This week we commemorate 49 years since the death of one of the world\u2019s most influential cultural icons. At Elvis\u2019s home at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, the annual candlelight vigil is expected, as always, to draw thousands of fans to celebrate his life and his profound and enduring contribution to pop culture.<\/p>\n
And while Elvis\u2019s music legacy remains iron-clad despite the almost five decades since his death, another element of Elvis\u2019s career has largely fallen from public consciousness \u2013 his film career. The musician also had a lifelong ambition to be a movie star and as a teenager, he worked as an usher at a Memphis movie theatre so he could watch films and study the performances of his idols.<\/p>\n
That dream did become a reality, and during the 1950s and 1960s Elvis evolved into an incredibly profitable movie star, racking up a filmography of more than 30 feature films. But his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, saw a different opportunity: capitalising on Elvis\u2019s rising fame by featuring him in movies soundtracked by his own songs rather than in the more serious, complex roles he actually wanted to star in.<\/p>\n
Elvis\u2019s ultimate ambition was to win an Academy Award and prove his range as a dramatic actor. But the more successful his musicals became, the more Hollywood wanted to keep giving audiences the same winning formula, thus denying him the chance to develop as an actor.<\/p>\n
Here, we\u2019ve pulled together a roundup of some of Elvis\u2019s most iconic film roles, which you can stream for free on Tubi right now.<\/p>\n
Acting the part<\/p>\n
\u2022 Love Me Tender (1956)<\/p>\n
Clint Reno (Elvis) marries his older brother\u2019s fiancee (Debra Paget) after he is presumed killed in the American Civil War. But when his brother (Richard Egan) returns, a bitter love triangle unfolds over a stash of stolen money and the woman they both love.<\/p>\n
This was Elvis\u2019s movie debut and his role had originally been much smaller.<\/p>\n
However, at the time, his song Love Me Tender had become a huge hit, and producers realised they were sitting on a goldmine. To take advantage of the hype, his role was expanded and the title was changed from The Reno Brothers to reflect the hit song.<\/p>\n
In an early screening of the film, the death of Elvis\u2019s character caused his mother to sob uncontrollably. Elvis reportedly vowed never to die in a film role again.<\/p>\n
(Love Me Tender is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022 Loving You(1957)<\/p>\n Delivery driver Deke Rivers (Elvis) is discovered by a music publicist (Lizabeth Scott) and country singer (Dolores Hart) who set out to turn him into a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll star. As his fame grows, Deke becomes torn between his ambitious manager and the woman who loves him.<\/p>\n The film was very much a fictionalised account of Elvis\u2019s own rise to stardom. The song (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear was the standout track on the soundtrack, which spent 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. Elvis\u2019s parents famously appeared in the final scene of the film, sitting among audience members.<\/p>\n His love interest, Hart, went on to become a successful actress but in 1963 left Hollywood behind to enter the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut and become a nun. She took her final vows in 1970 and still lives there today as Mother Dolores.<\/p>\n (Loving You is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n Getting serious<\/p>\n \u2022 King Creole (1958)<\/p>\n Danny Fisher (Elvis) drops out of school to support his struggling family and finds a new life as a singer in New Orleans\u2019 French Quarter. But when a ruthless gangster tries to pull him into his criminal world, he must choose between a life of crime, his career and love.<\/p>\n This role was originally developed with James Dean in mind, with the character written as a boxer. But after Dean\u2019s death in 1955, it was eventually offered to Elvis and the character was changed from a boxer to a singer. Elvis lost seven kilograms and shaved his iconic sideburns for the role and his fans swarmed the set and disrupted filming.<\/p>\n Colonel Parker insisted on including songs in the serious drama, reflecting his view that Elvis\u2019s films be a vehicle to promote his recording career. Critics complained about the musical interruptions as a result but did acknowledge Elvis\u2019s acting chops.<\/p>\n It was one of the clearest early signs that Elvis could actually act \u2013 and of the serious dramatic career he wanted to pursue.<\/p>\n (King Creole is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022 G.I. Blues (1960)<\/p>\n Army sergeant Tulsa McLean (Elvis) dreams of opening a nightclub when he returns home from being stationed in Germany, but first he needs to win a bet that he can charm beautiful cabaret dancer Lili (Juliette Prowse).<\/p>\n This was another film where art imitated Elvis\u2019s own life \u2013 at the time, he\u2019d been enlisted into the US Army and stationed in West Germany \u2013 giving audiences a chance to see their idol in uniform. Elvis was apparently disappointed with G.I. Blues after appearing in the more dramatic King Creole, but it was exactly the kind of lightweight musical comedy that Colonel Parker believed would make money, and it did.<\/p>\n During its production, Elvis was visited by royal fans, including Princess Margrethe of Denmark, Princess Astrid of Norway and Princess Margaretha of Sweden. His co-star, Prowse, was also engaged to singer Frank Sinatra at the time.<\/p>\n (G.I. Blues is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022 Flaming Star (1960)<\/p>\n Pacer Burton (Elvis), the mixed-race son of a white rancher (John McIntire) and a Kiowa woman (Delores del R\u00edo), is caught between two cultures as violence erupts between Native Americans and white settlers. Forced to choose where his loyalties lie, he struggles to protect his family as the conflict threatens to destroy them.<\/p>\n Elvis had two weeks of riding lessons before filming commenced and was thrown from a horse during training but wasn\u2019t injured. This film was released around two months after G.I. Blues, and the reception to the two films couldn\u2019t have been more different, with Flaming Star falling short of expectations on release.<\/p>\n But its legacy endured when artist Andy Warhol used a publicity photograph of Elvis from this film as the basis for his famous Elvis silk-screens, which include Single Elvis, Double Elvis, Triple Elvis and the enormous Eight Elvises.<\/p>\n (Flaming Star is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n The limitations of success<\/p>\n \u2022 Blue Hawaii (1961)<\/p>\n Returning from the US Army, Chad Gates (Elvis) rejects his wealthy family\u2019s plans for his future and takes a job as a Hawaiian tour guide. But his new career, demanding mother (Angela Lansbury) and relationship with his girlfriend (Joan Blackman) become complicated when a group of young tourists turns his life upside down.<\/p>\n Thousands of fans turned out when Elvis arrived in Honolulu to shoot the film, with crowds reportedly nearly breaking through the barricades. Interestingly, Lansbury, who played the role of Elvis\u2019s mother in the film, was aged just 36 and Elvis 26 at the time, which made for some very interesting casting. The soundtrack included Can\u2019t Help Falling in Love, which became one of Elvis\u2019s signature songs and was famously used by him to close many of his concerts in the 1970s.<\/p>\n The film proved to be a huge commercial success \u2013 but it also helped lock Elvis into the formula that would define the rest of his film career.<\/p>\n (Blue Hawaii is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022 Wild in the Country (1961)<\/p>\n Delinquent Glenn Tyler (Elvis) is given a chance to escape his troubled past when a psychiatrist (Hope Lange) discovers his talent for writing. But as Glenn becomes entangled with three very different women and a violent feud, his hopes of building a new life are put at risk.<\/p>\n While not originally meant to be a musical, Colonel Parker insisted that the film contain Elvis songs \u2013 the result is an uneasy compromise between a serious drama and a musical showcase. It is allegedly the only Elvis movie to lose money on its initial release. It was also his last real attempt to establish himself as a dramatic actor \u2013 Blue Hawaii\u2019s success that same year suggested audiences preferred their idol in musical comedies instead.<\/p>\n Reviews for this film were mixed, but some critics, such as the Los Angeles Times, praised Elvis\u2019s performance, describing it as a reasonably good melodrama and noting that Elvis was continuing to improve as a performer.<\/p>\n (Wild in the Country is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n [subhead] Follow the formula<\/p>\n \u2022 Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)<\/p>\n Ross Carpenter (Elvis), a Hawaiian charter-boat skipper, dreams of buying his late father\u2019s sailboat while earning extra money as a nightclub singer. When he\u2019s caught between two women \u2013 wealthy Laurel (Laurel Goodwin) and nightclub singer Robin (Stella Stevens) \u2013 a romantic rivalry threatens his future plans.<\/p>\n Often seen as another attempt to recreate the success of Blue Hawaii, Elvis\u2019s return to Hawaii, the location of his biggest hit, resulted in 8000 fans turning out to greet him. During the short journey from the helicopter to his hotel, Elvis lost a diamond ring, which was eventually returned after the young fan who\u2019d found it contacted the hotel.<\/p>\n Apparently, Elvis wasn\u2019t pleased with the increasingly shallow material he was being given and particularly disliked some of the novelty songs he was forced to sing for this film. The soundtrack\u2019s best song, Return to Sender, was a huge success but wasn\u2019t actually written specifically for the film.<\/p>\n (Girls! Girls! Girls! is now available to stream on Tubi<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022 Kid Galahad (1962)<\/p>\n Fresh out of the Army and short of money, Walter Gulick (Elvis) takes a job as a sparring partner at a struggling boxing camp, where his natural strength makes him a promising professional fighter. As Walter prepares for the ring, he falls for the promoter\u2019s sister (Joan Blackman) while the camp owner (Gig Young) hopes his winnings will save him from his gambling debts.<\/p>\n Elvis reportedly weighed close to 91 kilograms during filming and wasn\u2019t happy about how he looked. To get into shape for the role of Walter, Elvis was trained by former world junior-welterweight champion Mushy Callahan and reportedly lost about 5.5 kilograms.<\/p>\n Blackman reunited with Elvis after the success of Blue Hawaii, in which she again played his love interest. The film did reasonably well and is a great watch. But wasn\u2019t a major Elvis blockbuster.<\/p>\n