Elvis’ first remake. Elvis is, as usual, just out of the army – he moves back to the country region where he grew up, with the goal of becoming a mechanic. The big business in the area is a boxing training camp. Elvis gets work as a sparring partner and is revealed to be a top boxer. Luckily it’s a singing boxing camp (no kidding – the boxers sing in the evening) so he fits in.
There are familiar Elvis movie elements: he flirts with an elder woman, gets involved in fist fights, sings a song while driving (forcing Charles Bronson and Gig Young to listen – they do try to respond to this more than your usual Elvis-singing passenger) and becomes a boxer.
Elvis starts off playing a different sort of character in this – although a nice guy, Galahad is a fairly dumb country hick, open to exploitation. (Even Young’s nice sister, his romantic interest, seems mostly interested in him for sexual reasons rather than his brain.) But disappointingly this is not followed up on – Elvis becomes too confident and competent, which is great for the character but not so good for drama. I think they should have made up their mind – was Galahad meant to be naïve, or should he be Elvis’ normal snarly juvenile.
The film is set in a pine forest where people live in smart wooden houses – like the one James Mason had in North by Northwest. There is a touching scene when locals get proud of Elvis – although there’s always been a boxing camp in the area, he’s their first local champ, and it means a lot, which is sweet. Aussie viewers will enjoy the bit where Young tries to hype Elvis by lying that he won 17 knockouts in Australia.
This has one of Elvis’ strongest support cast - the line up including Gig Young (who I swear slurs his lines every now and then), Lola Albright, Ed Asner and Charles Bronson. It was great that Bronson became a film star but when he did Hollywood lost one of its best supporting actor, and he’s very good here – all craggy faced integrity. Some of the minor hoodlum parts are undercast.
The drama in this is pretty good and director Phil Karlson has flair for the violent bits, such as boxing sequences (especially the early ones with Elvis being pummeled) and when gangsters smash Bronson’s hands. Perhaps not coincidentally the musical numbers feel poorly integrated. Like Wild in the Country this didn’t actually need to be a musical. Entertaining film.
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