Jailhouse Rock **** (1957, Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy) – Classic Movie Review 1,356

Elvis Presley stars as a self-centred but good-hearted bad boy called Vince Everett, the epitome of troubled youth, in the 1957 teen musical film Jailhouse Rock. It caused a scandal because Elvis plays a bad role model and swings his pelvis way too much.

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1957 teen musical film Jailhouse Rock stars Elvis Presley as a self-centred but essentially good-hearted bad boy called Vince Everett, the epitome of troubled youth. It caused a scandal because Elvis plays an anti-heroic bad role model and swings his pelvis way too much, the story portrays a convicted killer as a hero, and the script uses ‘hell’ as a profanity and includes a scene showing Presley in bed with his co-star.

Elvis’s third film is now best remembered for the dance sequence in which he sings the title track while on stage, cavorting with other inmates in a set resembling a block of jail cells. The prototype for today’s music videos, it is the most memorable musical sequence in any of Presley’s 30 narrative movies.

Filming began on 13 May 1957 at MGM Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) in Culver City, California, and finished by 17 June 1957. Shot in black and white, the film was the first MGM production to use the recently developed Panavision 35 mm anamorphic lens. The title dance sequence was the first scene filmed, but Presley was unhappy with the direction of choreographer Alex Romero, who then asked Presley to try his own moves for the sequence’s choreography.

In the story, construction worker Vince accidentally kills a drunken, belligerent man in a bar-room brawl. He gets himself locked up in prison, serving a one-to-ten-year sentence in the state penitentiary for manslaughter. But, while behind bars, he teaches himself to play guitar and rocks the jail with his provocative music.

His washed-up country and western singer cellmate Hunk Houghton (Mickey Shaughnessy) recognises his talent, mentors his singing and introduces him to the record business. Vince decides to have a go at being a hit as a singer when he’s released and the conniving Hunk convinces Vince to sign a contract to become equal partners in his act.

Elvis hugs Judy Tyler as he sings Young And Beautiful.

Just 20 months later, Vince is out and Hunk promises Vince a singing job at a friend’s nightclub, where Vince meets Peggy Van Alden (Judy Tyler), a promoter for singer Mickey Alba (Don Burnett). The club owner refuses Vince a job as a singer and just offers him work as a barboy, but he goes on stage when the house band takes a break and starts to sing ‘Young And Beautiful.’

Hunk helps Vince launch his career as his manager and musical promoter. Vince soon becomes an overnight sensation as a surly teenage rock star but he still has a huge chip on his shoulder.

Elvis talks to Mickey Shaughnessy in their cell.

The musical sequences, especially that title song with the dance number choreographed by Presley himself, place this happily among his top films. It captures the full hip-shaking, leg-twitching, nostril-flaring, lip-sneering legend of the King, and it features a classic Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller score, including ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘Treat Me Nice’ and ‘Don’t Leave Me Now’.

An exuberantly performing, iconic young Elvis in his nimble and nifty prime has a great screen presence and more surprisingly shows some signs of acting talent. That, the vintage songs, the anti-authority attitudes in Guy Trosper’s neat script from Nedrick Young’s story, and Thorpe’s slick direction all help to set Jailhouse Rock way above Elvis’s bland 60s work.

Judy Tyler does her best as Peggy Van Alden, but she draws the short straw as Elvis’s female co-star, and, as usual, playing second fiddle to Elvis would hardly have helped her career. But, after filming Jailhouse Rock, Tyler and her second husband Gregory Lafayette were driving from Hollywood home to New York through Wyoming on 3 July 1957 when they were involved in an automobile accident on US Route 287 near Rock River. Tyler was killed instantly, aged 24, and Lafayette died the next day, aged 19.

Coming from a show business family, and starting as a chorus girl, and then starring on stage, Tyler had appeared in Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1957), her only other film.

Also in the cast are Vaughn Taylor, Dean Jones, Jennifer Holden, Anne Neyland, Don Burnett, George Cisar, Ford Coby, John Daheim, Francis De Sales, Joan Dupuis, Bess Flowers, William Forrest, Bill Hale, Percy Helton, Bill Hickman, Harry Hines, John Indrisano, Walter Johnson, Donald Kerr, Frank Kreig, S John Launer, Joe McGuinn, Tom McKee, Carl Milletaire, Frank Mills, Robin Raymond, Grandon Rhodes, Dick Rich, Hugh Sanders, Elizabeth Slifer, K L Smith, Glenn Strange, Bob Stratton, William Tannen, Katherine Warren, Steve Warren, Dan White and Wilson Wood.

Mike Stoller and Presley’s regular band Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D. J. Fontan appear as Vince’s band throughout the film.

Producer Pandro S Berman’s wife convinced him to create a star vehicle for Presley. When Leiber and Stoller failed to produce any material, they were shut in their New York hotel room with their door blocked by a sofa until they wrote the songs.

Jailhouse Rock premiered in Memphis, Tennessee, on 17 October 1957 and was released nationwide in the US on 8 November 1957. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated with his family to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13. Presley was devastated that Judy Tyler had been killed in an automobile accident soon before the film’s release and a did not attend the premiere.

It was a nice earner on a budget of $1 million, taking $3.2 million in the US and Canada and $1,075,000 elsewhere during its initial run, resulting in a profit for MGM of $1,051,000. Elvis was number four at box office in 1957.

The film was selected in 2004 for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as culturally, aesthetically or historically significant.

MGM did not list it in its planned releases for the year because it was based on a story by blacklisted writer Nedrick Young.

Presley’s hairstyle and sideburns were covered with a wig and makeup for the musical and jail scenes. But one of his dental caps became detached and stuck in his lung, so he spent the night in hospital before filming resumed next day.

Elvis’s first two films are Love Me Tender (1956) and Loving You (1957).

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,356

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/