King Creole

King Creole

By

  • Genre: Drama, Music, Crime
  • Release Date: 1958-07-02
  • Runtime: 116 minutes
  • : 6.4
  • Production Company: Paramount Pictures
  • Production Country: United States of America
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6.4/10
6.4
From 101 Ratings

Description

Danny Fisher, young delinquent, flunks out of high school. He quits his job as a busboy in a nightclub, and one night he gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and the local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at his night club The Blue Shade. Danny refuses, but Fields won't take no for an answer.

Trailer

Reviews

  • Wuchak

    5
    By Wuchak
    _**Elvis living on Bourbon St. in New Orleans**_ In New Orleans, Danny Fisher (Presley) fails to graduate high school for the second time and so uses his singing talents at nightclubs to provide for his destitute father and sister. Walter Matthau plays a shady nightclub baron while Carolyn Jones plays his floozy. “King Creole” (1958) mixes the Elvis formula with B&W film noir. Despite the name, don’t expect any bayous; the story takes place entirely in and around the Bourbon St. district of New Orleans. Touted as one of the best Presley flicks because it’s a relatively dark & serious Big Easy drama meshed with a few of his musical performances, it’s not as compelling or believable as Elvis’ better dramas, like "Kid Galahad" (1962) or “Roustabout” (1964) nor as entertaining as his more farcical movies, like “Viva Las Vegas" (1964). The story, which came from a book by Harold Robbins, feels contrived. You have rival club owners (one good/one bad, of course) with a “sing for me or else” element and an eye-rolling subplot involving Danny’s father, a pharmacy, back alley toughs and black mail. The B&W photography doesn’t help. Hottie Liliane Montevecchi as the banana showgirl, Forty Nina, is the best part. How anyone thinks this is the best Elvis flick is puzzling. The film is overlong at 1 hour, 56 minutes; it was shot in New Orleans and Paramount Studios, California. GRADE: C

  • CinemaSerf

    7
    By CinemaSerf
    Holyrood certainly didn't stint on the resources it put into this outing for Elvis. Michael Curtis took the helm and Harold Robbins provided the original novel as we follow the escapades of "Danny Fisher". He is a skint college flunkey who takes a job in the eponymous club. His boyish charms and his moves delight the audience, and they also attract the mischievous temptress "Ronnie" (Carolyn Jones) - who just happens to be the mistress of the club's dodgy owner "Maxie" (Walter Matthau). Dangers looms, but when he realises that there is money to be made with his crooning - for the right people - he finds himself immersed more and more on the wrong side of the tracks. Luckily for him, there is hope of redemption in the form of "Nellie" (Dolores Hart). She is a good natured girl who tries to get "Danny" to see past his short term life and look to a more honest, positive future. Will his new friends allows either of them that luxury? Easily the best film Presley ever made, in my book. Curtis creates a wonderfully grim and gritty environment for this story of love, lust, greed and ambition to play out. The star himself was a bit old for his role, but still he looks every inch the wayward teen - a sort of mini-Marlon Brando; and the songs - though not his best or most memorable, are worked well into the narrative. Nope, the ending is never in doubt, but there is bags of charisma on offer here from a star who was exactly that.

  • moard

    N/A
    By moard
    In this outing, Presley plays Danny Fisher, a kid from New Orleans. Danny is a troubled youth, and is hired by not one, but two nightclubs as a singer. This is Presley’s finest attempt at real acting.

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