DailyView: Day 331, Movie 474

Elvis Presley made a lot of movies in his career. This is the first film that is not a concert film that I have seen from The King, and many people believe that this was one of the best films in the catalogue of Elvis Presley.

King Creole is based on the novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins.

Danny Fisher (Elvis Presley) is a troublemaking 19-year old who has been unable to graduate from high school which caused conflict between him and his father (Dean Jagger). It turned out that Danny could sing and he started to sing for Charlie Legrand (Paul Stewart) owner of the King Creole nightclub. However, local gangster Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau) wanted Danny to sing for him instead.

There is more to the story than that, but it is a little messy. Some of the motives are shaky. I am not sure what Maxie Fields was think through much of the third act of the film, in the final showdown specifically.

However, Elvis was pretty good, Carolyn Jones was excellent as Ronnie, the mistress of Maxie, and the music was great.

King Creole was a fun film even if it is a lesser story. I would guess that this was the best Elvis film around.