TCM Schedule for Friday, January 8 -- Birthday Tribute -- Elvis Presley's 75th Birthday

[Staph]

It''s the 75th anniversary of the birth of Elvis. I've never been a big Elvis fan -- I viewed as a good singer and a mediocre actor (the predecessor to Jennifer Lopez). But I never forgave him for dying the same week as Groucho Marx, and totally overshadowing the death of one that I view as a truly great talent. But...your mileage may vary.... Enjoy!


5:00am -- Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
A married violinist deserts his family when he falls for his accompanist.
Cast: Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best, John Halliday
Dir: Gregory Ratoff
BW-70 mins, TV-14


6:15am -- Harum Scarum (1965)
An American film star is kidnapped in the Middle East.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Mary Ann Mobley, Fran Jeffries, Michael Ansara
Dir: Gene Nelson
C-85 mins, TV-PG


7:45am -- Kissin' Cousins (1964)
A singing military officer gets mixed up with his look-alike hillbilly cousin.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Arthur O'Connell, Glenda Farrell, Jack Albertson
Dir: Gene Nelson
C-96 mins, TV-PG


9:30am -- Spinout (1966)
A singing race-car driver has to choose among three amorous females.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Diane McBain, Deborah Walley
Dir: Norman Taurog
C-93 mins, TV-PG


11:15am -- Roustabout (1964)
A female carnival owner hires a hot-blooded young singer to save her touring show.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Freeman, Leif Erickson
Dir: John Rich
C-101 mins, TV-PG


1:00pm -- Girl Happy (1965)
A rock singer is hired to chaperone a gangster's daughter in Fort Lauderdale.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Harold J. Stone, Gary Crosby
Dir: Boris Sagal
C-96 mins, TV-PG


2:45pm -- Speedway (1968)
A race car driver tries to outrun the beautiful tax auditor out to settle his account.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra, Bill Bixby, Gale Gordon
Dir: Norman Taurog
C-94 mins, TV-PG


4:30pm -- Blue Hawaii (1961)
A Hawaiian playboy defies his possessive mother to take a job with a tourist agency.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Nancy Walters, Roland Winters
Dir: Norman Taurog
C-101 mins, TV-PG


6:15pm -- Viva Las Vegas (1964)
A race-car driver falls for a pretty swimming instructor who wants him to slow down his career.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret, Cesare Danova, William Demarest
Dir: George Sidney
C-85 mins, TV-PG


7:41pm -- One Reel Wonders: Romantic Nevada (1943)
C-9 mins


What's On Tonight: TCM BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: ELVIS PRESLEY'S 75TH BIRTHDAY


8:00pm -- Elvis on Tour (1972)
Extensive concert footage highlights this documentary about the King's touring in the early '70s.
Cast: Elvis Presley
Dir: Pierre Adidge
C-93 mins, TV-G


9:42pm -- One Reel Wonders: A Look At The World Of Soylent Green (1973)
C-10 mins


10:00pm -- Elvis: That's The Way It Is 2001 (2001)
Restored version of the King's classic Vegas concert film.
Cast: Elvis Presley.
Dir: Denis Sanders.
C-96 mins, TV-14


12:00am -- Jailhouse Rock (1957)
After learning to play the guitar in prison, a young man becomes a rock 'n roll sensation.
Cast: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Vaugn Taylor
Dir: Richard Thorpe
BW-96 mins, TV-G


1:44am -- One Reel Wonders: Bars And Stripes (1937)
BW-11 mins


2:00am -- The Big Cube (1969)
LSD almost ruins the life of a former actress and her stepdaughter.
Cast: Lana Turner, George Chakiris, Richard Egan, Dan O'Herlihy
Dir: Tito Davison
C-98 mins


3:45am -- I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968)
A henpecked L.A. lawyer escapes into the world of hippies and free love.
Cast: Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, Joyce Van Patten
Dir: Hy Averback
C-94 mins, TV-14


5:30am -- MGM Parade Show #16 (1955)
Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald perform in a clip from "Maytime"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "I'll Cry Tomorrow."
Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins, TV-G

[Staph]

1. Elvis Presley Profile

After electrifying the recording world, television and live audiences of the 1950s with his bump-and-grind brand of rock-and-roll, Elvis Presley made his movie debut in the 20th Century Fox Western Love Me Tender (1956). He seemed at least partly intent upon becoming a serious actor in some of his early roles: a semi-autobiographical part in Paramount's Loving You (1957); an ex-con rocker in MGM's Jailhouse Rock (1957); and, back at Paramount, a young delinquent (a part once mentioned for James Dean) in King Creole (1958). Once he returned from military service, however, Presley seemed content to turn out lightweight musical comedies in which he essentially played himself and appeared to be having fun.

Born in Tupelo, Miss., in 1935, Presley moved to Memphis, Tenn., with his family at age 13. After recording a number of singles, he signed with RCA in 1955 and became an instant sensation. By the time of his premature death from a heart attack in 1977, "The King" had sold millions of singles and albums. In all, he made 33 movies that grossed a total of more than $150 million.

Among the films released through United Artists and MGM were Follow That Dream (1962), which has Elvis as the most responsible member of a rural family of itinerants who claim "squatter's rights" on land owned by gamblers; Kid Galahad (1962), another attempt at drama with Elvis playing a neophyte boxer who tangles with gangsters and sings seven songs including his hit "I Got Lucky."

In MGM's It Happened at the World's Fair (1963), Elvis plays a small-plane pilot who helps an abandoned child at the fair and sings 10 songs -- most memorably, "One Broken Heart for Sale." Kissin' Cousins (1964) casts Presley both as a brunette Air Force lieutenant and his blond cousin, who's part of a hillbilly clan that owns property needed by the government for a missile base. Presley's best MGM movie was Viva Las Vegas (1964), directed by Golden-Age musical master George Sidney (Show Boat, 1951, Bye Bye Birdie, 1963) and featuring for once a costar who could more than hold her own with Elvis -- the beautiful and dynamic Ann-Margret. He's a racecar driver; she's a swimming instructor - but they both have enough talent to have their own nightclub acts. The movie's 12 songs include Presley's lively take on Ray Charles' "What'd I Say?"

Also at MGM, Presley made Girl Happy (1965), playing a rocker hired by a gangster to protect his pretty daughter, Shelley Fabares. In Harum Scarum (1965), Elvis plays a singer kidnapped and taken to the Middle East, where the sets include some once used for Kismet (1944) and the silent The Ten Commandments (1923). Presley's other MGM roles include a rock star/racecar driver in Spinout (1966); a Mississippi gambler in Frankie and Johnny (1966); a rock star touring England (an ambition Presley himself never realized) in Double Trouble (1967); a photographer who works for both a "skin" magazine and a conservative newspaper in Live a Little, Love a Little (1968); and a mixed-blood Native American in Stay Away, Joe (1968).

Presley's last film as an actor was Universal's Change of Habit (1969), co-starring Mary Tyler Moore as a nun tempted by his charisma. In 1968, freed from his movie commitments, he made a triumphant return to live shows with an NBC television special and spent the rest of his career performing on recordings and the concert stage. Elvis on Tour (1972), a documentary released by MGM, shows Presley backstage as well as performing a long list of hits including "Polk Salad Annie," "Johnny B. Goode" and "An American Trilogy." The world mourned Presley's death in 1977 (he was 42), his premature end apparently hastened by increasing weight and dependence upon drugs. He was divorced from Priscilla Presley, with whom he had one child, singer Lisa Marie Presley.

by Roger Fristoe

* Films in Bold Type air on 1/8