Deluxe Editions: Special Editions: Elvis: The The Lights! Camera!
Jailhouse Rock, Elvis: That's the Hollywood Elvis! Collection
Viva Las Vegas Way It Is, This Collection ***
** ** Is Elvis *** Rated PG
Not rated **** Rated PG $76.99
$19.97 Rated PG $49.92
$20.97
On August 16, our Earth will stop rotating on its axis long enough for tens of millions of Elvis Presley fans to say a little prayer for the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, who’s been dead or in hiding for lo these last 30 years. If your hands get shaky and your knees grow weak, try not to get all shook up. Gravity will kick back in and, soon enough, you’ll be back standing firmly again. Paramount and Warner Home Video have jumped the gun by a week on this momentous event by simultaneously releasing 24 new and/or improved Elvis movie titles.
It’s no secret that most of the musicals made after Elvis left the military were cookie-cutter affairs, produced on the cheap solely to fill the coffers of Colonel Tom Parker and uber-producer Hal Wallace. Elvis’ characters all had names like Chad Gates, Rusty Wells and Rick Richards; were mildly rebellious, but generally polite; could kick ass when necessary; were equally adept at race driving, surfing and water skiing; and could melt any girl’s heart with a cheeseball song. They were extremely popular with the drive-in crowd—myself included—and inspired sales of soundtrack albums disproportionate to their musical value. Even if no more than one or two songs emerged from a movie as bona fide hits, no one held it against Elvis.
Warner is bringing out “deluxe” editions of Viva Las Vegas and Jailhouse Rock, two of the King’s most fondly remembered pictures—the former for its incredible title song and smoking duets with Ann-Margret, the latter for Elvis playing a multidimensional character who looked and acted like a real mid-’50s rocker and sang the heck out some great Leiber & Stoller songs.
A pair of very good documentaries arrive in “special” editions: Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, which, in 1970, transported audiences to the International Hotel showroom before taking them backstage and to his penthouse suite; and the new-to-DVD This Is Elvis, a compilation of interviews, home movies and dramatizations. Also from Warner comes Elvis: The Hollywood Collection, which comprises new-to-DVD editions of Charro, Girl Happy, Kissin’ Cousins, Stay Away, Joe, Tickle Me and Live a Little, Love a Little. They’re available individually, as well.
Paramount’s blue-suede boxed set, The Lights! Camera! Elvis! Collection, is made up of movies that span Presley’s movie career. They include the excellent King Creole, based on a Harold Robbins novel and directed by Michael Curtiz; G.I. Blues, made after he returned from Germany; Blue Hawaii, Paradise, Hawaiian Style and Girls! Girls! Girls!, all set in Hawaii; Fun In Acapulco, opposite a sizzling Ursula Andress; Roustabout, with Barbara Stanwyck; and Easy Come, Easy Go, co-starring Elsa Lanchester.
The deluxe and special editions come with plenty of extras, including commentary, interviews and such featurette material as “Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas,” “The Scene That Stole Jailhouse Rock,” “Behind the Gates of Graceland” and “Patch It Up: The Restoration of Elvis: That’s the Way It Is.” Most of the single discs have been fully restored and arrive in the widescreen aspect.