Live a Little, Love a Little

Live a Little, Love a Little
October 23, 1968
MGM
Comedy, Romance, Musical
VHS
B-

Although directed by Taurog, this is not a typical Elvis movie.  It's based on the book Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips, which I've read but no longer own.  (And, yes, that would've been a more typical late '60s movie title than LaL, LaL, but it wouldn't sound like an Elvis movie.)  From what I recall, the wackiness of the book is actually toned down for the movie, but you still have Michele Carey, who was Michele in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, as Bernice/Betty/Susie/Alice Baby, the ex-wife of Dick Sargent, chasing after Elvis-- to the point of making him lose his job and apartment and then renting him a house, and that's just for starters!-- which of course makes Elvis fall in love with her.  (It was the age of the "adorable kooky girl," so I don't think she's meant to be as annoying or felonious as she comes across now.)  Meanwhile, Elvis finds not one but two full-time jobs as a photographer, one at an ad agency, the other at a girlie magazine.  Mrs. Baby has a great dane played by Elvis's dog Brutus, except in the dream sequence where there's a man in a dog costume.  Oh, and Elvis sings "A Little Less Conversation," which became a huge hit about 35 years later, remixed by Junkie XL.

Thirty-five years earlier, International House featured two of the performers in this movie, Sterling Holloway and Rudy Vallee, who in Live a Little play a milkman and one of Elvis's bosses respectively.  And, yes, that's Gidget's most famous dad, Don Porter, as Elvis's other boss, the one at Classic Cat magazine.  Not surprisingly, two of the models, Veronica Ericson and Heidi Winston, were in girlie-magazine-centered The Swinger.  Another model, Brooke Mills, would be Mrs. Gibbons in Freaky Friday.

That's Joan Shawlee, best known as Some Like It Hot's Sweet Sue, as the new tenant in Elvis's apartment.  Larry Billman was a dancer in Beach Ball as well as here.  Thordis Brandt was in Spinout, Hal Riddle in Speedway.  Phyllis Davis, who plays the 2nd secretary, was in Spinout and The Swinger.

This time Elvis's buddy Red West plays a newspaper vendor, while his friend Joe Esposito plays one of the workmen at the newspaper that Elvis gets fired from.  And this time Myrna Ross, formerly one of Von Zipper's Mice, plays a "female companion" (I don't know whose).  Paul Sorensen would do some '70s Disney movies.

The Edge of Reality

Speedway

Speedway
June 12, 1968
MGM
Musical, Comedy
VHS
D+

Not only doesn't this match the fun of Spinout, I actually enjoyed this movie less than Fireball 500 and Thunder Alley.  Yes, part of the problem is there's way too much time spent on the races.  (As always, Sandy Reed is the announcer.  You could probably make a drinking game out of every time he remarks that a driver emerging from a car looks like he's OK.)  But a much bigger problem is the way that two of the characters are treated by Elvis and by the script: the one played by Bixby and the one played by Sinatra (both blonde this time).

Bixby's character is Elvis's best friend and manager, enabling him to steal Elvis's money and lose it gambling.  He also "seduces" girls, including partially tearing the clothes off one, who turns out to be waiting for Elvis to come home.  "No wonder you kept fighting me!"  Bixby is presented comedically (although there are no actual laughs), and he's never punished or even scolded.  Elvis looks at most mildly annoyed.

Meanwhile, Sinatra plays a tax collector, working for Gale Gordon.  The poor woman is just doing her job, but she gets called an "iceberg" and is later bullied by Elvis (in a hotel, not while working) because she won't listen to his excuses.  This leads to him kissing her and then them falling in love.  Ick!

I'm not sure if it's cute or icky that Elvis sings a song to a little girl of about seven (she's got four younger sisters) explaining that he can't marry her because it "isn't her time yet."  (And, yes, in real life Elvis had recently married Priscilla, who was 14 when they fell in love.)  The little girl's father is played by William Schallert, who for once doesn't seem like the smartest guy in the room.

The two songs you should actually listen to-- the reason why this isn't graded lower than Meet Me in St. Louis-- are Nancy's "Your Groovy Self," which is as silly as it sounds, but has that "Boots Are Made" touch, and "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad," which is actually sillier than it sounds.  It's set in an IRS office and it shows that Taurog must've learned something at AIP, since it would've fit in just fine in Sgt. Deadhead.  (The "uncle" is Uncle Sam.)  Both numbers are easy to spot, so fast-forwarding or scene-selecting should be no problem.  Otherwise, stay away, Joe.

Claude Stroud, who plays a drunk here, was the pianist in All About Eve.  Go-go dancer Sharon Garrett was a yoga girl in Beach Party.  Gari Hardy, who plays "Dumb Blonde," was a harem girl in John Goldfarb.  "Miss Beverly Hills" was in I'll Take Sweden.  Courtney Brown was in Birds Do It.  Charlotte Considine, who plays Lori the crying waitress, was Miss Reynolds in Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!

Sheryl Ullman was in Spinout.  Elvis's buddy Charlie Hodge, who was a barber in Clambake, is a guitarist here.  Arlene Charles was also in Clambake.  George Cisar, who's "Portly Bald-Headed Man," would be Charlie the Doorman in Skidoo.

Spinout

Spinout
December 14, 1966
Comedy, Musical
MGM
VHS
B-

The Medveds selected this as one of their 50 Worst Movies of All Time, when it's not even the worst Elvis movie.  (But then, they also picked Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!, which isn't even the worst Bob Hope sex comedy.)  It is the most entertaining of my '66 movies, an admittedly dubious achievement.  It has some things in common with Girl Happy, notably a romance with Shelley Fabares, and Elvis leading a music combo that features Jimmy Hawkins.  In that movie, the music cues told us that Elvis's pals were three blind mice, while here they are stooges named Larry, Curly, and...Les?  Les is a tomboy drummer, played by Deborah Walley, so already we can see that the formula's being mixed up a bit.  (Since she's a redhead, it's like she's the grandmother of the Kim character in Scott Pilgrim.)   Les has an unrequited crush on Elvis, and there's a Helen-Gurley-Brownish writer pursuing Elvis, too.  In the end he "marries all of them," to other men.  (I think he means he gives them away, although this may be a very early case of people getting married by Elvis.)  Along the way, there are some songs that range from romantic to silly, Elvis lines that include the word "kosher" and a Don Adams imitation, and Carl Betz, Shelley's TV dad, playing her attractive big-screen dad.  Oh, and some racing, but it isn't as boring as in most movies, because it focuses on the competition between various characters, rather than the racing per se.

Una Merkel, of The Bank Dick and The Road to Zanzibar, has one of her last roles, as Mrs. Radley.  Dave Barry (not that Dave Barry) was much more memorable as Beinstock in Some Like It Hot than he is as Harry here.  Christopher Riordan, who was a latecomer to the AIP Beach Party series, appears in a small role.  Victoria Carroll was the shoeshine girl in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and she plays Award Girl here.  (She's probably best known as Mel's girlfriend Marie on Alice.)  Nancy Czar was in Girl Happy and Winter A-Go-Go.  Arlene Charles was also in Winter AGG.  Phyllis Davis and Deanna Lund were models in The Swinger.

Warren Berlinger, who plays fainter Philip, and Diane McBain, who's writer Diana St. Clair, would be in another racing movie, Thunder Alley.  Dodie Marshall, who plays Susan, the girl who takes the drumming spot, would do Elvis's Easy Come, Easy Go, Will Hutchins ("Officer Tracy," the friendly gourmet cop) Clambake, Sheryl Ullman Speedway, and Thordis Brandt Live a Little, Love a Little.  James McHale plays Shorty and would do The Love God? Two of Elvis's real-life friends, Red West, who was in Girl Happy, and Joe Esposito, who'd be in Clambake, play members of Shorty's pit crew.

Sergeant Deadhead

Sergeant Deadhead
August 18, 1965
AIP
Comedy, Musical, Sci-Fi
VHS
B

The same day that you could first see Annette singing about her ambition to be a monkey's aunt, you could watch Frankie "being shot up with a monkey."  (In each case, it's actually a chimp.)  Outdoing his double role in Bikini Beach, Frankie plays the title character, who undergoes a personality change while up in space (with the "monkey"), but he also plays Sgt. Donovan, a patriotic lookalike.  Much of the usual AIP crowd is around (see below), but we also get officers played by Fred Clark, Reginald Gardiner, Gale Gordon, Cesar Romero, and best of all Eve Arden, who has perfect comic delivery and even gets to sing a very Ardenic song, "You Should've Seen the One That Got Away."  She's named Lt. Kinsey, and the movie has a lot of tasteless but amusing sex humor, much of it involving the Frankies and Deborah Walley (as Lucy) at her sexiest.  The movie succeeds at some of what John Goldfarb attempted, including political satire.  Not that this is sophisticated wit-- after all it's still AIP-- but it is very funny.  After I don't know how many viewings (although none in recent years), I still giggle helplessly whenever I listen to Pat Buttram as the irritable, Southern-accented President.  ("If I had my spurs on, I'd kick you in the shins!  I'll sic the dogs on ya!")  I'd go with a B+, like Pajama Party (also penned by Louis M. Heyward), but the first 15 or 20 minutes are a bit slow (Buster Keaton, in his last AIP appearance, is given some unfunny slapstick), and, alas, there's no title song.  On the other hand, I love the sheer goofiness of a military band that can only play "Jingle Bells."

John Ashley is cast against type as a nerd with sinus trouble, while Jody McCrea (who used to be known as Deadhead) is nowhere in sight.  Other beach folk who've joined up include Ray Atkinson, Bruce Baker, Patti Chandler,  Jo Collins, Sue Hamilton, Luree Nicholson Holmes, Mary Hughes, Janice Levinson, Stephanie Nader, and Salli Sachse.  This time Mike Nader is teamed up for comedic purposes with Norman Grabowski, as air policemen.

The recasting of the Ratz and Mice is less obvious: John Macchia and Andy Romano as Marine MPs, Alberta Nelson as a WAF, but also Jerry Brutsche as the newspaper vendor and Bob Harvey as the bellhop.  (Both Jeromey and Robert find Lucy "Va-va-va-voom!)  As for Harvey Lembeck, he's still inept and menacing, as the man who breaks out of the guardhouse using exploding fountain pens.

Bobbi Shaw is now American and named Gilda.  Donna Loren is another WAF and gets a torchy solo at the wedding reception.  Dwayne Hickman has a brief appearance but gets a special thank-you in the end credits. Romo Vincent, the tuba player, would be Jack Happy in The Swinger.  Newsman Ed Reimers plays himself here but would be an announcer in The Barefoot Executive, which, yes, also features a chimp.

Palm Springs Weekend

Palm Springs Weekend
November 5, 1963
Warner Bros.
Comedy, Drama, Romance
VHS
C+

This is never as much campy fun as it could be but if you're patient you may find it worthwhile.  Mostly I watch it for the cast, particularly scene-stealing nine-year-old Billy Mumy as Boom Boom.  The more recognizable "teenagers" in the cast include Jerry Van Dyke, 36, providing most of the comic relief, such as it is, and playing the banjo; Robert Conrad, 28, as the spoiled rich villain; Troy Donahue, 27, as the hero (and singer of the title tune); Connie Stevens, 25, as an 18-year-old pretending to be 21; Stefanie Powers, 21, as Bunny, who despite the name comes across as proto-feminist in one scene where she criticizes the double standard.  (She also is, perhaps coincidentally, in a similar situation to Trudy Kockenlocker's in Miracle of Morgan's Creek, in that she works in a record shop and has a protective policeman father, although she decides not to give in to her own or Troy's "biological urges.")

The script is by Earl Hamner, Jr., later of Waltons fame, and among the un-Walton-like elements are

• A patio and swimming pool completely covered in laundry-detergent bubbles
• The policeman's wife trying to put tranquilizers in his orange juice
• Van Dyke trying to give Boom Boom a "milky Finn"
• A house-wrecking brawl
• A Nanette-Fabray-style makeover
• A gigantic Bugs Bunny doll
• A young man who hiccups when he thinks about sex
• A couple drag races 
• A weekend that lasts a whole week (Spring Break/ Easter vacation)
• A folk band in a casino

Hamner obviously isn't responsible for the most unintentionally funny aspect of the film, the repeated shots of the cyclorama of the desert by the casino, with the studio lights clearly visible in several shots!  (And it's not even like I have a big TV.  It's really obvious.)  Trying to make sense out of all this nonsense is Norman Taurog, who had been directing since the '20s (and apparently was one of the several directors of The Wizard of Oz), but in the '60s he started getting "teen movie" assignments, including a few for Elvis, so we'll be seeing his work again.

Jack Weston, who was the playwright/cabbie in Please Don't Eat the Daisies, plays the health-food fanatic basketball coach.  Sam Harris has been in several of my movies, dating back to the '30s, the most recent before this being Auntie Mame; next would be Mary Poppins.  Dorothy Abbott was in The Apartment.  Roger Bacon was in Beach Party and would appear in Pajama Party.  Red West would be in Girl Happy, Jim Shane and Louie Elias in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!, and Jack Shea in I'll Take Sweden.  Lesley-Marie Coburn, listed at IMDB as "Beatnick [sic] Babe," would do Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

"And I think that's the commissary over there."

Oh, and the trailer is a lot more fun than the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWB_tDhLLwU

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz
August 25, 1939
MGM
Children's, Fantasy, Musical
VHS
A-

Ah, where to begin?  This movie was such a part of my childhood, of so many childhoods, it's hard to be objective about it.  It's both a classic film and a cult film, with special appeal to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.  ("Of course, some people do go both ways.")  It's also a movie about the importance of family, both biological and chosen.  It's warm, sweet, funny, scary, and catchy.  (Try not reciting the lines or singing the songs, at least in your head.)  It also has a marvelous early use of color film, and the special effects are well beyond anything else of the time.  The acting is generally solid to wonderful, with Garland touchingly sincere, and many in the cast, from Scarecrow Ray Bolger (Dorothy's and my favorite) to Clara Blandick and Charley Grapewin, as Dorothy's aunt and uncle, seeming irreplaceable.  Margaret Hamilton, as not only the two wicked witches but Miss Gulch (admittedly overlapping characterizations), remains one of the great screen villainesses.  There's not a clinker among the songs, and the dance steps, even the little skips, add to the fun.  Also, the movie is endlessly quotable.

But it is not a perfect film.  Sometimes the direction (by no less than five men, including future Elvis helmsman Norman Taurog) is a little sloppy, with the camera sometimes not clear where it should go.  And, after all the drafts, including assists from witty lyricist Yip Harburg, the writing still needs work, particularly with Glinda's dialogue and characterization.  Now, in a way I've accepted Billie Burke's, shall we say, airier interpretation of Glinda, who is always dignified and sensible in the Oz books.  (Except for the ones John R. Neill wrote, but he was off-base in other ways, although an excellent illustrator.)  However, since childhood Burke's reading of "But I am a witch" has bothered me, when it obviously should be "But I am a witch."  Also, her "You wouldn't have believed me" to Dorothy, late in the film, is stupid on many levels, including that she let Dorothy and friends put themselves repeatedly in danger.  Other than that, my least favorite exchange is when Dorothy asks for the witch's broom (to bring back to the Wizard as proof of the Witch's death) and a Winkie says, "Yes, and bring it with you."  What, did he think Dorothy wanted to sweep up?  Is the "Witches Castle" sign a deliberate error?  What about the brain-enhanced Scarecrow's misinformation about triangles?

Still, these are quibbles.  The film is still a delight.  And it has what may well be the most awesome dog in screen history, Toto.  He's not only adorable but he repeatedly moves the plot along.  (The threat of Miss Gulch to take him away remains unresolved after Dorothy's "dream," two flaws really, the dream and the threat.)  He's the one who gets Dorothy's friends to rescue her and he's the one who leads to the Wizard flying off in his balloon without her.  And along the way, he's a quiet little scene-stealer.  "He" was played by a female dog, Terry, who would soon appear as "Fighting Dog at Beauty Shop" in the all-female The Women.  Margaret Hamilton would appear in My Little Chickadee the next year.  My next Judy Garland movie will be Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, also from 1940.

Rolfe Sedan had just appeared in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.  Lorraine Bridges (who does a Lullaby League member's singing voice) was in A Night at the Opera.  One of the Winged Monkeys, Lee Murray, was in A Day at the Races, while another, George Noisom, would go on to both Citizen Kane and It's a Wonderful Life.  One of the Winkies, Harry Wilson, would be a henchman in Some Like It Hot.  Jerry Maren, one of the most prominent Munchkins then and now (he's still alive in his 90s), would shortly do At the Circus.  Emerald City manicurist Ethelreda Leopold had just done You Can't Cheat an Honest Man and would go on to Meets Debutante.  Jimmy the Crow (I am not making that up) would appear as the bank's crow in It's a Wonderful Life.  That movie also has Adriana Caselotti (Juliet's voice here), and it's probably a bit of an in-joke that she was the voice of Snow White in the previous year's hit movie that helped get the ball rolling for Wizard.

I watched Wizard on a tape of the 50th anniversary airing on CBS, with such random celebrities as Tony Danza and Lindsay Wagner voicing their appreciation.  The quality of an almost-twenty-five-year-old VHS tape is not of the best, but the colors are still vibrant.  I will of course get the 75th anniversary DVD when it's released, and I may venture on the Rifftrax commentary.