New York Daily News
By Kathlee Carroll
6/24/1965
Elvis Presley pictures,
like “Tickle Me” at the Palace and other RKO theaters, come and go in rapid
succession, No wonder the singer with the black, patent leather hair and the expressionless
face looks so weary. Surely, he’s earned a sabbatical. The poor fellow doesn’t
appear to like his work anymore.
AND WHO COULD
blame him? It’s always the same thing, girls, girls, girls, and songs, songs,
songs.
This time the
same thing is duller than usual. Presley twangs away at his guitar, providing
the picture’s bounciest moments for a horde of diet or die female guests at a
fancy ranch. As Hollywood would have it, the guests are all shapely beauties to
begin with.
A few songs
out of the way, Elvis falls flat for one of them, built along the lines of
Brigitte Bardot (Jocelyn Lane). His new cutie, Miss Lane, must have snagged him
with her cute lisp.
IT’S ALL OUT
West and Miss Lanes’s grandfather wrote her a letter before he dies declaring
that there was gold in “them thar hills.”
This meant
that he had some gold secrete away in an old hotel lately restored by an
historical society and by the prop man who tosses a tumbleweed in the midst of
the old mining town set in case anyone forgets where he or she is.
Presley has his difficulties with the girl and the gold, with no help from his Jerry Lewis type pal Jack Mullaney.
GUY MADISON
IN WESTERN
Wyatt Earp
rides again. But wait, what’s this? “Gunman of the Rio Grande” double-billed at
the Palace and the RKO Theatres, is dubbed and badly dubbed at that. Could it
be that Earp now does his riding in Spain or Yugoslavia? The credits don’t say,
but the cast of French, Spanish and Italian actors and the Italian director
would seem to indicate that this Western was made abroad.
WYATT EARP
IS none other than lean and lanky Guy Madison who puts the U.S. brand on
the picture.
Whatever its
origins the “Gunman” has something in its favor. Right down to the hurricane
lamps, the sets are strategically worked out for the maximum of suspense. The
whole production is further complemented by the color photography.
BUT ALL
THIS atmosphere is destroyed with one look at the characters’ faces. Either
an actor is talking in a voice that couldn’t possibly be his or the words are
one jump ahead of the actor’s lip movements.
In the
funniest example of this, the sound of a girl slapping Earp hits the ear
seconds before she actually does it. Time enough for anyone with his knack of
escaping blows to safely duck.
THE PLOT IS
older than the Rio Grande. Earp is hired by the owner of the saloon, a
French eyeful who has buried three husbands, to protect her against the
villain. He is the classic character, rich enough to run this town his way,
It’s his way or you know that Wyatt Earp will have none of that.
The most
colorful character played for all he’s worth by Fernando Sancho, is a Mexican
bandito who “hasta a vistas” with his very last breath.
No comments:
Post a Comment