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Jailhouse Rock (film)

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For the song, see Jailhouse Rock (song).

Jailhouse Rock
File:Jailhouse rock787.jpg
Directed byRichard Thorpe
Written byNedrick Young (story)
Guy Trosper (screenwriter)
Produced byPandro S. Berman
StarringElvis Presley
Judy Tyler
CinematographyRobert J. Bronner
Edited byRalph E. Winters
Music bySee list
Distributed byMGM
Release date
October 17, 1957
Running time
96 min.
LanguageEnglish

Jailhouse Rock is an American motion picture directed by Richard Thorpe, released by MGM on November 8, 1957. The film stars Elvis Presley (his third ever film role), Judy Tyler, and Mickey Shaughnessy. Sadly, co-star Tyler was killed in an automobile accident a few weeks after the film was completed, and like Loving You before it, Presley was so upset that he refused to ever watch the completed film. The film also includes Bill Hickman who, in 1955, was with James Dean at the time of his death as the result of an automobile accident and, in 1968, helped choreograph and drive the black Dodge Charger in the famous car chase scene in Bullitt. In 2004, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Primary cast

Synopsis

Presley plays "Vince Everett," an ex-convict working in the music industry, and a character analogous to Presley's then public image. After going to jail for a bar fight he did not start, Everett meets Hunk Houghton in prison, and the two men form a bond. Houghton, a washed-up country singer, teaches Everett to play an old guitar, and to sing a few songs.

Upon his release, Everett lands work at night clubs, but not singing. He meets Peggy Van Alden, a record company talent scout, who after the standard permutations of sexual chasing and blocked avenues to success, agrees to allow Everett to record a song. They bring his record to an executive at a small record label, who then records the exact arrangement with one of his established stars. Everett and Van Alden then start their own label to bring Everett's records to the public, and fame, riches, and a film career ensue.

Everett's prison buddy Houghton shows up, and instead of getting in on the action as anticipated, has to settle for being Everett's gofer. Throughout the film, Everett is the epitome of the spoiled star, surly, uncommunicative, bellicose, and treating all around him with either cruelty or diffidence, especially Van Alden and Houghton. A final fight at the end of the movie with Houghton, meant to give Everett his comeuppance, damages his vocal chords, bringing into question his ability to ever sing again. He learns his lesson in humility, and expresses his true feelings for Van Alden and Houghton.

What teenagers in the 1950s saw, however, was not the humble pie at the end, but the moody belligerence, heightened by episodes of violence as Presley lashed out at things he detested, like the executive who stole his idea to make a buck. The behavior exhibited by Presley in the film broke all the rules of acceptability known to anyone growing up in the decade, ignoring the parameters they had been taught to observe in that conformist decade. Denigrating his would-be girlfriend Tyler with a mixture of lust and arrogant indifference, instead of asking her to accept his fraternity pledge pin before immediately settling down, getting married, and moving to suburbia, and his seemingly unjustified anger to those trying to help him, must have been exhilirating to teenagers at the time. Although much of the movie appears to modern eyes as awkward, overdone, and at times downright silly, Presley's performance in Jailhouse Rock cemented his image as an embodiment of fifties teen rebellion, alongside Marlon Brando in The Wild One and James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.

Soundtrack

EP cover

Unlike his previous film, a full long-playing album soundtrack was not devised for Jailhouse Rock. Instead, five of the six songs written for Presley were released as an extended-play, seven-inch 45 RPM record on RCA Records, Jailhouse Rock, catalogue EPA 4114, during October of 1957. It peaked at #1 on the newly-inaugurated Billboard EP chart. The five EP soundtrack songs were recorded in a single day in April at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, with a sixth song recorded at the same location in September. The title song, "Jailhouse Rock" had already been released as a single on September 24, 1957, and went to #1 on the singles chart. The b-side, "Treat Me Nice," the sixth soundtrack song, made it to #18 on the singles chart; both sides of the single were written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Another song by the pair, "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care," became a minor standard, receiving cover versions by Buddy Holly, Cliff Richard, Joni Mitchell, and Brian Setzer.

One of the songs, "Don't Leave Me Now," had also appeared on the Loving You album, but in a different version from a different set of recording sessions. Additional original music for the film was composed by Jeff Alexander, and the song sang by the Hunk Houghton character, "One Day," by Roy C. Bennett and Sid Tepper.

Personnel

Track listing

Track Recorded Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 4/30/57 Jailhouse Rock Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:26
2. 4/30/57 Young And Beautiful Aaron Schroeder and Abner Silver 2:02
3. 4/30/57 I Want To Be Free Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:12
4. 4/30/57 Don't Leave Me Now Aaron Schroeder and Ben Weisman 2:05
5. 4/30/57 (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 1:51

Trivia

  • The pair of shapely female legs seen walking across the stage in the scene where Presley and Judy Tyler meet belong to showgirl Gloria Pall.
  • The film is most famous for the dance sequence in which Elvis sings the title track while cavorting with other "inmates" through a jail cellblock. The sequence is widely acknowledged as most exciting and best-executed musical scene in any of the 29 Presley narrative movies.
  • In August 2007 a Deluxe Edition with some special material was released.

See also

DVD reviews

Blu-ray reviews

HD DVD reviews

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