Following some inspiration of seeing Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Elvis’ last month, August’s family movie night, selected by mum was Elvis Presley’s fourth feature, King Creole.

This is the first Elvis film that I have seen and by all accounts, one of his best performances. While I have nothing to compare that against, I’d have to agree!

The film also stars Walter Matthau as local mobster Maxie Fields and Carolyn Jones as his gal Ronnie. The latter who you might know as Morticia Addams from the Addams Family television series.

Elvis stars as Danny Fisher, a young man who has just flunked graduation from high school for a second time for basically having a bad attitude. His family has fallen on hard times after the passing of his mother three years ago. Now it’s just him, his sister, and father who can’t hold down a job, living in a not so good part of New Orleans, as it is all they can afford.

To support the family Danny works a job before and after school as a busboy at Maxie Field’s nightclub and the reason that he flunks high school the second time all starts following an incident at the club the morning of his last day of school. With good intensions, he sticks up Ronnie after an all-night drinking session becomes violent.

Following this encounter between Danny and Ronnie, an infatuation between the two begins and it is where all of Danny’s troubles start. He is a good kid at heart but keeps making questionable decisions leading down a path of no good.

It is because of Ronnie that the first time Danny is on stage singing occurs. On the night he quits his busboy job at the nightclub after making a deal with his father to continue studying at night school, Danny sees Ronnie again and attempts to talk to her in front of Fields. Ronnie explains to Fields that she complimented Danny on his singing and Fields wants Danny to prove that he can actually sing.

This results in the first big number of the film with a striking performance of “Trouble”. This song I recognised from the Elvis movie, and it was captivating.

I feel like this is the formula of Elvis movies and probably any singer turned movie star. Their character just so happens to be able to sing, which then becomes a part of the narrative.

In King Creole, I think this balance is struck well as the singing scenes are mostly woven into the narrative of Danny taking up a job as a singer at a nightclub. There is still a strong plot to the film that isn’t propped up by musical numbers, but they are still there for entertainment and build up the soundtrack. Also, you can’t go wrong with a mobster storyline!

While there is a lot of drama and good acting on display, the film also provides a number of laughs along the way. The relationship between Danny and Ronnie is an intriguing one exploring the parallel of their lives, which I really enjoyed.

The weakness I found with the film was the character of Nellie, a love interest of Danny. I can’t quite work out why Nellie has this sudden lust for Danny, especially under the circumstances which they meet and the way the evening plays out. I feel like her character might be there to help Danny stay on the straight and narrow and I’m not sure why this couldn’t be achieved with his sister, who also seemed to be an underutilized character.

Having said that, I found King Creole to be a most enjoyable film and if you are looking for an Elvis film to see, this is a great place to start.