Elvis stars in one of his last “serious” roles before being reduced to ogling girls on the beach and singing awful songs. He plays a young hothead redneck who sees a widowed shrink played by Hope Lange to get out of doing some jail time. Elvis writes stories and Lange wants him to go to college. They end up falling in love which causes them more grief. Tuesday Weld plays his cousin who’s also in love with him. “I need a man to go to Hell with!” Elvis works well with the capable supporting cast (including Millie Perkins, John Ireland, Gary Lockwood and Alan Napier), but unfortunately the movie’s rather dull and Elvis doesn’t sing all that much.

Elvis stars in his next to last feature. It’s his worst. He’s barely in it. The title might make you think it’s another one of his many mindless musicals, but it’s actually a boring period piece. He stars as the leader of the traveling Chautauqua carnival who tries to unmask a killer during the 1920’s. Unfortunately the King (and his sideburns) gets lost in a sea of unnecessary supporting characters (including a couple of annoying kids), atrocious musical numbers and gratuitous period color. The full title of this movie is The Trouble with Girls and How to Get into It, but sadly we never find out what the trouble with girls is, nor do we learn how to get into it. The only trouble we see a girl get into is murdering someone, so I guess that’s it. Horror stalwarts Vincent Price (as Mr. Morality) and John Carradine (who performs “To Be or Not to Be”) add some liveliness to the otherwise lethargic proceedings. In the film’s best scene Elvis belts out a gospel tune. Sheree North and a young Dabney Coleman also appear.

AKA: The Trouble with Girls (And How to Get into It).

Elvis was always better when he had a good romantic lead to play off of and since this film co-stars Nancy Sinatra, it’s no wonder that this film is one of his best of the 60’s. Elvis plays a stock car racer who’s in trouble with the IRS. Sinatra is an IRS agent who collects his money as fast as he can make it and predictably they fall in love. Bill (The Incredible Hulk) Bixby co-stars as Elvis’ skirt chasing manager. Elvis even finds the time to help out a poor homeless father (William Schallert) and his cute kids. The good supporting cast includes Gale Gordon, Carl Ballantine, Ross Hagen and Richard Petty. A few lively musical numbers and some pretty good race footage puts this flick a notch or two above the usual Presley fare. The go-go club featured in the movie looks like it was the inspiration for Jack Rabbit Slim’s in Pulp Fiction. Bixby also co-starred with the King in Clambake.

Elvis stars in one of his more stupid movies as a movie star on a “goodwill tour” of the Middle East. He’s invited to an Arabian sheik’s palace and when he gets caught messing around with the sheik’s harem girls, he becomes a prisoner. He escapes with the help of a princess played by Miss America Mary Ann Mobley. Elvis gets mistaken for an assassin, falls in love, and sings some mediocre songs. Sure it’s dumb, but Elvis is great, the women are hot and it’s certainly not boring. Billy Barty co-stars as a thief. Mobley also co-starred with Elvis in Girl Happy.

This might be the King’s worst, though you have to hand it to Elvis. He made 31 movies and basically made the SAME EXACT MOVIE EVERY SINGLE TIME. By the time he made Paradise, Hawaiian Style, he had been in so many interchangeable films that not only were the plots beginning to be the same, but the exotic locations started to repeat themselves as well. After Blue Hawaii, this flick marked the King’s second trip to Hawaii. The only difference between the two is that instead of the King DRIVING tourists around Hawaii, in this one Elvis FLIES tourists around Hawaii. By this time Elvis started to look like he’d had one too many peanut butter and banana sandwiches but somehow he maintains his coolness while singing some thoroughly innocuous and forgettable songs. The fluff filled script of course maintains that Elvis duets with annoying kids, ogles women and basically act as ambassador of Hawaii. There are hot girls, beautiful locales, cheesy songs and absolutely zero plot in this one.

Presley plays an airplane pilot (who says “You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours!” a lot) who goes to Hawaii to start his own charter helicopter business after being fired from a big time airline (he was making time with one of the stewardesses). His pilot’s license is put into jeopardy when a pack of rowdy dogs interfere with one of his landings. That’s about it. Try not to piss yourself laughing when Presley sings “It’s a Dog’s Life” to the claustrophobic canines. Look fast for longtime Elvis bodyguard Red (Road House) West in a bit part getting the King into a bar fight. Co-star Irene Tsu also starred in Women of the Prehistoric Planet the same year.

Elvis stars in one of his weaker efforts as a boat captain whose beloved ship gets bought out from under him by greedy seaman Jeremy Slate. Meanwhile Elvis romances Laurel Goodwin while spurning the advances of his former flame played by Stella Stevens. Elvis does what he can with the incredibly thin (even for an Elvis movie) storyline, but at least he gets to rock out to his number one hit, “Return to Sender”. The biggest problem with the movie is probably the misleading title. It makes it sound like The King is going to be up to his armpits in seaworthy booty, but unfortunately he’s only torn between Stevens and Goodwin. The scene in which Elvis serenades two little annoying Chinese girls is among the lowest points of his cinematic career. Elvis also performs the title song, “A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You”, “I Don’t Want to Be Tied” and a handful of other forgettable titles. Elvis’ next was It Happened at the World’s Fair.

After Elvis returned home from the army, he starred in this fun musical as Private Tulsa, who bets he can put the moves on a cold as ice dancer (Juliet Prowse) while stationed in West Germany. Things get complicated when he really does fall for her. The highlight is when Elvis croons a love song in a bar and a disgruntled G.I. plays “Blue Suede Shoes” on a jukebox because he wants to hear “an original”. Elvis is great as always especially when belting out the rollicking title tune, but less so when singing lullabies to a baby. It’s safe to say whatever edge Elvis had was severely lessened by the thoroughly innocuous scene where he saves a puppet show by singing “Wooden Heart” to a puppet. Elvis also sings “What’s She Really Like”, “Doin’ the Best I Can”, “Frankfurt Special”, “Shoppin’ Around”, “Tonight is So Right for Love”, “Pocketful of Rainbows”, “Big Boots” and “Didja Ever”. Co-star Jeremy Slate later co-starred with Elvis in Girls! Girls! Girls!

In Elvis’ 13th movie he stars as an ex-trapeze artist who gets a job singing at a South of the Border resort. He has a little boy for a manager and gets hottie Ursula (Dr. No) Andress to help him conquer his fear of heights. Elsa Cardenas co-stars as a female bull fighter who tries to turn Elvis’ head. Elvis’ considerable charisma carries this thing as far as it can go, but it doesn’t help that the songs (like “No Room to Rumba in a Sportscar”) are all pretty crappy. By this time the usual Elvis formula (Elvis + pretty girls + beautiful locations = harmless fun) was starting to wear thin, but die hard Elvis fans won’t care. Watch out for a bit part by Floyd the Barber. Director Richard Thorpe also directed Elvis in Jailhouse Rock.

Elvis stars in this Southern fried nonsense about a family whose car breaks down on a new highway in Florida. When the government tries to run them off the land they claim they’re homesteaders. In the course of the movie Elvis inadvertently robs a bank, gets mixed up with some gangsters and becomes sheriff. The script gives Elvis little to do (his country bumpkin simpleton shtick wears thin fast) and the welfare worker subplot slows things down to a crawl. The film features a pretty good supporting cast including Arthur (Gidget) O’Connell, Anne (The Magic Sword) Helm, Simon (Psycho) Oakland, Frank (F-Troop) DeKova and Floyd the Barber (who also appeared with Elvis in Fun in Acapulco the next year) but they can’t help the turgid plot. It also lacks the energy of even the worst of Elvis’ movies. As with most of Elvis’ movies, the songs aren’t all that great but the title tune is quite catchy.