Easy Come, Easy Go (1967 film)

Easy Come, Easy Go is a 1967 American musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley. Hal Wallis produced the film for Paramount Pictures, and it was Wallis' final production with Presley. The film co-starred Dodie Marshall, Pat Harrington, Jr., Pat Priest, Elsa Lanchester, and Frank McHugh. (It was McHugh's last feature film.) The movie reached #50 on the Variety magazine national box office list in 1967.[4]

Easy Come, Easy Go
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Rich
Produced byHal B. Wallis
Written by
  • Allan Weiss
  • Anthony Lawrence
Starring
Music byJoseph J. Lilley
CinematographyWilliam Margulies
Edited byArchie Marshek
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • March 22, 1967 (1967-03-22) (USA)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,000,000
Box office$1,950,000(US/ Canada)[1][2][3]

Easy Come, Easy Go, Presley's twenty-third film, was released on March 22, a mere two weeks before his twenty-fourth, Double Trouble, released on April 5. However, Double Trouble was filmed before Easy Come, Easy Go.

Plot

United States Navy officer Lieutenant Junior Grade (j.g.) Ted Jackson (Elvis Presley) is a former U.S. Navy frogman who divides his time between twin careers as a deep sea diver and nightclub singer. Ted discovers what he believes could be a fortune in Spanish gold aboard a sunken ship and sets out to rescue it with the help of go-go dancing yoga expert Jo Symington (Dodie Marshall) and friend Judd Whitman (Pat Harrington, Jr.). Gil Carey (Skip Ward), however, is also after the treasure and uses his girlfriend Dina Bishop (Pat Priest) to foil Ted's plans.

Presley sings six songs in the movie: the title song, "I'll Take Love", "Sing You Children", "You Gotta Stop", "Yoga Is as Yoga Does" in a duet with Elsa Lanchester, and "The Love Machine". The film would be the first starring Presley that had a ballad-free soundtrack since his 1956 film debut, Love Me Tender. Despite this, only 30,000 copies were sold, making it the worst selling record that Elvis ever released for RCA Victor.[5]

Cast
  • Elvis Presley as Ted Jackson
  • Dodie Marshall as Jo Symington
  • Pat Priest as Dina Bishop
  • Pat Harrington, Jr. as Judd Whitman
  • Skip Ward as Gil Carey
  • Sandy Kenyon as Schwartz
  • Frank McHugh as Captain Jack
  • Ed Griffith as Cooper
  • Read Morgan as Ensign Tompkins
  • Mickey Elley as Ensign Whitehead
  • Elaine Beckett as Vicki
  • Shari Nims as Mary
  • Diki Lerner as Zoltan
  • Robert Isenberg as Artist
  • Elsa Lanchester as Madame Neherina

Mickey Rooney as drunk man

Production

Paramount originally intended to make a movie called Easy Come Easy Go starring Jan and Dean with director Barry Shear but it was cancelled when the stars and several crew were injured in a train crash.[6] The studio decided to use the same title, but a completely different plot.[7]

Principal photography began on October 3, 1966 and finished about a month later.[8]

Soundtrack
Main article: Easy Come, Easy Go (EP)

Reception

Howard Thompson of The New York Times called the film "a tired little clinker that must have been shot during lunch hour" and also criticized it for only including "three measly songs. A pittance!"[9] Variety was more positive, writing: "Good balance of script and songs, plus generally amusing performances by a competent, well-directed cast, add up to diverting entertainment."[10] Roger Ebert gave the film one star out of four and wrote that it was "obviously produced with a minimum of care and with the sole purpose of contriving a plot, any plot, to fill in between when Elvis sings."[11] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film was "aptly summed up in its title: easy to take, easy to forget. Always pleasant, occasionally just plain hokey, it sticks to the familiar Presley formula of songs, pretty girls and a slight plot."[12]

References
  1. "Big Rental Films of 1967", Variety, 3 January 1968 p 25. Please note these figures refer to rentals accruing to the distributors.
  2. "Easy Come, Easy Go, Worldwide Box Office". Worldwide Box Office. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  3. "Easy Come, Easy Go, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  4. Adam Victor, The Elvis Encyclopedia. Overlook, 2008.
  5. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061610/
  6. Martin, Betty (Aug 11, 1965). "MOVIE CALL SHEET: Train Wreck Derails Film". Los Angeles Times. p. d12.
  7. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061610/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
  8. "Easy Come, Easy Go – Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  9. Thompson, Howard (June 15, 1967). "'Easy Come, Easy Go' With Presley in Neighborhood Houses". The New York Times: 56.
  10. "Easy Come, Easy Go". Variety: 6. March 22, 1967.
  11. Ebert, Roger (June 6, 1967). "Easy Come, Easy Go". rogerebert.com. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  12. Thomas, Kevin. "Elvis Stars in 'Easy Come, Easy Go'". Los Angeles Times. March 24, 1967. Part IV, p. 9.
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