title song gets three showcases, the first is over the titles, with glimpses of Vegas in 1963 shown underneath the credits and making me nostalgic for some of the long gone venues of old Vegas. Elvis gets a showcase presentation of the song, which reportedly was done in a single take, the only time that happened in any of his films. "Viva Las Vegas" is also the exit tune, and it's a good thing the song and performance are so catchy, otherwise a third appearance would be tiresome instead of joyful. Ann-Margaret had some cool dance numbers to songs that were not so easily digested as pop tunes but worked well for the setting of Las Vegas life. Another swinging number by the King is a rendition of "What'd I Say", the Ray Charles number. Elvis does Ray proud with his version.

The only flaw in the entertainment value of the film, comes in the climactic Grad Prix race. Instead of focusing on the contest between Elvis' character "Lucky" and all the other drivers, the majority of the drama is in frequent crack ups of cars in the race. Several of those accidents looked life threatening, but they are only in the film to add a visual flare, there were no stakes. The one crash that should have killed the Count, Lucky's friendly rival, appears to have had no effect since the Count shows up at the end, uninjured and swinging along with everyone else at the celebration. It's all in fun but those crashes looked like anything but fun to me. Fortunately, the King and his Queen, sing and dance again, so all is forgiven.

A Hard Day's Night

The same year that Elvis was in Las Vegas, The Beatles were taking over the world with their own film. The story and plot are just as lazy as the first of our films. This is just a day in the life of the pop group as they get ready to perform on a major television program. "A Hard Day's Night" hold together a little more strongly as a film because it knows it is not taking itself seriously, and all four of the lads get to show their cheeky sense of humor. There is a mix of stage based performances with outlandishly staged musical interludes where the four Beatles are just goofing off for the camera.

Watching the films back to back like this, makes it easy to see how the popular culture was changing in the decade. Although "Viva Las Vegas" is in color with a hip setting, "A Hard Day's Night" black and white photography and mundane London locations, feel so much more innovative and creative. The humor of the film is sarcastic without being nasty, and the four leads all look like they are having some fun at their own expense. It just feels completely modern in contrast to the Elvis film.

Of course the biggest reason for the success of the film are the eleven or so songs from the Beatles, including the title song. The pop melodies of the era were very different than the styling of earlier rockers. It's not hard to think of each song as "three minutes of joy". The songs themselves will stand up without the visual scenes, and that is not the case with many of the tunes in the Elvis film. It would be easy to say that these sequences were precursors of the MTV style videos that would become the standard visual introduction for many artists in the following years.

The subplot about Paul's Grandfather gives the story a chance to get out of the rehearsal studio presentations of the musical sequences. When there is no music though, the scenes are still very amusing. The idea that Paul's grandfather would try to cash in on his grandson's fame is particularly funny. The whole movie is an entertaining high from start to finish. You don't need to smoke, swallow or inject anything to get the effect, you just have to watch and listen.