Easy Come, Easy Go

Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: John Rich

Starring: Elvis, Dodie Marshall, Pat Priest, Pat Harrington, Jr., Frank McHugh

From: Paramount

The 8th was the birthday of Elvis, so watching a movie of his around this time was the natural thing to do. It was not great but I managed to be entertained nonetheless. See why below: 

It's been about 6 months since I've last seen an Elvis movie. I thought that Speedway was pretty aggravating so I decided to keep a break from that scene. However, today is the birthday of Elvis Presley, so what better thing to do last night than see one of his flicks last night so the review would go up today? This isn't the best movie that The King did but it certainly did give me some things to talk about.

The plot: Elvis is a frogman (i.e. a member of the Armed Forces who does scuba diving as part of the job) in the Navy who discovers what appears to be buried treasure. Once he's out of the Navy, he has a hell of a time trying to dive again due to circumstances. It's contrived and a goofy sitcom plot but boy are there some odd elements. I mean, the movie being a total square and making fun of such things as yoga (yes, really), “beatniks” and performance artists isn't the half of it. I imagine that Mr. Presley himself was seen as a “square” in 1967 and maybe not even the '68 Comeback Special could erase that from the mind of some youths.

Regrettably, Elvis does not do what I call KING-FU (his version of the martial arts) but at least he gets into a brawl with a real heel who is one of the obstacles to getting that treasure. There isn't too much else to say about the threadbare plot but at least I was able to laugh at a few things:

* The Captain Jack character. He's an old dude who acts like a sea captain... but he's afraid of water and he only played the part for a kids TV show. He comes off as a dottering old fool, to be honest.

* Elvis not only attempts to do yoga, he sings about it too! His duet with poor Elsa Lanchester known as Yoga Is As Yoga Does was likely the nadir of the careers for both. The songs in general are only acceptable, and that is you're being generous.

* My personal favorite highlight: Elvis has a nightclub owning pal known as Judd. Now, he plays the trumpet, knows some things about the sea... and while not outright said, is a pimp! How else am I suppose to interpret the scene early on where Elvis and a few Navy pals come into his club and Judd brings out a wheel for the men to spin which contains pictures of more than a dozen girls (w/ their measurements helpfully displayed on the pictures) and wherever the wheel lands, the dude gets the girl? Nevermind the gross sexism of it all, Judd is a pimp!

Overall, not the best Elvis movie I've seen but I've definitely ones that are worse/not as amusing to watch.