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From Amazon.co.uk
Through photos, stock footage and film trailer clips, Elvis: The Complete Story offers a chronological survey of the life and movie career of "The King". This is a pretty well-travelled road--so well travelled this disc would be more aptly titled Elvis for Beginners. There are all the usual landmarks, especially his relationship with his mother, the oppressive influence of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, the drug use, the Memphis Mafia. One major highlight is Elvis's appearance on The Frank Sinatra Show, in which the two perform a duet. The disc gets additional credibility from interviews with some of Elvis's co-stars, including Mary Ann Mobley, Francine York, Sue Ann Langdon, Gary Lockwood and Julie Parrish. About half of the narration is presented in "the words of Elvis Presley", though the source of these words is never identified. Still, the actor impersonating the voice of Elvis does a good job with what could have easily turned into silliness. After all, the film would not be "complete" without at least one Elvis impersonator (and this one has two). If this whets your appetite for more Elvis, you will want to turn to the real thing--Elvis: That's the Way It Is. --Jim Gay, Amazon.com
Product Description
The meteoric rise to fame of Elvis Presley, legendary stage and screen performer, is detailed in this documentary chronicling his 33 film performances. After his big-screen debut in 'Love Me Tender', the King impressed with his dramatic performance in 'Jailhouse Rock', only to appear in a series of lightweight musical comedies at the behest of his manager, 'Colonel' Tom Parker. The final years of Elvis' career saw him using the medium to provide an account of life on the road in 'Elvis on Tour' and 'That's the Way It Is'. Highlights from Elvis' many memorable performances combine here with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with co-stars.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:DVD
... The picture quality is bad and the MPEG-soundtrack sounds awful. In some places you are hardly able to hear the narration due to a bad mixing and soundtrack is also made worse by a horrible Elvis-imitator who actually sounds like he's doing a parody. Not a single Elvis-song is heard during the whole show. The programme is basically filled with movietrailers. Elvis' recording career is totally missing. There are only few interviews with Elvis' co-stars but these are all very short and add absolutely nothing new to the story. My advise to anyone thinking of buying this is save your hard earnt money.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Quite well put together this 2 hour dvd concentrates mainly on the film career of Elvis although there is some interesting early B/W footage from the early days and footage of the sad decline of "the king" from 1974 onwards. From the early classics like Loving You Jailhouse Rock and the wonderful King Creole ... through the big movie years of GI Blues and Blue Hawaii and onwards through the sixties with the never ending "made in three weeks" fun movies which so demeaned this great artist ... and those missed opportunities that Col. Tom Parker believed would damage Elvis's career. I wonder what would have happened if Elvis had done a film with Robert Mitchum or starred with Streisand in A Star Is Born ?? ... who knows ?? An interesting film, if not a little depressing but one Elvis fans should get.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.2 out of 5 stars
5 reviews
39 of 42 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Making a few bucks with stock footage and phony voice over.
1 Mar 2000
By Eduardo Middleton K.
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
I'm quite dissapointed about this dvd. It is like a dull B movie compared to other rockumentaries. Even though the film actually shows trailers or scenes from all his 33 movies, the "substance" of this film comes from gossip or second hand info from books published long ago. Other than that, nothing new. The voice over is done by a second hand rate impersonator that seems like he's doing a parody of Elvis. It would be better that there were other dvds from Elvis like Elvis On Tour or films like Blue Hawaii, Flaming Star, Fun in Acapulco or Girls, Girls, Girls. Don't waste your money...
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
I don't like it.
30 Oct 2001
By George
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
There's a lot of rare footage in this film, the only problem is that it has an overdub of someone saying Elvis quotes all through the documentary and the guys trying to sound like Elvis and he fails. If we got more rare footage and removed the annoying impersonator overdub, this would be a nice movie for your collection. It does however mark the first time that anything from Elvis in Concert appeared on DVD (even though there's no audio). Nice addition to an Elvis collection but not something you'll watch often.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst Elvis documentary in recorded history
20 Mar 2007
By Robert D. Raymond
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:DVD
Ladies and gentlemen, the winner for worst Elvis documentary ever made is......(drum roll)..."Elvis: The Complete Story"! (no applause heard) If you are an absolute completest, you will be forced to get this (at least it's cheap). Otherwise, run from this dvd like a scared little girl. It is partially narrated by a guy trying, and failing, to sound like Elvis. It is a film straight out of the worst tabloids. It takes considerable liberties with a little thing I like to call REALITY! It sets up Elvis as the naive country hick mammas boy stumbling through the greatest career in showbiz history like Forrest Gump.His mother as the loud overbearing pill popping alcoholic who is always fighting with his drunk, skirt chasing father. Elvis' manager, Col. Tom Parker is painted as the vile, evil villain who robs Elvis blind and blackmails him with revealling the sorted "truth" of his mothers death to the public. You will wonder how Elvis managed to become the greatest superstar of all time with his manager doing everything in his power to destroy Elvis' career.
This miserable excuse for a documentary goes from ridiculous to horrible. If you are very knowledgeable of the story of Elvis' life, you might find this funny. If you aren't, it is a terrible misguiding thing to watch. I must own close to fifty shows on Elvis, and this is the absolute worst due to the alterations or exaggerations of the truth. Elvis wasn't perfect, but the info presented here is simply wrong, facts are mixed up or reality is scewed to paint an ugly picture. His legacy deserves more respect.
Do yourself a favor, go elsewhere. The rare footage mentioned in other reviews is available lots of other places. The Sinatra Show is available on dvd in its entirety here at Amazon, footage from Elvis in Concert is available with sound, on the "Elvis the Great Performances" box set, or volume one of that set sold alone and sub titled "Center Stage". The movie trailers are also available on a dvd themselves. Contact me if you want to know where to find any footage you think is on this dvd.
This dvd does not deserve a single star rating, unfortunately that's as low as we can go. Amazon needs to offer a "turkey" option.
This miserable excuse for a documentary goes from ridiculous to horrible. If you are very knowledgeable of the story of Elvis' life, you might find this funny. If you aren't, it is a terrible misguiding thing to watch. I must own close to fifty shows on Elvis, and this is the absolute worst due to the alterations or exaggerations of the truth. Elvis wasn't perfect, but the info presented here is simply wrong, facts are mixed up or reality is scewed to paint an ugly picture. His legacy deserves more respect.
Do yourself a favor, go elsewhere. The rare footage mentioned in other reviews is available lots of other places. The Sinatra Show is available on dvd in its entirety here at Amazon, footage from Elvis in Concert is available with sound, on the "Elvis the Great Performances" box set, or volume one of that set sold alone and sub titled "Center Stage". The movie trailers are also available on a dvd themselves. Contact me if you want to know where to find any footage you think is on this dvd.
This dvd does not deserve a single star rating, unfortunately that's as low as we can go. Amazon needs to offer a "turkey" option.
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Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews
2.2 out of 5 stars
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