ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

One of the best Elvis Presley movies is one of the worst DVDs!

There might be a better one now, but the one I bought several years ago had a lousy picture and a wide black border all they way around it.

In short, it sucked!

However, whenever this enjoyable movie was shown on cable or satellite channels, it looked great!

The story is top notched, too — an imaginative tale about a rich guy (Elvis) who meets a slaphappy poor boy (Will Hutchins) at a gas station during a long road trip, and he befriends our hero.

Will Hutchin's whimsically suggests that they trade places . . . and Elvis suddenly realizes that a version of "The Prince and Pauper" would solve the problem he has with girls pretending to love him for his money instead of his true noble nature!

Ah, but Elvis isn't just a rich boy who wants to be loved for his sparkling personality. His father owns a big oil company whose research-and-development division works on new hi-tech products, and Elvis has secretly developed on a formula for a tough coating that will make speedboats able to resist the brutal pounding the hulls endure during high speed races!

The exciting climax in this enjoyable Elvis movie involves our hero proving that his tough new coating works — and also showing his billionaire father that he doesn't need to live in the shadow of his rich daddy!

Meanwhile, the enjoyable romance between Elvis and the lovely Shelley Fabares works out quite well . . . as it did in several other Elvis epics.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Brent Gair]

What a coincidence...

Wednesday night, I watched the brand new Blu-ray Disc of CLAMBAKE!

Let me say that my opinion of the movie is less charitable than yours. I love the cast but just about everything else in the movie is weak.

But the BD is obviously a dramatic improvement over the DVD. The DVD suffers from having the worst possible mixture of home video elements: a Techniscope transfer on a non-anamorphic DVD. Yeesh! That's the formula for ugly.

While the BD is much, much better, there is still the problem of Techniscope. Techniscope was the ultimate bargain basement widescreen format. It was not a proper widescreen format like anamorphic Cinemascope or Panavision. Rather, they just shot a sliver of image over two perforations of 35mm film.

There is only so much you can do with Techniscope. The Blu-ray does the best that can be done but this will never be demo material.

Why in the world they shot an Elvis film in Techniscope is a mystery. Even most of the Roger Corman films for AIP were filmed in anamorphic Panavision.

[Bud Brewster]

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Thanks, Brent! I just ordered the Blu-ray version that was obviously shown on the HDNMV channel I enjoyed so much yesterday.

As for this movie being "weak", forgive me but you're dead wrong!

This movie has one of the most dramatic plots of any of the Elvis movies, other than the "serious" ones like King Creole. The other two I watched recently — (It Happened at the World's Fair and Paradise Hawaiian Style) — are just "fluff pieces" by comparison.

I love the sci-fi element of Clambake, in which Elvis' character works long hours for several days to develop a strong chemical coating for a speedboat so he can win an upcoming race. And he proves that his formula is effective in the exciting climax!

I also love the casting of Shelley Fabares as a sweet little gold-digger who unwittingly falls in love with a young millionaire who wants to prove he can make it on his own. The last scene, in which she discovers that Elvis is the man of her dreams, is wonderful!

And I'm impressed with James Gregory's character, the millionaire father who discovers that his son is a man who won't allow his over-indulgent daddy make life easy for him!

This Elvis movie has more depth than most of the other films he starred in!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Brent Gair]

I'll just warn you that the opening montage with the credits has some ugly video so don't panic...it gets better. But the opening, second unit Techniscope shots are scary...washed out and flat.

[Bud Brewster]

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Thanks, Brent!

However, remember that I have that awful DVD, and I just finished watching the much superior HD NET Movie Channel version, which I'm sure was using the Blu-ray version you recommended. So, I probably already experienced the flaws you mentioned while being dazzled by the vast improvement over the DVD.

By the way, did you notice that in the opening scene while Elvis is driving along the highway and spots a swamp boat racing along next to the road on his right, he turns and waves to his left in the rear-screen shot of him in the car?

A minor mistake in an otherwise well-done Elvis movie.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

Another sci-fi element. The swap boat existed in a mirror universe.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

[orzel-w]

Serves me right.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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I would have just quietly fixed it and waited patiently for another seven or eight years to find another typo . . . but hot damn, it made such a great joke!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Watched one of my fave westerns last night, True Grit, '69 version. The latter one with Jeff Bridges is well done but the original is a true classic.

Anyway, I read that originally the production wanted to hire Elvis for what became the Glenn Campbell role of the Texas Ranger.

How fascinating it would have been with Elvis & John Wayne as co-stars in a terrific oater!

[Bud Brewster]

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What a great idea! Glen is pretty good in that classic Western, and the song he contributed is beautiful — but the dynamics of that movie would have changed dramatically with Elvis in the role, and he excelled in Westerns.

Ah well, somewhere in a parallel universe . . .
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

[Brent Gair]

[Bud Brewster]