Disc 1: Clambake Disc 2: Kid Galahad Disc 3: Follow That Dream Disc 4: Frankie and Johnny
Category: Movies & DVD
Amazon.com
Elvis and Hawaii go together like one of Graceland’s peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches. To be honest, though, Paradise, Hawaiian Style finds the King looking puffier and sleepier than he did in the salad days of Blue Hawaii. Making matters worse is the song selection and the prominence of an allegedly adorable child actor–always a bad thing in an Elvis picture. Despite all that, there’s something casually likable about the film: costar James Shigeta is a welcome performer (he plays the island pilot who goes into business with flyboy Elvis), leading lady Susanna Leigh is an above-average companion, and the location shooting is a big upgrade over the cardboard backdrops of many late-career Presley vehicles. Exten (more…)
Amazon.com
This 1970 concert documentary captures Elvis Presley midway through a fateful transition, seeking to reclaim his musical primacy after a decade of self-imposed exile from concert stages. Sidelined by his big-screen career, eclipsed by rock’s mid-’60s transformations, the King had begun his return two years earlier with the relatively lean attack of his fabled network television appearance, ’68 Comeback Special. Now the Memphis legend was poised to reposition his performing profile by pursuing the top rungs of headliner status in Las Vegas, a career choice that seems even more ephemeral in hindsight than it already did at the time. Elvis: That’s the Way It Is follows the show’s genesis from rehearsal to s (more…)
Amazon.com essential video
Released in conjunction with a two-disc deluxe edition of Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii, the three-disc deluxe edition of Elvis’s ’68 Comeback Special is another incredible treasure trove of footage documenting a high point of the King’s career and a milestone of televised musical performances. Taped and broadcast in 1968 after Elvis had seemingly abandoned live performing in favor of a movie career, the ’68 Comeback Special was a remarkably intimate show, Elvis singing his old songs on a small stage, often alone, surrounded on all sides by a rapt audience. The show’s numbers fall into three general categories: the black leather stand-up shows, in which Elvis performs solo on stage; the black leather (more…)