Frankie and Johnny (1966)

Frankie and Johnny is a pretty middle of the road Elvis vehicle. This is neither one of his strongest films or one of his weakest. If this movie was to serve as anyone's introduction to Elvis, it would not make them a fan, the way a film like King Creole (1958) would, yet Elvis fans (like myself) will have fun watching it.

Though this movie did make money, Elvis was certainly less relevant at this time than he had been before. Rock and roll had moved from the type that Elvis helped popularize to the more experimental music Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were making. That is what makes this film so odd, it seemed to be trying to make Elvis less even less relevant to mid-60's audiences. This is a turn of the century musical of the type that populated movie theatres over 20 years earlier and Elvis was singing songs from that era rather than rock and roll. Young rock and roll fans must have found this movie date. d even in 1966.

Yet none of that means it was not an enjoyable film. Frankie and Johnny had an excellent supporting cast. Harry Morgan is one of the better Elvis sidekicks and provides some good laughs here. Sue An Langdon often steals the show with a great comic performance. She puts all her energy into this part and makes many jokes that are only decent, quite funny with her fantastic delivery. To be honest the comic relief is one of the best parts of this film. Elvis gives a typically good performance here. He is hardly given a part that allows him to show his acting chops, but he still does quite well with what he is given. Of course, his singing voice is as good as ever. I love Elvis' performance of Hard Luck, this is the bluesy side of Elvis at its best. Beginner's Luck and Please Don't Stop Loving Me are typically lovely Elvis love ballads and who cannot love hearing Elvis' voice on one of these songs.

On the other hand the story is typical Elvis fare that we are already very familiar with. It is told well but there is little to make it stand out among many similar movies. Along with the musical highlights, there are also some lackluster song choices. I don't think any of us really wanted the king of rock and roll to perform a song like Petunia the Gardener's Daughter. This song was not a fun type of cheesy that came in Elvis' early years, but rather an embarrassing type of cheesy that is simply not fun to watch or listen to at all. This is as bad of a song as ever appeared in an Elvis film.

All in all this is an enjoyable movie for fans but non-fans should start with one of Elvis' films from the 1950's.

-Michael J. Ruhland