As a rule, the King’s early films are rated higher than his later films. Not least because Elvis at that time was not yet disappointed with all the ins and outs of the processes that somehow accompany the creation of Hollywood cinema, and the films with the participation of Comrade Presley were not put on the production pipeline. Everyone knows that Elvis will be driven into a strict framework and will be forced to act in monotonous musical consumer goods, for more than half a decade giving out three films a year to cinema screens and at the same time skipping coveted dramatic roles over and over again. Presley will be exhausted by continuous filming in films shot according to the same formula, in which he was prepared, in fact, the same role. And this is not even to mention the other life problems that fell on Elvis at that time; all the deep fatigue of the King is often clearly visible on the big screen.
But in the early films, Comrade Presley had not yet met his future and only enthusiastically realized his dream of becoming like his idols James Dean and Marlon Brando, acting in a movie and taking the first step in an actor’s career. And this enthusiasm is also perfectly captured on film. “Loving You” is just one of Elvis’s early films, which almost automatically makes him one of the best acting works of the King. For many fans, “Loving You” is included, if not in the top three, then certainly in the top five films with Elvis.
The fact that Presley in “Loving You” is fresh and not exhausted by life has an extremely positive effect on acting: Elvis’s liveliness and energy more than compensate for the lack of experience. However, the lack of experience is not so great: from time to time the King overplays, but no more. Of course, Elvis Presley did not become a legend for the second film, but he was quite a strong and stable actor of the middle stage – very much. Separately, I would like to note the voice acting in the style of “they don’t do this anymore” – small stutters that appear in moments of stress, surprise and other extreme emotions look extremely natural and add truthfulness to what is happening on the screen, and simple humanity to the film.
Elvis Preley – Loving You (1957) OST
02 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
03 Loving You
04 Got A Lot O’ Livin’ To Do
05 Lonesome Cowboy
06 Hot Dog
07 Party
08 Blueberry Hill
09 True Love
10 Don’t Leave Me Now
11 Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
12 I Need You So
Bonus tracks:
13 Tell Me Why
14 Is It So Strange
15 One Night Of Sin
16 When It Rains, It Really Pours
17 I Beg Of You (Alternate Master)
18 Party (Alternate Master)
19 Loving You (Uptempo Version)
20 Got A Lot O’ Livin’ To Do (Finale)
Listen online or download the soundtrack to the movie Loving You (1957) extended version (mp3, 95 MB)
Elvis Presley – Let’s Have A Party
The plot, which will later become very nominal and will be present only in order to transfer Elvis from song to song, still plays a primary role in the film “Loving You”: Comrade Presley’s performances are inscribed in history and, if not completely subordinate to it, then at least equally important. And, since I really had to work on the plot, the dialogues turned out to be correspondingly strong, present not only for show. To be honest, among the films with Elvis Presley, in terms of dialogues, “Loving You”, in my opinion, is basically the best: the statements of the characters here are very caustic, filled with satire, as if not at all typical of musical comedies with the King in the title role.
“Don’t insult the country. This is the voice of our country.
– Our country needs to be treated.
I thought Tolman was a real crook. That he would achieve something.
Who ever heard of a cowboy band rehearsing for five hours? We’re about to start playing well.
I don’t struggle with sex. This is a useful American product. He sells soda, cream, steam engines, shampoo, real estate and toothpaste. Maybe sell singers too.
This guy’s eyes froze on me and lit up a deep, dark basement in the place we call my soul. There, very deep, in the corner, barely alive, my good old conscience curled up. A family heirloom.
I’ll be at the bar if you need me. Rehearse alcohol consumption.
Well, let’s go to the hairdresser. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll slit my throat.
We were engaged once. It didn’t work, and we got married. Which didn’t work either. We got divorced. It’s funny, but the divorce didn’t work either.
Many also notice that the plot of the film is almost autobiographical for Elvis: a young guy with a talent for music is taken into circulation by a very effective producer who does not hesitate to do anything to achieve success, fame and profit. At the same time, conservative strata of society, concerned about new trends in music, are trying to stop the rise of a new star. Perhaps that’s why Comrade Presley looks so good in his first major role: as if great acting skills from Elvis were not required here. One way or another, there is only one claim to the plot: the ending of the film is too light, light, relaxed and perceived as an owl stretched on a globe.
Among other things, “Loving You” is also worth noting in purely technical terms: this is a color film, which was very rare for the fifties. The same “Jailhouse Rock” that came out after “Loving You” is a black-and-white film. And although I have no big objections to the lack of colors in the cinema, in this case Technicolor technology has led to very tangible consequences, as a very famous make-up artist named Walter Westmore noted that in the color of Elvis’s eyes will look much better with black hair. This led to the creation of the very hairstyle that stuck with Comrade Presley almost forever: only occasionally after the movie Loving You the King will appear without styling, and probably only a few will remember the natural color of his hair.
In terms of music, I really, really liked Loving You. It is worth mentioning once again that many Elvis films were filled with very passing records, but, fortunately, not in this case. In this movie, I didn’t like, perhaps, only the title of Loving You – the rest of the soundtrack has been in my collection for a long time. I’ll probably call my favorite (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear, although this is a matter of taste.
Elvis Presley – (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
In general, if there is anything in Loving You worthy of criticism, then this is, perhaps, still an acting game. Big-faced Ken Bakker (aggressive dick in the bar) looks very appropriate in his scene, Paul Smith (Skeeter) is also not bad in his episodes – but it’s all somehow very… sporadically. And from the main roles… Dolores Hart had her first role in this film, which is clearly visible. It is strange that it was she who was made the main love interest of Presley’s character, when there was a much more experienced Jana Land, who played the role of a fan of the main character. The scene where Yana sneaks into the musician’s dressing room has much more energy than all the scenes of Elvis and Dolores combined.
Lizabeth Scott plays well, but… Wendell Corey’s snide remarks are remembered much more. There is no locomotive in the film, there is not enough chemistry between the actors. The plot seems to move not because of the actions of the characters, but by itself. Well, the actors didn’t play – and that’s it. Someone because of lack of experience, and someone knows the devil why else, but what happened, it turned out.
In general, however, in my opinion, Loving You has enough strengths to recommend the film to both fans of the King and fans of cinema in general. At the same time, it cannot be denied that the main attraction of the film is still Elvis Presley and his songs. Just because Comrade Presley’s performances probably occupy a good half of the entire timekeeping. However, as already mentioned, the vast majority of the songs in this movie are very cool rock and roll. And if you doubt whether Loving You is worthy of viewing, then, after all, the decisive factor is likely to be the degree of love for rock and roll in general and Elvis in particular.
Watch the movie Loving You (1957) online
The film is really worthy! The plot is of course far-fetched in places. But the advantages outweigh: a young Elvis driving a hot rod, beautiful girls, including a punchy manager with burning eyes, humor, Tex and Skeeter characters, great early rockabilly songs. Here we can also see Scotty Moore and Bill Black as part of the orchestra. And Elvis is fresh and lights up on stage. And the film is not called “Loving You”, as some people translate, but “Loving You” – as it follows from the title song by Lieber and Stoller. And I also thought that suddenly there is an Easter egg on the tombstone, the real life span of Elvis, but no, there was no need for that.
If there had suddenly been such a coincidence on the tombstone, I think the film would have been even more popular.