This convoluted psychological melodrama of one man's tortured soul and the women in his life doesn't explode into something interesting until the last quarter. Country boy Elvis Presley is a misunderstood youth, filled with the spirit of God but so desperate for love that no cold shower could calm him down. He goes from young girl (Millie Perkins) to vixen (Tuesday Weld) to a mature young lady (Hope Lange) who guides him into self-discovery and a hopeful future. The mood of the first three quarters goes all over the place that it is difficult to sustain any level of consistent interest. But all of a sudden, Presley's brooding hero (with a fragile ego) begins to open up and you really see the spirit.
Clifford Odets ("Golden Boy", "Come Back Little Sheba") adapted the screenplay for this mixed effort that doesn't actually fail because of Presley's participation in it. It fails as a whole because the structure is rather all over the place. It is at its weakest when Presley's character is around both Weld and Perkins, as they don't sparkle with him as he does with Lange, evidenced in their tender but brief love scene. It reminded me of such Southern dramas as "The Chase", "This Property is Condemned" and "Hurry Sundown" in its exploration of mixed up people in rural locations, even though the exact whereabouts was rather vague. Elvis only sings a little bit, most memorably a cute improvised dialog with Lange that is quite humorous.
You hope for so much more in the dramatic development in this interesting man's life, but it is never delivered. Presley gives a respectable performance in trying to move past his hip-shaking musicals he'd been making up to that point, yet it is clear that in his hopes to be another James Dean, he had a lot going against him. I don't thin, however, in spite of my mediocre review, that this film isn't not worth seeing: It is, as long as you are aware of the flaws that could have been unavoidable.
Clifford Odets ("Golden Boy", "Come Back Little Sheba") adapted the screenplay for this mixed effort that doesn't actually fail because of Presley's participation in it. It fails as a whole because the structure is rather all over the place. It is at its weakest when Presley's character is around both Weld and Perkins, as they don't sparkle with him as he does with Lange, evidenced in their tender but brief love scene. It reminded me of such Southern dramas as "The Chase", "This Property is Condemned" and "Hurry Sundown" in its exploration of mixed up people in rural locations, even though the exact whereabouts was rather vague. Elvis only sings a little bit, most memorably a cute improvised dialog with Lange that is quite humorous.
You hope for so much more in the dramatic development in this interesting man's life, but it is never delivered. Presley gives a respectable performance in trying to move past his hip-shaking musicals he'd been making up to that point, yet it is clear that in his hopes to be another James Dean, he had a lot going against him. I don't thin, however, in spite of my mediocre review, that this film isn't not worth seeing: It is, as long as you are aware of the flaws that could have been unavoidable.