Elvis the Beauty Queen and Me! A review

[ekenee]

Ok, I bought this DVD. Maybe I am jaded, have seen enough footage, or whatever,
but I feel something is missing these days of Elvis documentary film making.

Do you just put a camcorder on a tri-pod and let a lady talk for 60 minutes and you've made a documentary?

Seriously that's what it is, other than a few seconds of Elvis concert footage thrown in between a few times, most
of which is shown in the extras section without the talk over.

Jeanne is likable, but most of her stories are known, but she has a very infectious way of telling them, and
she seems to have a fairly good memory of the time. LIke I said, something is missing.
And that would be Linda Thompson herself.
Maybe an interview with Linda as well would have helped this documentary to fill in some holes that she couldn't remember or
even know. If Linda could have told some of her stories with her there it would have been much more fascinating.
And then it suddenly it just sort of ends. Oh yeah there's a part two.
So, you are only getting half the story for the $30.

When ever these kinds of things have more than one volume I get suspicious.
This could have been a one volume thing.

Now lets get to the best part. The extras, and the reason why I bought this thing in the first place.

The 1973 Graceland footage is short and ok, no biggie. Nice to have I guess.

There is some footage not identified and lasts about
30 seconds. It might be Atlanta July 3rd, 1973. Pretty close footage.

Then there is some footage shot from farther away of Sept. 1, and 2, 1974 which has sound!!
They got away with it because it is during talking segments of the shows.
They couldn't do this with song copyrights.
It not soundboard, and it may or may not be synced. Elvis is too far away to tell.
Both days footage together are under 2 minutes long.

And last but at least its the best.
The 13 minutes of Kansas city, on June 29th, 1974, is some of the clearest, closest, footage I have seen.
It looks near like pro-shot. The lighting and focus are all very good.
It is silent but the footage includes, "I got a woman-amen", "suspicous minds", and others I can't tell yet.
It seems like Elvis is having a good time at this show, and there is a funny moment involving a gift from a fan.
Good stuff.

Note: the concert footage has a banner that stretches the entire lenght at the bottom.
It is nearly bothersome. I really don't like the footage bannered like this, but what can you do,
but wait until they release it again, without the banner and re-buy it.
The banners are never necessary and are always a pain to view.
Some documentary makers are learning and not putting them on, but some still need to learn
that these banners really take away the value of the footage.

There you have it. Those are my observations.
I am curious if anyone else has any thing to add.

[Mike Eder]

I just zoomed in the picture to avoid the banners. Very little of the picture was missing and it was easier to watch that way. Elvis looked pretty good and some of the Karate was pretty sharp. He seems more fit and quicker then in the Gladiators footage even though only a few weeks seperate it. As far as a part two I feel a two hour film would have fit easily without much quality loss, but perhaps they are getting some more unseen footage for it that wasn't ready when this came out. It's worth seeing for the concert footage and the interview is interesting because the subject is very pleasent and doesn't seem to be embellishing her stories.

[ekenee]

I just zoomed in the picture to avoid the banners. Very little of the picture was missing and it was easier to watch that way. Elvis looked pretty good and some of the Karate was pretty sharp. He seems more fit and quicker then in the Gladiators footage even though only a few weeks seperate it. As far as a part two I feel a two hour film would have fit easily without much quality loss, but perhaps they are getting some more unseen footage for it that wasn't ready when this came out. It's worth seeing for the concert footage and the interview is interesting because the subject is very pleasent and doesn't seem to be embellishing her stories.

Of course its easier to watch without the banners.
WHY do they keep ruining the footage with them then?
By the way, the zoom feature loses quality of the footage.
Yes, he does seem to have more energy during the karate segments than the Gladiator footage.
And Yes, her stories do seem to ring true.
Don't even kid yourself about the 2 parts of the film.
It was planned well in advance.
The footage was "ready".
And of course there would be no loss of quality, ever watch a 2 hour movie on DVD?
And its all about sqeezing the money these days.

[Joe Car]

Thanks for the review ekenee!

[pjdlibra]

Thank you so much for this review. But I have to say. If it is Elvis and the beauty queen then where is the Queen.????? Footage great, from what I was told this footage was revamped and very good. There's banners not good at all. That could have been edited. Not sure if I want to spend 30 bucks.

[Tomek]

I already made a sound overdub for that Kansas City footage, and the songs are:

Blue Christmas, I Got A Woman / Amen, Trying To Get To You, All Shook Up, Love Me Tender, Hound Dog, Polk Salad Annie.

Very cool footage.

I think I can't post it anywhere because of copyrights but if you want to do it yourself you should know that the footage on DVD runs like 5-7% to fast, so you have to slow it down before putting sound on.

Cheers

[hm80ep]

Jeanne is likable, but most of her stories are known, but she has a very infectious way of telling them, and
she seems to have a fairly good memory of the time.

Fairly? It seems to me she had learned her own book by heart. There's almost no way she could remember and recall all the events/names/exact dates so easily and vividly.

I just zoomed in the picture to avoid the banners. Very little of the picture was missing and it was easier to watch that way. Elvis looked pretty good and some of the Karate was pretty sharp. He seems more fit and quicker then in the Gladiators footage even though only a few weeks seperate it. As far as a part two I feel a two hour film would have fit easily without much quality loss, but perhaps they are getting some more unseen footage for it that wasn't ready when this came out. It's worth seeing for the concert footage and the interview is interesting because the subject is very pleasent and doesn't seem to be embellishing her stories.

Of course its easier to watch without the banners.
WHY do they keep ruining the footage with them then?

To prevent unauthorized copying of the footage, I believe.

[ekenee]

Jeanne is likable, but most of her stories are known, but she has a very infectious way of telling them, and
she seems to have a fairly good memory of the time.

Fairly? It seems to me she had learned her own book by heart. There's almost no way she could remember and recall all the events/names/exact dates so easily and vividly.

I just zoomed in the picture to avoid the banners. Very little of the picture was missing and it was easier to watch that way. Elvis looked pretty good and some of the Karate was pretty sharp. He seems more fit and quicker then in the Gladiators footage even though only a few weeks seperate it. As far as a part two I feel a two hour film would have fit easily without much quality loss, but perhaps they are getting some more unseen footage for it that wasn't ready when this came out. It's worth seeing for the concert footage and the interview is interesting because the subject is very pleasent and doesn't seem to be embellishing her stories.

Of course its easier to watch without the banners.
WHY do they keep ruining the footage with them then?

To prevent unauthorized copying of the footage, I believe.

Two things.
If she wrote a diary at the time, she would know the events as they happened then.

The unauthorized copying excuse doesn't make sense.
The footage is still copywritten even without banners.
She can prosecute the bootleggers with or without the banners.
And, furthermore, only some of the DVD makers use them.
The smart ones, leave the banners off.
All they need is one tiny trademark in the far bottom right corner, and thats it.
And they don't even need that.