Favourite Elvis-portrayal?

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KHoots
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#12400

Post by KHoots »

It is much easier to critique those performances which we think are the WORST, as there are very few, if any, GOOD ones. I still have not been able to sit through the entire Don Johnson performance, so that one has to top my list of horrible portrayals.

Kurt Russell was as good as could be expected. Not great, but passable.

Dale Midkiff in "Elvis and Me" was a little nauseating, especially the costume and makeup from 1977. Those sideburns and stomach pillow were horrendous!

I thought Michael St. Gerard did a nice job. His accent was a little off, but he captured Elvis's innocence pretty well.



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genesim
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#12437

Post by genesim »

Elvis meets Nixon I thought was a good movie. It captured Elvis pretty good. Not bad for a HBO thing or something like that. I would buy it, if I had the chance. Most of the material is factual(well as far as the rumors go). I appreciated seeing film of the behavior. Clint watch it for yourself. If you can stand any of the other made for TV things, then this should not be too shocking. My opinion is that it is a cut above the rest(barring ELVIS the movie with Kurt Russel).


All I have in this world is my balls, and my word, and I don't break 'em for noone-Tony Montana

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MikeMcCoy
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#12507

Post by MikeMcCoy »

Actually, the guy doing the voice-overs on this is Elvis wasn't an imitator. Can't recall his name, but he had a number of hits. Not too bad of a voice, but I can't listen to it for a long time.

I would agree that no performance is better than Michael St. Gerard's. It wasn't perfect, but it's the closest we've seen so far.

In "Elvis Meets Nixon", I thought the guy handled Elvis as a boob with flashes of intelligence/compassion here and there. You already know my opinion of "Elvis And Me", lol, which is pretty similar.

I wasn't real crazy about Kurt Russel's portrayal, either, although it was very sincere and it showed (which is good). His biggest problem was that he looked so campy whenever he was "performing".. and "through the years", he didn't change his performance style, either - it was always that real jerky, corny, body-twitching style of movement that reminded me of a parody of Elvis' simpler 50's moves. Even after saying all that, I'd still say his is second best.

In my opinion, nobody, and I mean nobody, has come close to Michael St. Gerard. Good look, good acting (for the most part, like I said), and his stage moves were the best so far, too.


-Mike
Founder and Co-President of the E.A.P. Society
(The Elvis Archeological Preservation Society)
http://www.eapsociety.com


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Little Sister
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#12528

Post by Little Sister »

Now I will gently shift the subject a little bit.

We have (at least) two examples where old female co-stars of Elvis' has "turned to the other side" and taken a big acting role in a movie about Elvis, instead of with. Both of the actresses I know of appeared in Wild In The Country (coincidence? :-) ). Tuesday Weld later appeared as an Elvis fan in Heartbreak Hotel and we have Millie Perkins appearing as Elvis' mother in the mini serie ELVIS.

I would think that after acting or hanging out with the real thing, you wouldn't want to have anything to do with someone that tried to look, act and talk like Elvis.

What do you think of this?


- Little Sister
Baby, I wanna play house with you

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MikeMcCoy
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#12533

Post by MikeMcCoy »

Good shift!

I was surprised by that, too. You'd think that would be true of anybody who knew Elvis, and in some cases it is... but surprisingly, it's not. I don't really know why.. maybe if they feel something genuine about the person or company behind it, I don't know.


-Mike
Founder and Co-President of the E.A.P. Society
(The Elvis Archeological Preservation Society)
http://www.eapsociety.com

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paulwood
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#12547

Post by paulwood »

The 'Good Rockin Tonight' Tv Series with Michael St Gerrard was excellent. I don't think he acted much like Elvis in that however - there was no devil or spark in his eyes. He was better as ELvis in Great Balls of Fire the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic.

Don Johnson, David Keith, Dale (cometh the ice man) Midkiff were all pretty terrible. But Rob Youngblood in ELvis & The Colonel was the worst. The padding they put down his jumpsuit to make him look like the bigger Elvis -made Elvis look like a bouncy castle on legs. Val Kilmer also spoofed Elvis in 'Top Secret'.

I don't much care for Elvis bio pics - I'd rather watch Harem Scarum.
However Kurt Russell did a fine job in 'Elvis the Movie' - I can't see anyone ever bettering what he did.

Kurt was even better in '3000 Miles to Graceland' playing an Elvis impersonator (or was it Elvis - not sure what the final line about having already died meant exactly).

In the opening scene Kurt is kicked in the shins by a young kid much like he kicked Elvis in 'It Happened At The Worlds Fair'. And theres even a scene in a lift where one girl gets him to sign a copy of the movie soundtrack. See Kurt forging for e-bay below

<IMG SRC="http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/getpicture.php?id=144429">

At the end of the film. Theres a fun video for 'Such a Night' with Kurt miming to the song and Christian Slater & Kevin Costner hamming it up.

<IMG SRC="http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/getpicture.php?id=144451">

This is a bad ass action film. Very underatted.



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ClintReno
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#12566

Post by ClintReno »

paulwood wrote: See Kurt forging for e-bay below
LOL @ that comment Paul - good one !

I agree with you on the movie 3KMTG - I have it on DVD - the Such A Night clip in the pics is good fun - love the outtake at the end too where Costner says to Kurt 'Oh you're going back alright..........back............TO THE FUTURE MAN !'


official member of the Harum Scarum Soundtrack Appreciation Society

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Blue-Gypsy
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#12575

Post by Blue-Gypsy »

I was impressed with the quality of the jumpsuits in this Movie. Whoever designed these respected the jumpsuits and was not trying to make a parody of them.

just my .02
Tony



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BobbyTCB
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#12581

Post by BobbyTCB »

Believe that was B & K Enterprises, which is based in Indiana. They claim to have a lot of the original patterns from Bill Belew.

Here's their site--they have quite an impressive catalogue of suits.
http://www.b-k-enterprises.com/


...you won't forget me when I go.


likethebike
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#12643

Post by likethebike »

The guy who did the voice over in "This is Elvis" was Ral Donner. An Elvis soundalike Donner had some hits in the early 60s in an approximation of Elvis' style including a remake of "Girl of My Best Friend" and "You Don't Know What You've Got Until You Lose It" which made #4. To a seasoned fan he doesn't really sound like Elvis but, he was close enough to pass for the casual admirer. He was a little mannerisms and preferred to imitate the bottom of Elvis' range rather than the top. He sounds better to me than say Terry Stafford. In the early 60s just sounding like Elvis could get you a hit.

Donner died in 1984.


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