ELVIS MONTH Day 3 Jailhouse Rock (1958)

Year: 1958

Age: 23

Movie: 3rd

Ah Vince Everett in trouble over a girl, who would have seen that coming. And those juke boxes are great for catching Elvis fight victims. So off to jail for you young man. Which is really good for us, cause we get a few good songs and Vince gets a good dose of the whip. Some good acting. And a bit of not so good acting. Oh I do believe I may be biased in my views. And we get to say good bye to those lovely locks of hair. But he seems to pull it off. Those lovely locks of hair reappear in the next scene or two.

The scene of Vince working in the yard with his shirt off makes me smile. These days an actor would be in the gym for hours everyday just for a shirtless scene, but Elvis is out there shovelling, being all sweaty and dirty with very little muscle tone…it was a different time kids.

The first song is sung by Mickey Shaughnessy, One More Day, love it.

Next song is a bit of Young And Beautiful, which I absolutely love. I remember listening to it on my little record player. Slow and romantic, kinda the opposite of what you want to sing in jail.

Then, I Want To Be Free. Seems like a very unpolished song, but I like it anyway. It’s just raw…that’s the only word I could think of.

So Vince has served his time and is released, and he is a little cranky and a bit of an arse. So he meets Judy Tyler at a bar and away they go. This was Judy’s last movie, as she and her husband were killed in a car accident a few weeks after filming was completed.

Don’t Leave Me Now…

Classic Line: Peggy: How dare you think that such cheap tactics would work on me… Vince: They ain’t tactics honey, it’s just the beast in me.

Treat Me Nice, not really strict on the whole lip syncing thing back in those days.

And those fans of old Disney movies will recognise Dean Jones who plays the DJ. He was in The Love Bug and Shaggy DA and a few hundred other classics. You remember those classics don’t you??

You don’t hear too much sex talk in an Elvis movie, but there are a few in this one.

So quite possibly one of the most famous musical numbers is, of course, Jailhouse Rock, completely awesome. Choreography by Alex Romero and Elvis. I have read somewhere that Gene Kelly actually watched the filming of this scene too. This musical number has also been credited as being the prototype of the music video. Having said that you probably shouldn’t blame Elvis for MTV. Nobody could have seen that coming. Lay it on me Daddyoooo…

Baby I Don’t Care, is the next song, a really cool song too. Most of the songs from Jailhouse Rock are under 2 mins long, which is not really long at all. Great outfit! So 50’s.

The scene with Vince sitting on the floor playing with those dogs, so cute.

Last song…You’re So Young and Beautiful…again 🙂

This movie is the iconic Elvis movie. A little similar to Loving You, cranky man, nice girl, sings, fights, gets the girl. The majority of people on this little planet recognise the clip and the outfit (Prisoner # 6240) and it’s full of great songs mostly provided by the team of Leiber and Stoller. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had to be locked in a hotel room for four hours so they could actually get around to writing these songs.