Jailhouse Rock

1957

NR

Hey guys, Yacs with another movie review here. I know what you’re thinking. Yacs does a lot of Elvis movie reviews. That is true. My goal is to watch as many Elvis movies as I can and review them, because even though I’m a big fan of his music, I haven’t seen a ton of his movies. He made 31, but I’ve only seen a handful. The majority of these reviews are initial reactions to his movies. This is the first time I have seen Jailhouse Rock in its entirety, so with that being said, here’s my review of the film.

The main character of Jailhouse Rock is Vince Everett (Elvis Presley) and the story wastes no time. After a hard week’s work in construction, Vince goes to the local bar and cashes his check. He earns $108 for the week and spends a portion of it to buy the bar a round. A woman at the bar approaches him and then a drunk man confronts Vince. Vince gets in a fight with the man, but takes the fight a little too far. He kills the man and is convicted of manslaughter. His sentence was no less than a year and no more than ten years. He then develops an acquaintanceship with his cellmate, Hunk Houghton (Mickey Shaughnessy). Hunk was a country singer and after hearing Vince sing, he encouraged him to perform in the nationally broadcast show for inmates. Vince starts getting buzz outside of the penitentiary, but he doesn’t know about it because Hunk hides his fan mail from him. Although they don’t seem to be on the same page early on, they become closer friends.

Vince is released after doing 14 months and is now on his own. Hunk put in a good word to a friend at a local nightclub to give Vince a job. He goes to said nightclub and meets a record promoter, Peggy Van Alden (Judy Tyler). Vince strikes a conversation with Peggy and is greeted by the club owner. The club owner offers Vince a job, but it isn’t what he expected. Vince thought it was a job to sing, but the club owner said it was for a bar boy. Vince takes matters into his own hands and jumps on stage and performs anyway. The crowd likes it expect for one person, who is acting obnoxious. Vince smashes a guitar on his table and storms out of the club. Peggy tries to get him to record his voice to gain more confidence in his abilities. They cut a record and Vince wants to immediately sell it to a record company. Peggy works for Geneva Records, so that was their initial reaction. The record company owner acts like he isn’t fond of Vince’s new record, but request that Peggy leave a copy. Later they find out that Geneva’s top recording artist, Mickey Alba, performed the record in the same arrangement and Vince later confronts the record company head.

Peggy has the idea to start their own record label giving Vince majority ownership. They hire a financial advisor (Vaughn Taylor) and Peggy calls on a local DJ, Teddy Talbot (Dean Jones), to give Vince some airtime. Vince’s latest record becomes a hit and his and Peggy’s relationship is become stronger. Vince asks her out, but she already made plans to go out with Teddy. Vince is clearly upset and soon their relationship starts to fade. He is then reunited with Hunk after his release from the penitentiary. Vince is cast on a variety television show and as a favor to his former cellmate Hunk, he insists to the producers that they put him on the show, but the producers cut Hunk’s part out. Vince feels bad about this so he offers Hunk essentially a bodyguard job for 10 percent of his annual income. Vince becomes a national sensation very quickly and is soon cast in movie roles. He has a fling with his upcoming co-star, but is soon reacquainted with his business partner, Peggy. Geneva Records wants to buyout Vince and Peggy’s recording company, which Vince is all for, but Peggy doesn’t want to sell. Throughout the film, we see the contrast of Vince’s greed for fame and fortune and how it overpowers his value on anything and anyone in his life. Peggy storms out of the room and is emotional when she leaves. Hunk confronts Vince and ends up fighting him. Vince refuses to fight Hunk back and he seriously injures Vince in the fight. The doctors are unsure if he will regain his voice. The film ends with Vince singing normally and we get a glimpse of his transition from greed to generosity.

This was Elvis’s third film and we can see that he is in the midst of his superstardom. I thought he was great in this role, but I’m starting to see that a lot of his characters were very similar with different twists. The last Elvis film review I wrote about was King Creole and I felt like it was a lot of similar outcomes and situations. I personally liked King Creole better, but it honestly wasn’t that much better than this film. There were a few good songs in this film, but a full album was never released. It featured 7 songs and the majority of them were written by Leiber and Stoller.

His surrounding cast in Jailhouse Rock wasn’t nearly as star-studded as King Creole, but I thought they fit well. Elvis’s love interest in the film, Judy Tyler, was featured in her second and last film. Sadly, she was killed in a car accident just days after filming was finished for Jailhouse Rock. She was only 24 years old. Also, Mickey Shaughnessy was a comedian and he degraded Elvis in his act prior to his casting in the film, so there was a little controversy surrounding his casting in the movie.

Overall, Jailhouse Rock is a good classic film and nothing more. I would recommend it, but it isn’t one that has a ton of rewatch value, unless you’re a fan of Elvis. Of the Elvis 4 films I have reviewed, I would rank it third, but to be fair, I have reviewed his best rated films thus far.

GRADE: 3.7/5

Yacs

Movie Review: Jailhouse Rock

GRADE: 3.7/5