Elvis - The Hollywood Collection DVD Credits:

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Elvis - The Hollywood Collection DVD Release Date: 6th August 2007

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Elvis - The Hollywood Collection DVD Review:

These might not be Elvis’s best films, and they certainly not his most recognizable, but they are classic Elvis. Nearly any opportunity there is to sing and dance he is likely to and every female in the area falls in love with him immediately. There are also a few strange roles thrown in the set, including Elvis as a cowboy in one film and a Navajo in another. The strangest, however, is the film in which Elvis plays his own distant cousin as well. Twin Elvis is too much, especially when they are singing and surrounded by scantily clad women.

Charro!
This may be the best film in the set and the singing is on the soundtrack instead of integrated into the plot. Written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who created many television western hits including Gunsmoke, Charro! is actually a decent western considering it stars Elvis. He isn’t a great actor and most of the film ends up feeling like television, but at least Elvis still looks good in his beard and hat. He plays an ex-bandit gone straight until his old gang hunts him down with the sole purpose of framing him for their crime. He escapes and manages into a town where he has friends, but the bandits find them and when one of their men is taken into prison the rest of the gang threatens war on the town until he is released. It is a classic stand-off, which makes the film familiar and enjoyable even when poorly done. The DVD includes a theatrical trailer and the widescreen version of the film, for the first time available for home viewing.

Girl Happy
This is certainly more expected for Elvis as he plays the leader of a band that desperately wants a break to play some gigs in Fort Lauderdale during spring break. Plenty of singing, with some of it on the beach and nearly all of it with bikinis makes this the most expected of all the films in the set, and no less enjoyable for this fact. Still, he made better beach movies. In this one he is sent to watch the boss’s daughter while she is on spring break and ends up falling in love with her. It is a classic story that is done in the goofy beach movie way, love it or leave it. This one does star Presley’s favorite leading lady, Shelley Fabares. The DVD has a new-to-DVD digital transfer of the complete theatrical version of the film. Other versions available remove the opening song sequence from the film. There is also a theatrical trailer.

Kissin’ Cousins
One Elvis isn’t enough in this male fantasy film about the mountain and all of the uncivilized Americans living in them. Elvis plays Air Force Lt. Josh Morgan, a man chosen to go on a mission into the mountains where the army wants to use as a missile site and the current location of the distant family of Morgan. This is why he is sent into the mountains and he not only finds his brunette double and a female relative he can kiss, but the woods are also filled with a clan of half-naked women who want to have sex with any men in the are because of the shortage of men and their inability to have male children. It is ridiculous and mostly just excuse after excuse to have music and half-naked women. The version included on the DVD adds back into the film a musical sequence that was removed after theatrical release. There is also a theatrical trailer.

Live a Little, Love a Little
The woman Elvis becomes involved with in the first sequence of the film, causing him to lose his job, is so over-the-top that it makes the inevitable happy ending unhappy in my mind. He loves a crazy woman and she treats him terribly, so he finally gets rid of her and begins working two different photography jobs in the same building. He works out a system to jump floors in between shoots, first shooting for a conservative ad man and then later shooting a girlie magazine. Neither of them knows the difference, until suddenly the plot goes back to the crazy woman and the film goes downhill once again. It is strange and certainly one of the choppier films in the set. Includes a theatrical trailer of the adult comedy in the special features.

Stay Away, Joe
Elvis loved horses and often bought them for his closest friends so that they could ride with him when visiting his ranch. Whether this love came from making films like this, or whether he chose these films so that he could ride horses, is simply irrelevant. The fact that he rides horses in three of the six in the set is not at all surprising, but the fact that he plays a Navajo in Stay Away, Joe is terrible. Even worse is the ignorant depiction of the Navajo cheating and drinking until they fight each other, and how silly the entire escapade is. It’s a mess, but still slightly entertaining in the usual Elvis way. Either you are a fan or it will drive you crazy. DVD includes the theatrical trailer.

Tickle Me
Another opportunity for horse aficionado Elvis to ride horses in a film, this time as a rodeo star forced to work on a ranch filled with beautiful women. With no other way of making money he is playing music in a bar when propositioned by a beautiful ranch owner to work with the horses. He does that when he isn’t sporadically bursting into song at the luxury ranch resort for women trying to diet and get in shape, which means even more opportunity for half naked women to dance around Elvis while he sings the usual songs. He then proceeds to fall in love with one of the staff members, loses her, and wins her back. Happy ending in one of the more fun films in the set. The special features are the theatrical trailer.

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Elvis - The Hollywood Collection DVD review written by: Ryan Izay