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King Creole
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $2.61
You Save: $12.34 (83%)
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Product Details
- Starring: Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger
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- Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
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- Binding: VHS Tape
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- Director: Michael Curtiz
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- EAN: 9780792153450
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- Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, Original recording reissued, NTSC
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- ISBN: 0792153456
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- Label: Paramount
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- Manufacturer: Paramount
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Product Group: Video
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- Publisher: Paramount
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- Release Date: 1998-10-27
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- Studio: Paramount
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- Theatrical Release Date: 1958-07-02
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- Title: King Creole
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- UPC: 097363766230
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: Before his handlers convinced him to settle for the safety of a screen franchise, the young Elvis Presley harbored riskier dreams as an actor, not just a star. This 1958 drama, his fourth feature outing, hints at the underlying seriousness of that goal. Presley plays Danny Fisher, a New Orleans teenager struggling to graduate from high school while working in a sleazy French Quarter club to support his family. He's also characterized as a troubled youth with a dangerous temper and feelings of shame and resentment toward his meek, unemployed father (Dean Jagger). When Danny's gift for singing provides him with a potential career break (and the requisite excuse for Elvis's production numbers), his involvement with a ruthless gangster (Walter Matthau) and his sultry, alcoholic moll (Carolyn Jones) soon threatens both his future and his family. That story line, with Danny torn between a budding romance with a good waitress (Dolores Hart) and the bad moll, Ronnie (Jones), proves as effective as it is predictable, hardly surprising given its source in an early Harold Robbins bestseller. But King Creole also boasts an impressive production pedigree (including the team behind no less a classic than Casablanca, producer Hal Wallis and director Michael Curtiz), and the supporting cast helps elicit one of Presley's most emotional performances. Jones in particular rises above her role's inherent clichés, her self-loathing and sexuality both palpable. Presley, still a few years away from the more sanitized image that would be integral to those franchise features, is young enough to be a credible teen, but more crucially he makes his rage and yearning largely convincing. Ironically, the dramatic sparks prove all the more welcome in light of the largely forgettable music, which variously plunders Chicago blues ("Trouble," a knock-off of "Hoochie Coochie Man") and unconvincingly crosses Presley's Memphis rock with Crescent City jazz ("Dixieland Rock"), all to far less effect than Presley's two preceding movies, Jailhouse Rock and Loving You. --Sam Sutherland
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Customer Reviews
The proof is in the crawfish
That gorgeous smile shows up in the first scene. The black and white movie opens with fabulous footage of New Orleans' French Quarter in the '50s, with vendors singing of their produce. A woman on a mule-drawn cart sings "Crawfish," and Elvis leans out a balcony window and joins in her song. As he sings, he ducks back inside and is viewed only through the sheer curtains, tantalizing his fans until the viewer is allowed into the apartment.
Elvis's favorite movie of his is mine, too. Good jazzy songs, good story, and yes, good acting by the young, trim Elvis. His lines were delivered without rushing them the way he did in other movies, and with an appropriate amount of emotion.
A few of the lines from the two needy women who loved him were a little melodramatic, but that can be overlooked, it's all so camp, cute and nostalgic, with a sweet song in a happy ending that brings tears to my eyes.
Written by Harold Robbins, who also wrote _The Carpetbaggers_, "King Creole" is heavy drama with some PG violence and adult themes but '50s clean.
Interesting note: Dolores Hart, who plays good girl Nellie, also appeared in "Loving You" and the first "Where the Boys Are." She left Hollywood and became a nun. Now a Mother Superior, she retains her membership in the Academy and votes each year for the Academy Awards, so I have read.
The supporting cast all give great performances, especially bad girl Carolyn Jones, her "boyfriend," Walter Matthau as the villain, plus Dean Jagger as Elvis's father.
Elvis loved this movie and wanted to do more drama, such as Peter O'Toole's "The Lion in Winter." He hated the trite movies the Colonel pushed on him, hated that his wildly successful movies provided financing for good movies of less-received depth and drama he was not allowed to do.
"King Creole" shows he could have done them well.
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King Creole
Loved this movie. I especially loved the opening scene and number. All around good acting & great musical numbers performed by Elvis. You won't be disappointed.
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King Creole
Elvis Presley's last movie before he was drafted into the Army. It is his best and has the best soundtrack. Songs like Dixieland Rock and Crawfish, the duet with the black girl, capture his essence. Liliane Montevecchi is showgirl Forty Nina, decked out in bananas. King Creole is set in New Orleans' French Quarter (Vieux Carre). The King Creole is the club where Elvis performs.
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King Creole
I love this movie! It is one of Elvis' best roles. I originally bought this movie for my boyfriend for his birthday but it soon became one of my favorite films. I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves Elvis or just loves old mobster movies.
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Best Elvis movie ever
Elvis was a cool guy, but many of his movie musicals are so hokey it's unbearable. Ah, but then there is King Creole! Elvis could have been a superior actor and he proves himself with this one serious role in King Creole.
Oh yes, he sings his heart out in this one too, but the story is really really good. Cheers to Elvis and a great supporting cast for making this work.
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