Stay Away, Joe (1968)

Touches You

I'll tell you why so serious

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I found this movie entertaining and funny. I smiled from the beginning to the end. Much better than some others with betters rating. It is for people with sense of humour. Surely Elvis enjoyed it and also others coostaring actors.

There are some bad Elvis films and then there is Stay Away, Joe- a bomb at a much lower level. Filmed as if there were only 2 pages of dialogue and the actors were told to just mug in front of the camera to pad it for 100 minutes. I'll give it 2 stars just because it's in color and it has a nice opening montage of the Grand Canyon. Burgess Meredith wears the worst Native American makeup I have seen in many a decade. There is also some guy with orange hair who is Elvis' sister's boyfriend. Joan Blondell was obviously just happy to get a paycheck and otherwise a waste of her timeNow that the Cleveland Indians have decided to retire the Chief Wahoo logo that was the center of so much controversy, Native American pressure groups can now focus their attention to this piece of cinematic travesty which portrays their culture as folks who just want to drink and brawl.

When movie makers film a comedy, it is imperative that the audience is laughing at the jokes, not at the movie. That is what happens here in this outlandish farce where the performers of a rodeo unwittingly slaughter and barbecue their prize bull at a drunken fiesta. If you can swallow that, then try the bull of Elvis Presley as a Native American. Burgess Meredith adds another bizarre performance to his many, especially those directed by Otto Preminger. Katy Jurado takes Bette Davis's wig from "Beyond the Forest", and includes some of her mannerisms as well (with a Mexican accent), but there are some generally amusing moments with Joan Blondell as a gun-toting diner owner intent on keeping Elvis's pelvis off of her daughter unless a wedding ring is included. A bizarre musical number chooses a chicken coop as its location, and comedy montages seem straight off of Saturday morning cartoons. This tries to have a hip feeling to it (minus the LSD) but this hip needs some cortisone.

OK, the portrayal of the stereotyped 'indians' in this story is just plain WRONG. I do agree that Elvis looks rather good here, but yeah, his skin color does seem to change during the movie. I was thinking, OK,...he was never THAT tan in real life. It's some of the most obvious brown 'indian' makeup that I have ever seen. It's as bad as the 'indians' on 'F-Troop' and the old Hollywood westerns who were played by Jewish and Italian American actors and not real Native Americans!This movie is o.k., but typically lame story and mediocre songs, like in all of Elvis' later films. He just did them because Colonel Parker had him tied down to long term movie contacts to squeeze as much money out of Elvis as possible! I keep thinking 'thank God' that Elvis stopped making movies forever not long after this movie came out. It is cool to see character actors Joan Blondell, Katy Jurado, L.Q. Jones, Henry Jones and Burgess Meredith in this movie, though.Burgess Meredith's 'indian' makeup is absolutely AWFUL. It's The worst of the bunch for sure. What were the filmmakers thinking? Was Mr. Meredith doing this one just for the money or what? I do love certain Elvis movies, though. For example: 'Love Me Tender', 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Viva Las Vegas'. I can even stand to watch his movie with future TV co-stars Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner,'Change Of Habit' in which Elvis plays an inner-city doctor.Oh well, at least Elvis made a FEW good films, but the mediocre and bad ones overwhelm the decent and good ones.I'll always love ELVIS! Thank you, Thank you very much!