Different sort of Elvis Presley film – it’s like a play more than a film, which is not a criticism, because it means Elvis gets more dialogue than usual, and he handles it well. He and his hillbilly family are travelling through Florida when they break down on some vacant piece of government land, which they decide to claim by homesteading (i.e. squatting). They soon come into conflict with the government and the mafia.
The politics of this film is interesting. Elvis and his family are all on government benefits (Elvis was injured in the army) yet they’re against the government enough to claim land by sitting on it – which apparently is okay. (What about the Indians?). Are we supposed to be on their side getting hold of this land for which they’ve done no work to earn apart from put up some ramshackle hut? It’s pretty beach front in Florida- wouldn’t that be better for the public as a national park than some family of hick free-loaders? (Surely they could have made the baddies want to sell it to a developer or something to make our heroes more sympathetic.)
I think we’re supposed to get indignant when social workers try to get these twins who’ve been adopted by the family because it’s a poor living environment. But is it such a great working environment? This social worker criticises Arthur O’Connell, the paterfamilias, for being dim - I think he is meant to impress us with his home-spun wisdom – only he isn’t that wise, more a bludger who gets very lucky. The social worker also makes snide insinuations about Elvis and his “sister” who’s been living with him for years – she’s not his blood sister, but she’s been raised by O’Connell and working in the family as a sister/mother. I think we’re meant to be outraged – but at the end Elvis hooks up with his sister, so the social worker was right. (I’m sure Woody Allen would have improved.) Also Elvis is criticised in court for taking benefits for which he is entitled – he admits he wasn’t entitled to them, but took them because the army insisted on giving them to him… which makes him dumb and a dole bludger. It’s a really odd film – which is not common for an Elvis film.
There is pleasing photography, the idea of just setting up home on a stretch of isolated Florida beach front is very appealing, I really enjoyed the run-ins with the local mafia (they were a lot better baddies than the government), Elvis gives a nice performance and there are some sharp lines and bits from writer Charles Lederer, including the sequence where Elvis helps outwit the sexy social worker doing the word aptitude test at the end. .I just wish the family had a stronger work ethic – I’ve never seen a Hollywood film where the heroes were welfare cheats before.
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