Customer Reviews

Roustabout (Widescreen)

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
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This is probably the only elvis movie i really wanna get, the songs are good, his acting is ummm well lets not go there. just wondered why this particular elvis movie is so expensive?

I won't bore you with a plot synopsis or my opinion of the borderline interesting story - this movie IS WORTH SEEING for one jaw-dropping sequence: For the rockingest song in the movie, "Wheels On My Heels", Elvis is driving his own motorcycle on a real location road and lip-syncing at the same time - without a helmet! This is not some lame rear projection process and most of the time the entire bike is shown, so it's not being towed - I just found it amazing, no kidding. I mean, what if he lost his concentration...boom! Brain damage.
Oh and Leif Erickson will make you really uncomfortable in this movie - what a loser slime.

"Roustabout" has Elvis playing a karate-chopping, drifting motorcyclist who is picked up after an accident involving him being knocked off his bike by local carnival foreman Leif Erikson, with his daughter Joan Freeman and owner Barbara Stanwyck. After his bike and guitar are damaged, he is hired by Stanwyck to work as a roustabout in her carnival. Elvis, of course, soon falls for Joan Freeman who is a little reluctant at first. Over time the carnival becomes the local night spot around as Elvis attracts people for singing along the midway. In come the teenagers and crowds in droves. Rival carnivla owner Pat Buttram asks if Elvis is interested in joining his big carnival. He refuses. After some confrontation involving a stolen wallet Erikson is convicted of and Joan Freeman's unhappiness with Elvis, he quits Stanwyck's outfit. Then it's off to the Carver show. Elvis is a hit. Back at the other carnival, business is failing and troubles with the bank build. Joan Freeman tries to bring him back, but to no avail at first. Later Elvis decides to go back, pay off the debt, win Joan Freeman, and make the carnival a swinging place again. Quintessential!

Elvis plays opposite Barbara Stanwyke (The Big Valley) this time out and is in awe of his co-star. It is reported he worked hard on this film to live up to Ms. Stanwyke's professional standards.
Unfortunately, the scriptwriters were less demanding of themselves, and the film suffers from banal dialogue and predictable plotting. Elvis stars as Charlie Rogers, a drifter with a chip on his shoulder who lands a job as a roustabout (handyman) with a down-and-out carnival operated by strong-willed Maggie Morgan, played by Stanwyke. When Charlie breaks into song on the midway one day, throngs of young people flock to hear him sing (which may be believable were they all penned by Lieber & Stoller). As news of his talent spreads, Maggie's carnival begins to turn a tidy profit. Charlie's good fortune continues as Cathy, a young and pretty carnival worker played by Joan Freeman, takes a romantic interest in him. However, after a misunderstanding involving a customer's missing wallet, Maggie and Cathy chide Charlie for his selfish attitudes. The embittered young Charlie quits Maggie's outfit to work for a rival carnival. When Maggie's carnival starts to go under, Charlie returns with enough money to ward off the creditors. His unselfish act wins Maggie's respect as well as Cathy's heart.

With a cast of big-name stars, including Barbara Stanwyke, Leif Erickson, and Jack Albertson, Roustabout was one of Elvis's better films from this period.

Elvis would later says that working with Stanwyke made him a better actor.

Pleasant enough Elvis time-killer with a cotton candy soundtrack, pairing him with Hollywood veterans who should have known better. The story:

Elvis plays Charlie Rogers, a brooding loner (you can tell by his semi-comatose expression) eking out a living doing a bad impression of, well, himself at a dive called Mother's Tea House. (Look fast for Raquel Welch at one of the tables.) One night, he unwisely taunts some middle-aged college boys with a witty ditty called "Poison Ivy League," gets in a fight, loses his job and sputters off on his dinky motorbike. Happening upon a jeep, Charlie is run off the road by short-fused carny Joe Lean (Leif Erickson) for flirting with his virginal daughter Cathy (Joan Freeman, who, tellingly, later became a nun). Unhurt, Charlie signs on as a roustabout in their two-bit carnival, run by Barbara Stanwyck as Maggie Morgan, a woman of backbone and bite (sorry, wrong show), until his bike can be repaired. Maggie recognizes Charlie's teen appeal after his impromptu performance of "It's Carnival Time" causes a sensation on the midway. Soon Charlie is packin' 'em in, and the carnival begins to turn a profit. On top of the world, Charlie steps up his romancing of Cathy while fending off the advances of an amorous fortune teller (the usually fetching Sue Ane Langdon in a hideous black wig) until a fracas with a boorish customer causes him to get ants in his pants again. His cycle fixed, Charlie dons his outrageously tacky, must-be-compensating-for-something, foot-wide studded-leather belt and accepts the generous offer of the owner (Pat Buttram, the immortal flimflam man Mr. Haney from TV's "Green Acres") of a big-time rival carnival. In the flick's most excruciating sequence, Charlie sings "Little Egypt" to a bevy of skanky exotic dancers (one of whom might be Teri Garr). Meanwhile, with Charlie no longer there to pull in the crowds, Maggie's carnival is about to go belly up, and it's up to Cathy to lure him back. She does, of course. Charlie collects his loot from Mr. Haney and returns to Maggie's show just in time to pay off her creditors. Suddenly everybody loves Charlie, his macho belt and his money, even Joe, who forgets all about protecting his daughter's chastity and his former habit of beating the stuffing out of Charlie for no good reason. Roll credits. Please.

This Elvis flick leans to the dramatic. Not great drama, mind you, but more serious than the usual EP Grade B frolic. By 1964, Elvis was getting too old to be convincing as an "angry young man," but he gave it his best shot. Elvis is the motorbike-riding rebel whose singing peps up business at a struggling carnival. Elvis clashes with the hard-drinking ramrod, Joe (Leif Erickson). Joan Freeman and Elvis moon around each other, but find romance a rocky road. Movie veteran Barbara Stanwyck lends stature to the film as the carnival owner. The song writing teams of Giant-Baum-Kaye and Leiber-Stoller wrote some of the music, but the results are only mixed. On the plus side, the ballad "Big Love, Big Heartache" and the comic "Little Egypt" number are worth the effort of viewing. The other music is less memorable. One amusing footnote is Pat Buttram as a rival carnival owner. This was shortly before he enjoyed popular recogniton as Mr. Haney on TV's "Green Acres." Given the movie's emphasis on the social mores of carnival folks, we wonder if Col. Tom Parker was in hog heaven, considering his carny background. The movie offers good Hal Wallis production values. Wallis once asserted he made flicks like this one to raise money for serious films like "Becket." He considered Elvis trivial but profitable. Elvis fans will be pleased with this movie, regardless. Sample the cotton candy fluff. ;-)

Charlie Rodgers (Elvis Presley) is a coffee shop singer. As the movie opens, he is fired after a short fight is picked. Film after film, after film, after film, after film, after film, after film, after film, after film, and did I mention after film, we see Elvis Presley's characters fighting.

But yet, that is all what we see Elvis Presley doing singing and fighting. But yet if he has a job he almost aways loses his jobs. Charlie is hired by Maggie Morgan to be her carnvial's Roustabout. Yet we never see him in another sport film besides racing. Whether in cars or in boats.

And for the time he meets a lot of female characters in films. And maybe even fight for the women. But why would Charlie Rodgers get a job as a Roustabout? In yet, Elvis almost aways finds a way out of fights, even if it lands him in jail and costs his job.

But yet are we supposed to be happy for Elvis Presley's chacters. Even if we don't find it in our hearts to be happy for his characters. And have other people like his he is a father or mother or both bail him out instead of sending him in jail for a time in jail. Like a couple of months or weeks or years.

Doesn't Elvis Presley get tired of playing characters that get into this sticky mess. Charlie has a motor bike but gets broken and stays at a carnival until it is fixed.

In one of his best movies, Elvis Presley plays a handsome, bonafide jerk who, on route to his next job, accidentally encounters Barbara Stanwyck, her even jerkier husband, and her beautiful step-daughter (Joan Freeman). Maggie (Stanwyck) decides to let Elvis become her dying carnival's roustabout, but he does more. When Elvis sings, well, you know what happens! The carnival begins to attract attention and the money starts rolling in. But when Elvis is offered a bigger salary by another carnie, he is torn between the prospects of a better life and his loyalty to Stanwyck, and particularly, her step-daughter. Every song in the film is "a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful" experience. Elvis's fun rockin' with "Poision Ivy League" to his romantic wooing of Freeman in a ferris wheel, to the upbeat "It's Carnival Time" the big production number, "Little Egypt", and the final, memorable number, "And The Whole World's Gonna Be Mine". And Stanwyck is just great as the good-hearted carnie whom Elvis learns to trust. You'll have fun with this movie or buy it for the Elvis fan in your family... "be a big shot for a dollar, it's Carnival Time!"

Since "Roustabout" debuted in 1965, I've become an expert on it. The cast includes a screen legend as well as recognizable supporting actors. Besides Barbara Stanwyck, there is Pat Buttrum, Sue Ann Langdon, and Norman Grabowski as the cement-headed college student who tries to muss Elvis's hair. Joan Freeman is Elvis' romantic interest. She later co-starred with Don Knotts in "The Reluctant Astronaut". Imagine kissing Elvis in one movie and Don Knotts another. Well, I guess that's why they call it "acting". As for the story, it revolves around Elvis as a temporary carnival worker while aiming for the BIG time. There is a fistfight with Elvis nemesis Steve Brodie, Elvis riding his "bike", Elvis as the saviour of the carnival, and Elvis with a new girlfriend. What more could you ask for? If you can think for yourself, and not be content with "Blue Hawaii" as your favorite, then check out "Roustabout". It's more fun than a circus, "cheap at half the price" AND, you won't have to "bite any heads off chickens".

"Roustabout" (1964) is a better-than-average Elvis Presley musical, with the added bonus of Barbara Stanwyck in one of her last films. It's nice to see Elvis play an unsympathetic character for a change -- not unlike "Jailhouse Rock." Despite the upbeat ending, he's still a jerk and it's great when Stanwyck yells at him. The soundtrack is mostly forgettable but it does include one classic song, "Little Egypt." As always, there are a few Elvis fight scenes to keep things lively. Overall, "Roustabout" represents the last decent Presley vehicle before the downhill journey into endless schlock.