Main Cast: Elvis Presley, Michele Carey, Don Porter, Rudy Vallee, Dick Sargent
Release Year: 1968
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Singing stars from two very different generations appear in Live A Little, Love A Little. Elvis Presley plays Greg, a photographer who divides his time working for a skin magazine and a conservative newspaper. Rudy Valle plays Penlow, the veteran newspaper publisher. Lansdown (Don Porter) is the publisher of a girly magazine as Greg tries to work for both without the other finding out. Greg falls in love with a fashion model (Michele Carey) in this situation comedy that even die-hard Elvis fans have a hard time swallowing. By this time, Elvis planned to fulfil his remaining movie obligations and return to the stage, as his 1960s film career had failed to take on the dramatic seriousness he desperately sought. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Review
Live a Little, Love a Little is a strange little entry in the Elvis Presley canon. It's a bad movie from start to finish, but it has a certain interest as an attempt to remake the "wholesome" Elvis of the films into a more contemporary (for 1968) character. The attempt doesn't work, as it takes more than a "damn" or two and a job as a "Playboy"-type photographer to do the job; even the sequence of Elvis actually in bed with a woman gets the guts cut out of it by the barrier placed between them. The screenplay is just plain bad, even for an Elvis film of the period, but it does have some weird moments, such as a dream sequence complete with talking dog, and a little bit of psychedelia, that are fun. There's not much that the cast can do with this script, and even those who try pretty hard don't get very far. The best thing about Live/Love, as in many other of the King's pictures, is the music. Elvis only sings 4 songs, but those - "Edge of Reality," "A Little Less Conversation," "Wonderful World" and " Almost in Love" are all keepers. They can't make Live/Love good -- not by a long shot -- but they provide some sorely needed high spots. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Sterling Holloway - Milkman; Celeste Yarnall - Ellen; Eddie Hodges - Delivery Boy; Joan Shawlee - Robbie's Mother; Merri Ashley - 1st Secretary; Benjie Bancroft - 2nd Motorcycle Cop; Emily Banks - Receptionist; Edie Baskin - Model #2; Thordis Brandt - Model; Phyllis Davis - 2nd Secretary; Gabrielle - 3rd Model; Mary Grover - Miss Selfridge; John Hegner - Robbie Pussycat; Susan Henning - Mermaid; Ginny Kaneen - Model #4; Michael Keller - Art Director; Ursula Menzel - Perfume Model; Susan Shute - Model #1; Morgan Windbeil - 1st Motorcycle Cop; Russ Bender - Editor
Credit
George W. Davis - Art Director, Preston Ames - Art Director, Jack Baker - Choreography, Jack Regas - Choreography, Norman Taurog - Director, John McSweeney, Jr. - Editor, Billy Strange - Composer (Music Score), William J. Tuttle - Makeup, Fred Koenekamp - Cinematographer, Douglas Laurence - Producer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Don Greenwood, Jr. - Set Designer, Franklin E. Milton - Sound/Sound Designer, Dan Greenburg - Screenwriter, Michael A. Hoey - Screenwriter, Dan Greenburg - Book Author
Live A Little, Love A Little is a 1968musicalcomedy starring Elvis Presley. It was directed by Norman Taurog, who had directed several previous Presley vehicles; this was his final film. It had a more mature tone than other Presley musicals, with coarse language, drug references, and an implied sexual encounter. The film introduced the song "A Little Less Conversation"; a later re-recording of it would form the basis of a remix that returned Presley to the American music sales charts in the early 2000s.
Elvis's father, Vernon Presley, has an uncredited cameo in one scene.
This film was not released in the UK for unknown reasons; it was released to DVD for the first time in 2007.
Greg Nolan is a newspaper photographer who lives a fun and carefree life. That is, until he meets a headcase named Bernice, who assumes different names and personalities whenever the mood hits her. She manages to lose his job and apartment after drugging him. However, she manages to find him another apartment, and he wants to pay her back. So he gets two photographer jobs: one at a Playboy-like magazine and the other at a very conservative magazine. He now has to manage balancing the two jobs along with dealing with Bernice and her odd ways.
The soundtrack songs were recorded in March 1968 at Western Recorders Inc. in Los Angeles, California. As it had done with an earlier film, Stay Away, Joe, RCA Records chose not to release the songs from this film in EP or full album form. Instead, "A Little Less Conversation" and "Almost in Love" were issued in September 1968 on a single (47-9610) that failed to make the Top 40, while "Edge of Reality" appeared the next month on the B-side of the single for "IF I Can Dream" (47-9670). The film's opening song, "Wonderful World", appeared in the compilation Elvis Sings Flaming Star, which after an initial promotional release in November 1968 was widely released in April 1969.
In June 1968, Presley re-recorded "A Little Less Conversation" during the production of what would come to be known as Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special. This version, which uses a harder-driving arrangement than the one recorded for the film, was not used in the special, and was not officially released by RCA until 1998. In 2002, a remix of the TV Special version of the song became a major hit. It was also used as the theme song for the 2003-2008 television series Las Vegas (TV series).
