Easy Come, Easy Go

Released March 22nd 1967 (May 28th 1967 UK)

Wallis-Hazen / Paramount Pictures   95 minutes

Produced by Hal B. Wallis

Directed by John Rich and Robert Goodstein

Music by Joseph J. Lilley

Written by Allan Weiss and Anthony Lawrence

Cast:

Elvis Presley (Lieutenant Ted Jackson), Dodie Marshall (Jo Symington), Pat Priest (Dina Bishop), Pat Harrington Jr. (Judd Whitman - as Pat Harrington), Skip Ward (Gil Carey), Sandy Kenyon (Lieutenant Marty Schwartz), Frank McHugh (Captain Jack), Ed Griffith (Cooper), Read Morgan (Ensign Tompkins), Mickey Elley (Ensign Whitehead), Elaine Beckett (Vicki), Shari Nims (Mary), Diki Lerner (Zoltan), Robert Isenberg (Artist), Elsa Lanchester (Madame Neherina)

Story:

Lieutenant Ted Jackson is a U.S. Navy frogman who discovers a chest in a sunken ship off the Californian coast just before he is discharged from the service. On his return to civilian life he becomes a nightclub singer, but still pursues the treasure he believes to be in the wrecked ship. Captain Jack, a local nautical expert, is unable to tell him the cargo of the ship but does know the name of the only descendant of the ship's captain. Ted tracks down this descendant - a yoga expert, artist and go-go dancing young woman named Jo Symington. She believes the chest contains treasure and agrees to help him if some of the profit is given to the community arts centre. They go after the 'treasure' with the help of friend Judd Whitman, but find themselves in competition with Gil Carey, who uses a couple of girls in the shape of a wacky beatnik and a spoilt rich girl to try and thwart them by distracting Ted's interest. Ted eventually manages to recover the 'treasure' which turns out to be worth much less than they had hoped for.

Notes:

Working titles: 'A Girl In Every Port', 'Easy Does It', 'Nice and Easy', 'Port of Call'. Presley's twenty-third film was released on March 22nd, only thirteen days before his twenty-fourth, Double Trouble. Although It is often stated that Elvis recorded Ray Charles' 'Leave My Woman Alone' for the film, only an instrumental backing was put down - he never recorded a vocal for the song. 'She's A Machine' was selected but not used in the movie.

Songs:

Easy Come Easy Go / The Love Machine / You Gotta Stop / Sing You Children / I'll Take Love / Yoga Is As Yoga Does

Double Trouble

Released April 5th 1967

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer   92 minutes

Produced by Irwin Winkler and Judd Bernard

Directed by Norman Taurog and Robert Goodstein

Music by Jeff Alexander

Written by Mark Brandel and Jo Heims

Cast:

Elvis Presley (Guy Lambert), Annette Day (Jill Conway), John Williams (Gerald Waverly), Yvonne Romain (Claire Dunham), The Wiere Brothers (Themselves), Chips Rafferty (Archie Brown), Norman Rossington (Arthur Babcock), Monte Landis (Georgie - as Monty Landis), Michael Murphy (Morley), Leon Askin (Inspector de Groote), John Alderson (Iceman), Stanley Adams (Captain Roach), Maurice Marsac (Frenchman), Walter Burke (Mate), Helene Winston (Gerda).

Story:

Fairly thin plot in which teenage heiress Jill Conway falls for a singer whose music group is touring in London and pursues him, revealing little about herself. Her guardian, Gerald Waverly, wants to keep her away from him so she is sent to Belgium, not realising that Guy also has some gigs set up there. On his way to Brussels, a pair of inept jewel thieves hide a fortune in diamonds in Guy's luggage, causing the singer to attract the attention of three equally hapless detectives and also finds himself pursued by the worldly Claire Dunham. Following mysterious attempts on his life and his arrest for allegedly kidnapping the rich heiress, Guy finds out that Jill is only 17 and does his best, unsuccessfully, to put her off, but while she is chasing Guy she is herself being pursued by some ugly characters as her uncle is trying to steal her inheritance. They don't have her best interests at heart and he eventually has to step into the situation to save her from them. During all the excitement, he realises that he is falling in love with her.

Notes:

Working title: 'You're Killing Me'. Although the film is set in Europe, Elvis never filmed outside Culver City, California. Norman Rossington became the only actor to work in both an Elvis and a Beatles movie. It was the only movie Annette Day made.

Songs:

Double Trouble / If You Give Me All Your Love / Could I Fall In Love / Long-Legged Girl With A Short Dress On / City By Night / Old MacDonald / One In Every Town / There's So Much World To See

Clambake

Released October 18th 1967 (premiere), December 4th (general USA)

Levy-Gardner-Laven / Rhodes Pictures / United Artists   99 minutes

Produced by Arthur Gardner, Arnold Laven and Jules Levy

Directed by Arthur H. Nadel

Music by Jeff Alexander

Written by Arthur Browne Jr.

Cast:

Elvis Presley as Scott Heyward/"Tom Wilson" Shelley Fabares as Dianne Carter Will Hutchins as Tom Wilson/"Scott Heyward" Bill Bixby as James J. Jamison III Gary Merrill as Sam Burton James Gregory as Duster Heyward Suzie Kaye as Sally Harold Peary (credited as "Hal Peary") as The Doorman Marj Dusay as The Waitress Jack Good as Hathaway Olga Kaya as Gigi Angelique Pettyjohn as Gloria Sam Riddle as The Announcer Wallace Earl (credited as "Amanda Harley") as Ellie In uncredited appearances: one of the dancers is Teri Garr; among the kids during the "Confidence" scene is a young Corbin Bernsen; and the little girl afraid to go down a playground slide, to whom Elvis sings, is Lisa Slagle, who later joined the Joffrey Ballet.

Story:

The son of an oil millionaire, Scott Hayward, wants to see more of life and rebels against the plans and expectations of his father, oil tycoon Dusty Heyward. After a chance meeting at a gas station he arranges to 'swap identities' with Miami hotel water-skiing instructor, Tom Wilson, to find out whether people will like him for himself and not just for his money. At the hotel, guest Dianne Carter engages him for a skiing lesson and shows him up a bit when she demonstrates that she is already an expert by performing a number of flashy manoevres. After the lesson she admits to Scott that she is trying to attract the attention of wealthy playboy James J. Jamison III and he agrees to help her, but ends up being attracted to her himself, although she has no idea who he really is. In order to try and impress her he persuades Sam Burton, a local boat builder, to help him renovate a racing boat, the 'Rawhide', so that he can enter and win the Orange Bowl powerboat race which Jamison has won for three years in a row. He acquires an experimental substance from his father's company and modifies it so that it doesn't fall apart in the water and applies it to his boat hoping that it will hold together during the race. His father finds out what he is up to and is proud of what he has accomplished by himself. In the meantime, Jamison is in the process of proposing to Dianne but is interrupted by Scott. Jamison tells him that they are getting married immediately after he wins the race. With the help of his secret concoction 'Rawhide' manages to beat Jamison's boat 'The Scarlet Lady' on the finishing line, messing up Jamison's celebration plans. Dianne decides not to pursue the moody Jamison and is offered a lift home by Scott, who presents her with an engagement ring that he has bought with his race winnings. She refuses to accept the ring, agreeing to marry him anyway, and faints when Scott manages to convince her of his real identity.

Notes:

In Japan, the film was released under the alternate title 'Blue Miami'. The white suit that Elvis wore in the film was cut into small pieces and packaged with the album 'Elvis:The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Award Hits Volume Two'.

Songs:

Clambake / The Girl I Never Loved / Confidence / A House That Has Everything / Hey Hey Hey / Who Needs Money / You Don't Know Me