4:30am – PST King Creole (1958) – A singer with a criminal past gets drawn back into the mob. Cast: Carolyn Jones , Walter Matthau , Elvis Presley Dir: Michael Curtiz BW-116 mins, TV-PG
There were a few years, pre-Army, when Elvis Presley might have been the coolest person, well, ever. He also showed some real talent as an actor as you’ll see in King Creole, one of his better films, co-starring the great Walter Matthau as The Heavy and directed by Michael Curtiz.
Curtiz had one of the toughest late careers of almost any director from the Golden Age. In the thirties and forties he could do no wrong. One classic followed the next, especially when working with Errol Flynn on a number of unforgettable period films such as Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Dodge City, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. He also did more than okay with Bogart in Casablanca and Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy. Sometime in the late forties the mojo left him. He would go on to make another 20+ films, but nothing like at the start of his career. King Creole is arguably the best of this dry spell.
Curtiz surrounds Presley with real talent. Matthau, Vic Morrow, Carolyn Jones (at the height of her beauty), and Dean Jagger. And Presley hangs right in there giving the performance of his career.
The music is also top notch, including the blistering title song, Trouble, Hard Headed Woman, and Don’t Ask Me Why.
If you missed this one, TCM airs Presley most of the day. And what else would you do tomorrow? It’s not like we go to work on Elvis Presley’s birthday. I mean, I’m not the only who considers the day a holiday, right?
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