On August 16th, 2017, people lined up to have their bags probed and prodded by security officers to get inside the barrier near the mansion for the annual vigil honoring the King, who died of a heart attack Aug. 16, 1977. Elvis Presley is still one of the most revered entertainers even 40 years after his death. Putting aside how he died, as a young man he had a remarkable career and only when the temptations often put in front of celebrities got the better of him did we lose one of the finest performers of all time.
Roustabout was Elvis’s 16th movie made in 1964 by Paramount pictures. The film’s soundtrack was one of the King’s most successful reaching number one on the Billboard Album Chart. Despite the soundtrack’s success, this film remains one of his lesser known productions. Co-starring in the film is the legendary Barbara Stanwyck, who needs no introduction. Stanwck’s long career spanned over 90 films and in 1944 the government listed her as the nation’s highest-paid woman, earning $400,000. She received four Academy Award nominations and in 1982 was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for her contributions to the acting industry. She was nominated five times for Emmy Awards, winning three of them, and she received four Golden Globe nominations, winning one. She received Life Achievement Awards from the American Film Institute, the Screen Actors Guild and the Los Angles Film Critics Association.
Legend has it Elvis made this movie so he could work with Stanwyck and, as is typical of many of his films, other cast members appeared in subsequent roles of the King’s future films including “Paradise, Hawaiian Style,” “Blue Hawaii,” “Girls! Girls! Girls!,” “It Happened At The World’s Fair,” “Viva Las Vegas,” (previously reviewed), “Kissin’ Cousins” and “Girl Happy.” So, the film has a sort of a duality to it, its musical score reaching number one on the Billboard charts yet reviled by the critics as clichéd and formulaic– which is true. But enough of that, let’s take a look at the movie.
As with many of the King’s movies the plot is relatively simple: Musician Charlie Rogers (Elvis Presley) is fired from a gig at a teahouse after brawling with several college. After a night in jail, Charlie hits the road on his Honda 305 Superhawk motorcycle. He spots Cathy Lean (Joan Freeman) driving with her father Joe (Leif Erickson) and their employer, Maggie Morgan (Barbara Stanwyck). When Charlie tries to become friendly with Cathy, Joe forces him off the road and the bike is wrecked after crashing into a wooden fence.
Maggie offers him a place to stay and a job with her struggling traveling carnival while the bike is being repaired. Charlie becomes a “carnie,” a “roustabout.” Maggie recognizes his musical talents and promotes him to feature attraction. His act soon draws large crowds. Off stage, Charlie romances Cathy, which creates animosity with Joe. After the two men repeatedly clash and Charlie is accused of holding back a customer’s lost wallet that Joe was accused of stealing, Charlie leaves to star in the much better financed show of rival carnival producer Harry Carver (Pat Buttram).
Once again, he is a great success. However, when Charlie learns that Maggie is facing bankruptcy, he returns to her carnival. In the musical finale, he is happily reunited with Cathy. In the carnival saved from bankruptcy.
When members of the JPFmovies crew visited Graceland, we went to the Elvis DVD gift shop and asked to purchase a copy of the DVD version of Roustabout. Incredibly, the store did not carry the film. We couldn’t believe our ears, here we are at the King’s headquarters and we couldn’t by a copy of his 16th movie, you’re killing me! We made fun of that store manager for at least 20 minutes and asked if there were any other Elvis movies they didn’t have in stock. He offered to order it for us and pay the shipping costs; however, we turn down this “generous” the offer of the Presley Empire knowing we could acquire the DVD from other sources probably at a much lower price. What kind of operation focused on one performer does not carry all of his movies for sale? Graceland is geared to making money, but when asked to purchase one of his films they didn’t have it? Are you kidding?
Leaving all that aside, Roustabout remains one of the JPFmovie team’s best liked films, because it involves such a strange plot, a bad boy going good while working as a carnival worker? Obviously, this film was not written by a brain trust, yet it is worthy of watching. So, if you want to honor the King’s memory, Roustabout is a good choice to watch.
We still miss you Elvis and you are still the King.
JPFmovies’ next foray into the Sci-Fi world: Star Trek Enterprise (2001-2005). Almost everyone complained about it but we didn’t think it was bad.
The creation of Netflix, probably the greatest innovation for movie and T.V. fans since the introduction of HBO and similar channels, has given people like us at JPFmovies the ability to “binge” watch movies/T.V. series. Well, we went on an Enterprise “binge” in “the blind” so to speak—not having followed any of the trials, tribulations and fan/producer politics. If you look through our reviews over the years you will find very few T.V. series, much less American produced television. In other words, we were not influenced by all the political machinations surrounding the three previous Star Trek series beginning in the 1980s and running though the late 1990s or by the opinions of their fans and producers. So when we went on our Enterprise “binge” it was really with a fresh eye. And you know what? We thought it was a decent show (except for the theme song).
That said, when we searched the Internet for information about Enterprise, almost all the content we saw was invariably negative. Enterprise was blamed for the end of the Star Trek franchise that had been running since the 1980s. Fans blamed the show’s lack of continuity and rather thin plot while producers Berman and Braga argued it was some sort of “franchise fatigue”—a position we here at JPFmovies find self-serving, trying to avoid taking responsibility for the show’s short run.
So when we watched the show with a fresh eye, JPFmovies thought the show didn’t deserve all the criticism it received and should have been given some more seasons to let the show get some more traction. Those of us at JPFmovies thought that T’Pol (the ever present Vulcan) was an interesting change of pace from the traditional steely-eyed monotoned alien who spouted nothing but “logic.” As a Vulcan, she walked the line between Vulcans repressing their emotions and having them. Frankly I didn’t mind seeing some emotions underneath the typical Vulcan surface. We also read a lot of complaints that the actress playing T’Pol could not act and was there only for her eye candy appeal. To deny she was eye candy would be foolish, but she also did a good job playing a full time female Vulcan. In fact, a JPFmovie consultant found an interview with her where she herself said that you need more than eye candy to make a Trek series—you also needed decent stories. So she was aware of the limits that she could provide as a model.
We also found Enterprise a nice change of pace in that the Capitan was not an all knowing, never making any mistakes character, i.e. larger than life. Scott Bakula, as Capitan Archer, screws up all the time—as he should, because Enterprise was humanity’s first venture into space beyond our system. Picard, Sisko, and Janeway always made the right calls—never faltering. Archer was constantly screwing up, as the Vulcan delegation on earth was quick to point out. A human out there in space interacting with aliens (hostile or not) is going to make mistakes—and lots of them. There was also the ship’s doctor, Phlox, an alien who proved quite interesting—a “Denoublan” who used odd creatures in the course of his medical treatments and had three wives who each had three husbands. He was always a great one to watch. Then too, Jeffrey Combs, who played many roles on DS9, was great as Commander Shram—the head of an alien race called the Andorians.
To keep this review at a readable length, the last thing we will comment on was Enterprise itself. The ship, unlike Voyager, TNG’s Enterprise, and DS9’s invulnerable space-station, was fragile—prone to damage and breaking. The ship never had shields or phasors (until several episodes in). Much more often than not, Enterprise was no match for many of the alien ships that it encountered. Again, something that one should expect when humans first begin to explore space outside of our solar system.
We read an article on Syfy’s site which also brought up some good points as to why Enterprise didn’t go the distance: The Internet! TNG, DS9 and Voyager were essentially all pre-Internet boom shows, while Enterprise was subject to hypercritical analysis, which was like a cloud of noise that had a profound impact on the ability of others to just enjoy Enterprise, and also created the perception that the show was more reviled than it actually was. Another interesting fact we didn’t know about Enterprise that sprang from the Internet was that it was unsurprisingly, one of the most pirated shows from 2001–2005 on sites like the Pirate Bay—so many viewers would not be reflected in the ratings. Two ideas that JPFmovies put some serious stock in.
Despite all the “bad press” Enterprise was subjected to, it seems that the show is having a renaissance, many people are going to back to watch the show streaming on such outlets as Netflix, and the “bad press” is starting to be replaced with more positive posts—a long overdue interpretation of the series.
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Posted by JPFmovies on April 20, 2017 in Movie Reviews
Tags: commentary, enterprise, movies, reviews, sci-fi, scott backula, star trek, syfye, Television, time travel, Women