Stay Away, Joe (1968)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

There are some bad Elvis films and then there is Stay Away, Joe- a bomb at a much lower level. Filmed as if there were only 2 pages of dialogue and the actors were told to just mug in front of the camera to pad it for 100 minutes. I'll give it 2 stars just because it's in color and it has a nice opening montage of the Grand Canyon. Burgess Meredith wears the worst Native American makeup I have seen in many a decade. There is also some guy with orange hair who is Elvis' sister's boyfriend. Joan Blondell was obviously just happy to get a paycheck and otherwise a waste of her timeNow that the Cleveland Indians have decided to retire the Chief Wahoo logo that was the center of so much controversy, Native American pressure groups can now focus their attention to this piece of cinematic travesty which portrays their culture as folks who just want to drink and brawl.

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.His twenty-sixth film 'Stay Away Joe' has often been cited as one of his worst, something that is agreed with by me. Before anybody asks, this is coming from somebody from enjoyed a good deal of Elvis' earlier parts pre-'Kissin' Cousins' (as well as a couple of his mid-later films like his last very good film 'Viva Las Vegas') and who considers Elvis a very capable actor when his material allowed it like his earlier films did and his later and particularly formulaic films didn't.'Stay Away, Joe' isn't completely unwatchable. The production values generally are improved over many of Elvis' later films, the scenery is colourful and not artificial-looking and it's nicely shot mostly though in need of a more sweeping style. Most of the rather spare soundtrack does not fare well, but "Stay Away" is lovely.Regarding Elvis himself, he is the best he's looked in any of his films since the mid-1960s, and gives an enthusiastic performance that actually saw him trying after seeing many post 'Viva Las Vegas' films where his performances were at best perfunctory and like he had lost interest. Faring best in support are an amusingly deadpan Thomas Gomez and charming Katy Jurado.Unfortunately, for all Elvis' valiant efforts, his role is pretty wasted, one that is underwritten and severely underutilised in favour of the veteran actors. As much as it pains me to say it, Burgess Meredith is made to look, sound and act foolish and odd and it's in a way that's pretty embarrassing for a character actor of considerable calibre like Meredith. Joan Blondell is saddled with repetitive bawdy physical comedy that's not particularly funny first time and outstays its welcome quickly, another waste of talent. Quentin Dean's character is basically a typecast stereotype and her scenes with Elvis have an unintentional creepiness, but Dean does her best."Stay Away" aside, the songs are too few and none of them are any good or do anything for Elvis' talents. "Dominic" in fact is nearly as rock bottom as the likes of "Yoga is as Yoga Does", "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", "Confidence", "Hello Little Girl", "Petunia the Gardener's Daughter" and "Smorgasbord".Being more familiar with quainter and more wholesome material, director Peter Tewkesbury seems ill suited for 'Stay Away, Joe's' more broad and bawdy approach, a large part as to why the comedy perhaps fell so flat. Generally the writing needed to be much sharper, with almost everything being overplayed and sloppy. The story is paper thin and at times somewhat chauvinistic, complete with the overlong beginning and drawn-out and unexciting ending being only two examples of a film that drags quite badly as a result, while the outrageously patronising and shamefully childish portrayal of Native Americans is not for the easily offended. Oh and the makeup is amateur hour.All in all, pretty poor and nothing to get wild about. Even hard-core fans and completests may find 'Stay Away, Joe' hard to watch. 3/10 Bethany Cox

They wanted to make a good Elvis film. They wanted to bring his screen image up to date. They just didn't have the commitment to do what it took, as evidenced by a gun-slinging Joan Blondell (I love her anyway) and the almost unbelievable decision to let Elvis act near a comic bull, to or about which he will inevitably sing, with tragic results.The film they wanted to make here, more or less, in my opinion, is "The Rounders" (1965): a bawdy, modern western with a smallish feeling, driven by life-sized characters and the fringe world they inhabit. Good idea. And there are a lot of things going for "Stay Away": the location shooting, an excellent cast; and even the meandering plot serves the film well, to a point. Elvis is clearly on board this time with his unapologetically horny, scheming, and semi-corrupt character- a much needed change of pace.But they just can't get Elvis off of "Gilligan's Island". "Stay Away, Joe" is defeated by a number of things, ranging from the decision to let Elvis sing "diagetically" (i.e., in the film rather than over it), a make-up job on Burgess Meredith (who is completely wasted) that would make Bozo blush, and most especially, the overly broad comedy.Broad comedy is a nice fit for this film. But in one of several fight sequences, they push through a progression of painful cartoonish clichés that starts with timpani and slide-whistles and degenerates into the old favorites- someone gets something over the head and goes cross-eyed, little guy's punches bounce off big guy, etc. If that really makes you laugh, I beg your pardon, I guess. Joan Blondell chasing Elvis around with a gun and actually shooting at him while friends and family stand by and chuckle further erode the sense that we're in a more believable world than Hope and Crosby or Martin and Lewis inhabit. Blondell's daughter is one of the saddest clichés: the exploitable sexpot with a small child's mind. It all just doesn't fit.So unless you love Elvis and Elvis films as much as I do, stay away- Joe

Wow what an uneven movie. A congressman gives an Indian twenty heifers and a bull. If they can raise cattle successfully then more Indians will get some. The Indian given the cattle is played by Burgess Meredith. Why he took this role is beyond me. He is made up to look like an idiot and acts like one too. Elvis is his son and he shows up just in time to get everything messed up. Almost every Indian is a white man in bad make up. There are several wild parties with lots of booze, women and fighting. Sure makes the Indians look good. At the first party they have a BBQ with, did you guess?, the bull. Elvis then borrows another bull who just sleeps, until someone tries to ride that is. Now this bull is a Hereford. I have never seen one of those in the bull ring. Setting up a rodeo with the never ridden bull Joe takes on all comers, is the only one to ride the bull and wins a ton of money. Meanwhile Meredith's wife has sold off all the rest of the stock to fix their hovel of a shack up for the visiting mother of her daughter's fiancée. This turns out soooo well!! A fight breaks out, the fiancée's mother faints, the house ends up trashed, a mother shows up with a shotgun to force Elvis to marry her daughter, plus they are repoing his cars. So no cows, no bull, no future. Wait Elvis takes his winnings and shows up with about a hundred head to appease the congressman and keep papa out of jail. This movie is kind of uneven and not that well written, in other words a typical Elvis movie. Though titled a musical there is not very much music.