Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.'Live a Little, Love a Little' is not one of Elvis' overall best, 'King Creole' and 'Flaming Star' in particular are two of few exceptions to have good stories and scripts, elements that tended to be the weak links. It is a long way from being one of Elvis' worst, with a couple of exceptions like another one of his best 'Viva Las Vegas' Elvis' film career declined a lot between 'Kissin' Cousins' and this, 'Harum Scarum' and 'Stay Away, Joe' being especially poor. If anything, 'Live a Little, Love a Little' is one of Elvis' better later films and his best since 'Viva Las Vegas'. By all means it's far from flawless. The second half lacks the energy of the first half, instead it drags and gets on the wrong side of weird. The dream sequence is rather bizarre and feels out of place. The script is not a strong suit, being a little clunky and forced.However, after some cheap-looking films mid-late career, 'Live a Little, Love a Little' is a welcome return to the very nicely filmed and mounted films seen earlier pre-'Kissin' Cousins'. As far as the soundtrack goes, it's the most tuneful and consistent one since 'Viva Las Vegas'. After some pretty bad soundtracks, tending to have few memorable songs, some disposable ones and ones that one really wants to forget as long as they live, all the songs are good, especially "A Little Less Conversation". Story-wise, the first half is full of energy and very compelling, so much so that it is such a shame that the second half doesn't live up. Elvis gives one of his most confident and enthusiastic performances of his mid 60s-late 60s films, having phoned it in due to clearly knowing how bad a lot of his material had gotten. Michelle Carey is charming enough with good chemistry, while the dog is a sheer scene-stealing delight.Overall, surprisingly good later effort. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Elvis Presley's 28th of his 31 movies is nothing if not enthusiastically played. Unfortunately, this is one of his below par pictures. Alas, he sings only three times, and the songs themselves are not particularly memorable. Oddly, the best, "Let's Live a Little", agreeably sung under the colorful, fast-moving credit titles, was never released on record. As for the story, it's rather slight – especially when spun out to ninety minutes – although it does introduce some fascinating support characters led by Rudy Vallee. Well, that certainly sounds promising – the 1930s top box=office idol meets the teenage idol of the 1960s – so it's a shame that more isn't made of this and that they don't sing a duet. Elvis also has a fight scene in which he seems to be doing all his own slugging. In fact, the macho Elvis image is well to the fore in this one and he even has his face stained to give him that outdoors tan look. TV actress, Michele Carey, is here making only her third or fourth movie and she is far too aggressively cookie for comfort. Judicious trimming of her scenes would help the pace considerably. I'd take care to leave the dog alone though. Occasionally, real locations are cleverly employed (and brightly photographed) and these should also be retained. But will someone please take the scissors to those Carey-Presley domestic scenes which are in fact not a fifth as risqué or a tenth as funny as the film's director, Norman Taurog (here making his final of 183 movies) obviously thinks they are!

LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE is one of Elvis' weirdest movies. Part slapstick, part fluff, part surreal and part strange. Elvis meets up with a very off-beat girl with an annoying voice. She looks like Jennifer Aniston. Story doesn't make much sense as is the case with most Elvis Presley movies, and there a bunch of odd characters galore. Not much music in this one, but what there is I liked, although none are memorable. Strange continuity. Elvis and Michelle Carey go into her beach house at night, but a few minutes later a delivery boy comes in and it's stark daylight!! What?? That's about the essence of the movie. What?? Oh, two good things about the movie: A) Elvis looks great and B) the dog steals the show.

What a shame that at a time when it appeared that Elvis was finally getting some mature comedy roles it was nearing the end of his film career. Maybe if the brains ?? behind Elvis had been more selective in choosing his movie roles, he may have been still with us and may have been credited for being a far better actor than people gave him credit for. To have him act alongside the Elvis of the twenties in Rudy Vallee was a great piece of casting. The only other great piece of casting would have been to have him act alongside the great John Wayne, which I believe they offered him the part in True Grit played by Glen Campbell. What a sad waste of talent, another screw up by Hollywood suits who have no idea on talent just getting their greedy hands on as much money as they can.