Clambake (1967)

Thanks for the memories!

One of my all time favorites.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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.'Clambake' has often been considered one of the King's worst, despite it being very strongly defended to the point of "I'm right and you're wrong" defensiveness by some here. To me, it is not his worst film, which one would expect from the film with the worst title of all, the likes of a few of his later efforts, 'Paradise Hawaiian Style', 'Double Trouble' and 'Harum Scarum' are worse. But of a notoriously inconsistent film career (that started off good, but became mostly mediocre at best after 'Viva Las Vegas') it also doesn't fare favourably. Not unwatchable but severely undercooked and dare one say it lazy.There are things that salvage it from being a must-miss film, considering that there are many of the elements that made Elvis' later films so disappointing done pretty risibly, to a mediocre one. Most of the songs are below par, but "A House That Has Everything" and "The Girl I Never Loved" are nice and the best one "You Don't Know Me" could easily have been a bigger hit.Also thought very little of most of the cast, but James Gregory and Bill Bixby enjoy themselves in roles that could have grated, yet they show that one can have fun without going overboard, something that other cast members could have learnt from. Shelley Fabares has little to do in an underwritten role, but does her best to inject some charm and heart, fair play to her as the role didn't deserve that degree of effort.While most of 'Clambake' looks cheap, even for a later Elvis film, what little glimpses there are of scenery looks nice and one wishes there was more.However, Elvis gives a very perfunctory performance as a character that plays too secondary to that of Will Hutchins. This is a bad thing, as not only does one not see that Elvis was a very capable actor when the material allowed it (like in his best films like 'King Creole', 'Flaming Star', 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Viva Las Vegas' and 'Loving You') but also Hutchins spends much of his performance mugging and it grates fast. The rest of the cast go through the motions, this includes Gary Merrill who is a halfway decent actor limited to looking annoyed.Three songs aside, the rest of the songs are below par. Admittedly the title song is sort of catchy but also gets very repetitive with incredibly simplistic lyric writing. "Who Needs Money" suffers from Elvis and (apparently) Ray Walker dubbing Hutchins looking and sounding like they couldn't be bothered as well as not being a particularly good song at all. It's nothing though compared to the embarrassment that is "Confidence", which in every sense of the word reaches rock-bottom depths in the same way the likes of "Yoga is as Yoga Does" ('Easy Come Easy Go'), "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" ('Double Trouble'), "Smorgasbord" ('Spinout'), "Petunia the Gardener's Daughter" ('Frankie & Johnny'), "Hello Little Girl" ('Harum Scarum') and a vast majority of the soundtrack for 'Paradise Hawaiian Style' do.Unfortunately, nice scenery is too far and between, with the rest of the production values being of such cheap and made in haste quality it is even for Elvis' later films one of his cheaper-looking films. The colour is garish to the verge of being excessively nauseating, the cinematography is full of in-your face close ups in the very unexciting climax and overuse and abuse of the widescreen process that sees CinemaScope at its cheapest and the back projection is also overused and abused and has rarely looked more phoney.Scripting is groan-worthy, with very little structure or pace and delivered with very little enthusiasm, the dialogue itself makes even the strongest cheese in the world bland in comparison. The story is basically a very stale and pedestrian re-hash of 'The Prince and the Pauper', a formula tried and tested to death well before 'Clambake' and given next to no variation or momentum. Arthur Nadel's direction lacks steadiness and doesn't seem particularly experienced in film.In conclusion, not a complete waste but severely undercooked, not even reaching half-baked overall which is a worrying sign, and lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

my summary doesn't really tell it all: over the years, I've gotten to like it (well, most of the soundtrack and a lot of the scenes).I think of all the Elvis(es), this one gave BIg El the most shudders! It would not have, in 1962-3, but after Sergeant Pepper, Dylan, Stones, it had to hurt. It's been written he did it only to pay off the "Circle G" ranch he had recently purchased.having said that, the plot is kinda groovy...except for an awful song together, Elvis and Will Hutchins make a good comedy team, the oil baron's son and gas jockey guy, switching places; and Shelly Fabares, looking beautiful, as usual.soundtrack has no hits but still some very listenable, melodic ballads, yes a special Elvis version of YOU DON'T KNOW ME, plus a minor gem, THE GIRL I NEVER LOVED, which he should have revisited. A HOUSE THAT HAS EVERYTHING has endured, even a very slight dancer, the contemporary HEY HEY HEY, sung in a lab. with shapely lab. assistants.so...no real surprises...well, maybe a surprise in that after all these years, it's pretty good fun. in some ways, looks better today. (Hey, "When I'm 64", wasn't all that great, either!).

Although it has the worst title of any Elvis movie, "Clambake" (1967) is actually one of his better films. Which is surprising as it is one of his last and generally speaking each film seemed a bit worse than its predecessor. "Clambake's" salvation is certainly not in the soundtrack which is at best very ordinary, only the title song has any energy. Although there is an actual clambake scene on the beach about midway into the film, it seems thrown in just to justify the title, more impressive is a cameo of "Flipper" who had his own television show at that time.I'm inclined to credit Shelley Fabares for the good vibe I got from this film. She plays "golddigger with a heart of gold" Dianne Carter, Elvis' ultimate love interest. I never cared for her uptight Mary Stone character on reruns of "The Donna Reed Show", and therefore paid almost no attention to her until recently. But since seeing her in "Ride the Wild Surf" and "Clambake" I've had a major attitude adjustment. "Clambake" was the third time she was tapped for the love interest role in an Elvis film so obviously she and the King had grown comfortable working together. Their romance is a little different than the Elvis standard. In "Clambake" she does not start out hating or ignoring him. Instead they quickly become friends and she is obviously attracted, but she puts the brakes on any romance because she is hunting for a rich husband and has tycoon J.J. Jamison (Bill Bixby) squarely in her sights. She comes around in the end and their chemistry actually feels real, much like it did with Ann Margret in "Viva Las Vegas".The comfort factor is also apparent between Elvis and Will Hutchins, his real-life buddy. Oil tycoon Scott (Elvis) pulls a "Prince and the Pauper" and swaps places with drifter Tom Wilson (Hutchins). He wants to find someone who loves him for himself. Hutchins is supposed to provide the film's main comic relief as he enjoys the life of the rich and famous, driving Scott's "Munsters" inspired convertible and surrounding himself with gorgeous women who can't dance very well. Although the director had Hutchins overplay the part it is so poorly written that they can't squeeze many laughs out of the premise. But having most of his scenes with Fabares and Hutchins seems to have relaxed Elvis considerably, which makes both he and his film more likable. Contrary to most, I enjoyed the corny playground scene with the little girl who was afraid of the slide. The "Confidence" song is not a rip off of "High Hopes", the whole scene is a variation on the "Bounce Right Back" number Donald O'Connor did in "Anything Goes". While "Confidence" is not much of a song, this surreal scene is priceless. I wonder what long-time fans thought as they watched Elvis and Hutchins do something so totally "Guffman"? Most entertainers only do embarrassing stuff like this when they are first breaking into the business. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Not-bad Elvis Presley outing has the son of a Texas oil tycoon escaping to Cypress Gardens, Florida in search of a girl who will love him for himself and not his millions; after swapping identities with a penniless water-ski instructor (unctuous Will Hutchins), Presley falls for a pretty brunette who makes it clear she wants only to marry for money. Lively direction by Arthur Nadel gives this musical-comedy some drive, with studio shots and location footage smoothly integrated (although the back-projection routine does get a real workout). Elvis sings a handful of fine songs including "A House That Has Everything", and his performance towers above the others, particularly a grating turn by Bill Bixby as a professional speedboat racer. The close-ups of the cast during the climactic speedboat race are hilariously over-exaggerated, but Shelley Fabares is a decent love-interest and the flick has a satisfying wrap-up. **1/2 from ****