Saturday, March 15, 2008

I thought we could go dancing....or something


Last night I watched Viva Las Vegas for the second night in a row. Viva was Elvis's fifteenth movie and would go down at one of his most popular movies ever. Elvis would start shooting this movie in mid to late 63 and the movie came out in the spring of 64.This movie also starred the wonderful Ann Margret. We all know the story there. Elvis plays the part of Lucky Jackson.The movie is about a race car driver in Las Vegas getting ready for a big race. Along the way he looses all the money he won while in Vegas and is in danger of not getting the motor he needs for the race. Lucky also falls for a lovely swimming instructor Rusty(Ann). Lucky enters a talent show to try to win some money and ties Rusty for first place. After winning a coin flip Lucky realizes the prize of a Honeymoon in Vegas does him no good, and he thinks his chances for the race are gone. Then a mysterious donor, who turns out to be Rusty's father, gives money for a motor. Elvis then enters the race, and of course go on to win it. He then marries Rusty. I suppose after that they live happily ever after. It is kinda of odd seeing them at the end of the movie getting married. Makes you think about what It would have been like had gotten married. The soundtrack is pretty solid and I think way underrated. It also has my personal favorite, The Climb, which Elvis sings back up on. Overall this movie is really great, and for sure an Elvis classic. It was one of his best because of the great chemistry he had with Ann Margret. He never had that kind of spark with any other actress. It is probably in my top ten favorite movie, and it is for sure in the top ten of Elvis's best work on screen. It was also one of Elvis;s most successful movies bringing in around 4.7 million at the box office.
Also, I have to admit something. I have seen this movie well over a hundred times in my life. I just noticed something though.I never noticed Red West and George Klein in the first of the movie and the casino. I thought that was pretty funny. I was actually yelling about it in the middle of the night. Funny how after all these times of seeing the movie that I just now noticed that.

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