Fri 12 Dec 2014
Jonathan Lewis Reviews Two Movies Directed by JOHN RICH.
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[14] Comments
ROUSTABOUT. Paramount, 1964. Elvis Presley, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Freeman, Leif Erickson, Sue Ane Langdon, Pat Buttram, Joan Staley, Dabbs Greer. Director: John Rich.
Elvis Presley made a lot of movies, some better than others. While Roustabout may not immediately come to mind as one of his best cinematic achievements, it’s nevertheless an exceptionally well-paced and enjoyable 1960s film that makes great use of bright colors and Elvis’s musical abilities. The soundtrack apparently did well on the Billboard charts. That’s no surprise, as a few of the numbers, such as “Little Egypt†and “Poison Ivy League,†are just great, if lesser known, Elvis songs.
Directed by John Rich, with cinematography by Lucien Ballard, Roustabout was produced by Hal Wallis and stars Elvis as Charlie Rogers, an itinerant, motorcycle-driving, young man without much faith in the goodness of everyday people. He is rough around the edges, scornful of those born into privilege, and drifts from place to play, playing his guitar, hoping to get to Phoenix or to Los Angeles.
When a vehicular mishap damages Rogers’ motorcycle, he ends up staying at a carnival run by Maggie Morgan (Barbara Stanwyck). Morgan’s got her hands full. A bank agent is on her tail, pursuing claims stemming from a lawsuit. One of her top employees, Joe (Leif Erickson) has a drinking problem and a temper. And then there’s Joe’s lovely young daughter, Cathy (Joan Freeman), who develops a love-hate relationship with our boy, Charlie, who doesn’t have much experience on how to conduct himself professionally with the world weary Maggie.
In general, Roustabout plays it light. But there are genuine dramatic, even tragic moments. The majority of the film takes place within the confines of the traveling carnival. There’s nothing necessarily surreal or spooky about the carnies. They’re just, to be honest, quite a sad bunch, societal misfits forced together by circumstance. It takes Charlie Rogers nearly the whole movie to realize that he’s a bit of a misfit of himself and maybe, just maybe, he needs something more stable in his life than the open road and a yearning to hit the big time.
Director John Rich and cinematographer Lucien Ballard would work together again on Boeing Boeing, also a Hal Wallis Production that, like Roustabout, has that unmistakable mid-1960s feel and which also makes extensive, and impressive, use of bright colors.
BOEING BOEING. Paramount, 1965. Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Dany Saval, Christiane Schmidtmer, Suzanna Leigh, Thelma Ritter. Director: John Rich.
A comedic farce based on a play by Marc Camoletti and starring Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis, Boeing Boeing’s theatrical roots are quite evident throughout the course of the movie. This, of course, has its pluses and minuses. On the one hand, the theatrical nature of the film allows both Lewis and Curtis to showcase their penchant for physical comedy, manic energy, and quick timing.
Unfortunately, however, the movie at times feels too much like a play on screen, and some of the immediacy and magic that a live audience would experience seeing a stage production of Boeing Boeing just seems to be missing here.
The premise is simple enough. Curtis portrays Bernard Lawrence, an American newspaperman based in Paris. His hobby, as it were, is stewardesses. Much to the chagrin of his housekeeper, Bertha (Thelma Ritter), he dates more than one at a time. Lawrence has to keep constant track of their flight schedules so as to prevent them all landing at once, as it were.
When his friendly rival, Robert Reed (Jerry Lewis), shows up in Paris, all bets are off. Reed soon learns what Lawrence is up to and he wants in on the action.
And by action, I mean a British stewardess (Suzanna Leigh). That still allows Lawrence time enough with his other two gals, a Lufthansa girl (Christianne Schmidtmer) and a somewhat local French girl (Dany Saval).
It’s a fast-paced, thoroughly frantic, race to the finish, as the two bachelors attempt to prevent each of the three gals from knowing about, let alone, meeting one another. And as you might very well guess, it doesn’t work out for the two scheming men.
Although I didn’t enjoy Boeing Boeing quite as much as I had expected, the film does have a simply great performance by Jerry Lewis in what was to be his last motion picture with Paramount. If you like him as a comedic actor, it’s worth seeking out. At times, his facial expressions and body language are just comedic gold.
December 12th, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Here is the video of Elvis singing “Little Egypt” as it appears in the film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJrOQHdbJp8
December 12th, 2014 at 10:27 pm
It’s nice to see Lewis as something other than the ‘Kid’ at that age, but its rather tired as a comedy and not quite enough of a dirty joke to really work the way it should. It would have helped if any of the women had been a match for Curtis, Lewis, or Ritter, but none of them are.
ROUSTABOUT is before the general boredom set in when Elvis movies were still trying and not just another excuse for a few musical numbers like later ones. They were still making some effort at this point and Elvis still had some hope they were going to let him make actual movies.
It’s a bit above average at best, but that puts it among his better efforts. The carny scene has been done better though. My overall reaction to this one was to wonder why the didn’t up the ante a bit as they did in a few others.
Then too, Stanwyck seems wasted and I was and am rather sad to see her in this kind of thing at this stage. Arguably she fared better than Joan Crawford (no TROGs) but still.
This one is mid level Elvis, but considering how bad the Elvis films got mid level isn’t much of a recommendation. It’s mildly entertaining with decent songs and if you are an Elvis fan that is probably enough, but there isn’t much here beyond that.
December 12th, 2014 at 10:35 pm
You’re absolutely right, David. None of the actresses who portray the stewardesses in BOEING BOEING are anywhere near the presence of Lewis, Curtis, or Ritter. They are basically just there to facilitate the other three character’s lines. In that sense, the movie does get old very fast. That said, I think it would be quite entertaining to see on stage, if cast better, so that the leads don’t completely overshadow the secondary characters
December 12th, 2014 at 11:05 pm
When Jon told me that he was going to watch a movie with both Elvis Presley and Barbara Stanwyck in it, I nearly didn’t believe him. I was never a big fan of Elvis Presley movies, but this one I seemed to have forgotten about and blanked out of my mind altogether.
Give the opportunity now, I might watch it, but of the two, I’m a lot more likely to watch BOEING BOEING, and I might have to qualify that by adding the word “again.” My wife Judy and I might have gone to see it when we were first married. It sounds familiar.
At the time I was a bigger fan of Jerry Lewis than of Tony Curtis. Now it’s the other way around.
December 12th, 2014 at 11:46 pm
Poison Ivy League:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enG90uXvS_w
December 13th, 2014 at 1:33 am
Lewis did one other in this period where he played a grown up sophisticate and was quite good without the schtik he did in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. It just came too late and as the sophisticated (or smarmy) slick sex comedy was running its course and audiences weren’t ready for Lewis as anything but the Kid. It was quite a few years later he showed everyone what he had in THE KING OF COMEDY and that turn on WISEGUY.
And, Steve, I agree, save for one or two solos and a couple of the films with Dean I would rather see Curtis, even with lines like “Yonda lies da castle of my fadda.”
Some of Elvis early films had good supporting casts, including Liz Smith and Wendell Corey and of course the two westerns with actors like John McIntyre and Richard Egan, but the juxtaposition of Elvis and Stanwyck was just too much for me.
I remembered he did one with her, but I could not have told you the name.
Luckily up to the end of her career she still got good roles once in a while even if it was on television.
December 13th, 2014 at 1:41 am
I should have added the best thing in ROUSTABOUT is Sue Anne Langdon, but Sue Anne Langdon is usually the best thing in most films she is in. I sat through that spy movie she did with Joe Mantee just to see her in the topless sword fight. Even in THE ROUNDERS, a film I love, the best part of it is Glen Ford trying to cover her bare posterior with a cowboy hat. If anything could get me through an Elvis movie it would be her.
December 13th, 2014 at 3:17 am
Raquel Welch apparently had an uncredited role in ROUSTABOUT as well
December 13th, 2014 at 8:25 am
I remember BOEING BOEING as sucking big time, not to put a fine point on it, which is why the 2008 Broadway revival with the Tony-winning performance by the brilliant Mark Rylance (in the Jerry Lewis role) was such a pleasant surprise.
December 13th, 2014 at 2:46 pm
Unless you’re doing Shakespeare, if you are going to adapt a play for screen, ADAPT IT. This feels like watching a play on camera, without any acknowledgment that there’s an audience. They could have done so much more with the script than they did
December 13th, 2014 at 4:23 pm
Including Shakespeare, Jonathan.
December 13th, 2014 at 9:00 pm
Jonathan, Barry,
Ditto. it’s a movie, not a play. Open it up a bit. Make use of the camera’s ability to move, zoom in and out, become a character itself. What makes Olivier’s version of HENRY V part 2 so good is that he starts out in that theatrical setting and then suddenly opens it up showing that even Shakespeare can use improvement in storytelling techniques.
Hitchcock was experimenting in ROPE, he wanted a filmed play, and even with that it is mostly a failure despite the performances. In DIAL M FOR MURDER though he sticks very close to the play, but uses the camera as another character with those famous 3D shots we never got to see in 3D, and all the power a close up at the right point could bring to bear.
BOEING BOEING was not substantial enough to bear the weight of a filmed play and feels contrived and forced. A substantial number of plays came to the screen with considerable power. The two main versions of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA are based on the play more than the novel as are most versiions of Dracula pre Coppolla. Both GASLIGHT films make great use of te camera to open the play up for film.
But unless they are filming a performance of a play there is no reason to be so slavish.
I honestly think BOEING BOEING has more problems than that for the screen. Not all plays adapt that well. French Farce was once described as people going in and out of doors rapidly pausing only to talk about sex, and that pretty much describes BOEING BOEING, but on screen that isn’t enough.
Why Lewis, an innovative film director who understood the medium as well as anyone, didn’t speak up is a mystery to me. Considering he was trying to kick start his film career in a new direction I can’t imagine why he would keep silent. I can’t have seen John Rich as such a master of the medium that he would bow to his judgment.
December 13th, 2014 at 11:07 pm
Geez, David — another ball hit out of the park with the bases loaded.
December 14th, 2014 at 7:05 pm
Elvis always upped his game when he had stars of equal stature on-screen with him (for example, Ann-Margaret in Viva Las Vegas), so I’m not surprised that Barbara Stanwyck was able to provide Elvis with the incentive he needed to turn in a better-than-average performance. After a while, surrounded by fading B-list actors and perky starlets, he started phoning it in big time.