#thirst watch

[themidnightsequence]

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[alienelvisobsession]

Masterlist of my series

CONNECTIONS A series of posts about connections between Elvis and artists that followed him.

The Jimi Hendrix Connection

The Andy Warhol-Bob Dylan Connection

The Clash Connection

The Jim Morrison Connection

The Quentin Tarantino Connection

The Led Zeppelin Connection

The Freddie Mercury Connection

The Jack White Connection

The David Bowie Connection

THIRST WATCHES Semi-serious thoughts on watching Elvis movies for the first time.

King Creole

Blue Hawaii

Jailhouse Rock

Flaming Star

Change of Habit

GI Blues

HIMBO PRINCE A goofy lighthearted fanfic about Elvis set in Hollywood ca. 1956-7

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

[alienelvisobsession]

THIRST WATCH #6: “G.I. Blues”

Let’s start from my most important observation: Tulsa is a ridiculous name. Does it win the crown of Elvis’ most absurd screen name? Wait, or is it just a nickname because he’s from Oklahoma? (🎼 or Arizona… what does it matter? 🎼 )

Tulsa is the goofiest of Elvis’ characters in terms of facial expressions. I don’t know why I voted to “kill him” in the Elvis movies poll. Maybe because this was the first movie Elvis did when he came back from the army and honestly it was a sheer cry from “King Creole”. It’s not Tulsa’s fault, though, more like Hal Wallis’.

The first two songs sucked, so I was happy when a soldier played “Blue Suede Shoes” on the jukebox. Meta moment there. So, how does ElvIs Presley look like in the G.I. Blues universe? Does he look exactly like Tulsa McLean, is Tulsa aware that he really looks like Elvis or does Elvis look different in this universe lol? 😂 I gotta occupy my time because the plot of this movie is paper thin.

It’s so evident that they filmed some external scenes in Germany without Elvis and then the rest was done in a soundstage in Hollywood.

Classic plot where a guy bets with his friends that he can get the girl and then he falls in love with her, with the caveat that it wasn’t really his idea because Elvis had to be the good boy bla bla bla. The girl wasn’t even hard to get. I would have loved to see Elvis being challenged at least, since the premise is so predictable.

Elvis ate too many pretzels while he was in Germany and his skin is not great (or maybe the makeup department wanted to save some money).

Why did they throw in the fact that Tulsa is part Native American without a reason? They were obsessed with this “exotic” thing about EP back then.

West Germany in 1960 is a country where everybody speaks excellent English and says “ja wohl” all the time! 😂

I liked the Italian girl, Tina. I found her more beautiful than Elvis’ girl, Lili. I looked her up, the actress is really Italian.

Elvis almost had as much chemistry with that puppet than with Ann-Margret. I hate the song “Wooden Heart”, by the way. If you want to torture me play that song over and over. Elvis it’s a good sport: even in the silliest of songs, he gives it all.

The babysitting scene was funny. Do you think Elvis was that clumsy with Lisa Marie?

When he hugs the girl in the cable car, woah, I wanna be held in his arms like that… and he’s been dead for 45 years! 😭

I kinda liked that he “Didja ever” at the end, where Elvis breaks the fourth wall.

That’s it. I don’t have much to say about this. Overall, okay movie. Enjoyable and lighthearted, but with mediocre songs. Elvis is super charming and the whole thing works only because he holds the screen so well. He’s more cute than hot in this movie.

[alienelvisobsession]

THIRST WATCH #3: “Jailhouse Rock”

Elvis is really good as an insolent brat. He’s kind of an asshole, an insufferable but irresistible James Dean with a guitar and a bad attitude. There’s no real reason for him being like that, other than feeling powerless early on in the movie. In other words, he’s a rock ‘n’ roll “rebel without a cause”.

Very improbable to kill a man with three single punches, don’t you think? Also, why is Elvis always starting a fight next to a jukebox? 😂

The guards flog him in jail, which was kind of a puzzling scene. Good Elvis movies seem to need one of those (spank, kidnap, rape, you name it). Probably it’s there so you feel sorry for Vince. It also provides an explanation as to why later on he’s such a cynic who only seems to care about money and women. Well, and also it gave us this mental image…ahem… I wonder if girls and women back then also saw something sexual in this.

I was almost expecting Johnny Cash to come in and sing “Folsom Prison Blues” at one point lol. 😂

I thought most of the movie was going to be set in the penitentiary. What a disappointment when Vince gets out. But I guess he wasn’t sexy enough in those prison clothes. Instead, we get Vince Everett in a lovely striped jacket. Yummy!

Lady: “I say atonality is just a passing phase in jazz music. What do you think, Mr. Everett?” Vince: “Lady, I don’t know what the hell you talkin’ about”. [storms out of the room theatrically]

“That ain’t tactics, honey. It’s just the beast in me”. ICONIC! I love Vince’s sass and his mumbling fast talk.

The “Jailhouse Rock” dance number was undoubtedly an inspiration for “Cell Block Tango”, plus the plot of “Chicago” is kinda similar. Oh, and Gene Kelly was apparently watching when they filmed that scene.

You know how Elvis’ movies often show things from his real life? It is really astonishing to me that a tooth cap he had inhaled during the dance sequence had to be surgically removed by parting his vocal chords and in the movie there is a very similar scene where Vince has a tracheotomy and they’re scared in both cases that it will impact his voice. 😱 Sorry but I can only handle Elvis’ health scares that get resolved!

“Gee Vince, when you sing it’s really gonesville.” True. I love “You’re So Square (Baby I Don’t Care)”! Why is he wearing a turtleneck sweater in the summer in the pool scene by the way? That’s gonesville (I don’t really know what that means, but it sounds funny).😅

Vince is pretty unlikable until the last few minutes, but you can’t take your eyes off of him. He is always so surly, maybe because of the way life has treated him before, or maybe just because of a rebellious attitude he cannot shake off. He’s just being kind of an asshole to be honest, but when that leads to him almost losing everything with that punch on the throat, he decides to change his attitude. For once, an Elvis movie where the screenwriters wrote an ending that makes sense and left me satisfied.

Lovely movie. EP is really hot and he has some great songs. My favorite so far. I already want to rewatch it. Maybe “King Creole” is technically a better movie, but I feel that this is more culturally relevant. When Vince rejects intellectual discussions about jazz music he’s reaffirming the instinctual quality of rock ‘n’ roll music and reminding us of that raw talent that we like so much in Elvis’ early records.

Other thirst watches:

King Creole

Blue Hawaii

[cheesethunderstormz]

can't believe i just put myself through the most nonsense bad movie of all time for a man, my god, i need it erased from my memory asap, someone please practice a lobotomy on me, glen powell, sweetie im so sorry i cant back you up on this one, im-

[whippingnaenae]

mfw i watch a movie for an actor but the movie was actually extremely emotional and poignant so now i feel kinda weird and uncomfortable tagging it as a thirstwatch on letterboxd 😯😯

[alienelvisobsession]

THIRST WATCH #5: “Change of Habit”

In “Change of Habit”, Elvis plays Dr. John Carpenter, a doctor in a difficult neighborhood who is helped at the clinic by three nuns in incognito and is attracted to one of them, Sister Michelle (Mary Tyler Moore). I don’t know if he consciously wanted to play the jaded overworked doctor who has has seen too many things, but Elvis in this movie looks bored and is acting on autopilot, apart from maybe the scene where he plays football in the park. If that was an acting choice, there should be a scene that explains why he seemed so disgruntled. The sets look embarrassingly cheap and unfortunately the story, even though written with good intentions, failed to entertain me or interest me. I’m afraid that Elvis didn’t enjoy filming this movie, so it seems to me that he wasn’t making much of an effort to act: he delivers his lines as quickly as he can, as if he were almost embarrassed by them.

This was filmed in what with my Discord Besties we call Elvis’ Silky period (1968-1970) , but he looks like freaking Spock sometimes when he’s wearing scrubs. “Live long and prosper, Elvis!”. I wonder if anybody told him that or if he realized watching himself. Would he have laughed at it or would he be pissed off? I already imagine myself being dragged by the hair and kicked out of Graceland by a Spock-looking Elvis! He needed a “Change of Hair”, not a “Change of Habit”! Seriously, those short bangs don’t suit him and his hair is combed too neatly. His hair weirdly changes from scene to scene, but overall I don’t even find him that hot in much of this movie, just attractive. Perhaps that’s because Dr. Sideburns is a boring character without much of a backstory and for the most part he lacks emotions, just like Spock. It’s honestly more fun to think about Elvis in a Star Trek episode (he was a fan)! Who would he play, Spock’s son? Or one of the red shirts who always get killed at the beginning of the episode? What about one the weird alien races on a planet of Elvii who all wiggle their legs and have incredibly long fingers? Okay, now I need about a fanfic about Elvis in a Star Trek episode, lol. 😂

Now back go the movie. The jokes made me cringe, even acknowledging this was 1969. Example: “The last few nurses who worked here couldn't handle it. Two of 'em got raped! One of them even against her will." Here they’re trying to say that unwanted pregnancies are a problem in the neighborhood, only partially because of sexual assault, but the issue is tackled with the same poor taste as Elvis’ hairdresser. Was Larry Geller around for this movie? Because this is kind of an early helmet in some scenes!

Elvis plays a serious doctor, but in my opinion the character is too goody goody for him. There’s a disconnect between the subject of the song “Rubberneckin’”, where Elvis seemingly sings about liking a lot of different girls and being alright with it, and the character of a single doctor in his early 30s in love with a nun with a very traditional view of relationships and marriage (the two don’t even kiss). If I were the scriptwriter, I would have flipped the roles and made Elvis a “hot priest” that you can’t totally read, like Andrew Scott in “Fleabag”.

“Change of Habit” tries to be socially conscious, but very clumsily. The main plot is an aborted rom-com, but minor themes are inequality, criminality in poor neighborhoods, changes in society and black power. Elvis deserved more dramatic roles, but with well-written round character and good plots. I must admit, though, that I liked the scene where he wears Converse sneakers, jeans, a University of Memphis sweatshirt and plays football in the park. He probably had fun filming that and he looks very modern.

During his time at the clinic, Dr. Sideburns deals with a stuttering boy, a drug addict and an autistic girl. It’s interesting to think that Elvis might have been all of these three things. No comment on that scene with the autistic girl, because they didn’t know how to deal with autism back then. Some fans are thrilled that issues of sexual assault, race and autism are addressed in an Elvis movie. While I agree that this is good for issues of representation, that’s not enough for me to make it a good movie, especially when these things are mentioned awkwardly in an attempt to update these vehicles to the progressive counterculture of the late ‘60s in a way that doesn’t move the ostensibly very basic “will-they-won’t-they” plot forward. This movie just made me uncomfortable, instead of being either fun or thought-provoking (or both). It didn’t help that serious issues are handled with throwaway one-liners like “I think our neighbors are Catholic. – Yes. It's too bad they're not Christian”. It’s not that I’m applying modern standards to an old movie: this for me was simply poorly written. It’s trying to attach socially-progressive issues to a vapid rom-com.

The best thing to come out of this movie for me is this meme of Dr. Sideburns that I made. Tell me if it doesn’t sound like El ad-libbing a line here:

The ending is like that of “King Creole”: they couldn’t really make up their mind, so they left it a bit ambiguous. Elvis doesn’t end up with the girl, but they want to leave it open if you want to think that he will in the future. This frustrates me because, unlike what happens in “King Creole”, the only conflict in this movie other that the clinic is in a tough neighborhood is that the doctor is attracted to the young nun.

It doesn’t even have a good Gospel number at the end, because these people are boring Catholics, like me. At a certain point, Elvis plays “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” at the piano (which would also be slightly out of character for Dr. Carpenter), but he doesn’t sing the words, maybe because of budget problems with the rights of the song, who knows! He looks so good in those elegant clothes. He’s suddenly unspocked!

Overall, I didn’t like the movie. Sorry for being this harsh and I know that there are Elvis fans who really love “Change of Habit” and that’s fine, but for me it’s a weird hybrid between a light-hearted and a socially-conscious movie and it didn’t work. This movie was boring, predictable and Elvis was sleepwalking through it. Sorry El, it wasn’t your fault. You deserved better. You wanna know how to fix this? Watch “Sister Act”.

Here’s a link to my other Thirst Watches, including “King Creole”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Blue Hawaii” and “Flaming Star”.

[piraticalpsyche]

I'm SCREAMING I'm messaging this girl and she's been making a lot of swypos (bc she's at the ER with a burnt hand probably) but she like... Has invited me to come over so she can cook dinner for me... And I'm already all flustered but note I'm lmao because she just made the most awkwardly sexual swypo and I'm dYING INSIDE...