CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

TheLittleSongbird 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

tilloscfc I've been an Elvis Presley fan since the age of 6 - that's almost 30 years, and yet I only saw 'Clambake' for the first time last week then again just before. What's the old proverb of waiting so long for a bus and then... I'd always been put off buying or even watching 'Clambake' due to the poor reviews it's always had from pretty much EVERYBODY Elvis himself and members of the support cast. But I was pleasantly surprised by it! Again, I don't think it's as bad as other films he did like "Tickle Me", "Frankie and Johnny", "Harum Scarum", "Blue Hawaii", "Girls! Girls! Girls!", "The Trouble with Girls" or the three westerns...maybe it's merely timing. One thing I can agree on is that Elvis looks his worst than in any movie he made for the first half of the movie, which was filmed when Elvis was not in good health, spirits and subsequently had a nasty fall at Graceland that suspended filming for 6 weeks in which he was told to recover (and get himself straight) - thus the second half of the film you see a much fresher, healthier, better looking Elvis although the obvious use of diet pills is...well that's another debate away from the movie that Elvis fans will have long and hard. I think this is a decent movie. I once heard dancing extra Terri Garr brand 'Clambake' as "a movie about nothing.",,,but...it is about something? It builds up toward a power boat race at the end, to which Elvis (Scott Haywood) is rebuilding a damaged boat from the year before, and win over Shelley Fabaras (Dianne Carter) - in her third Presley movie. It has the interesting sub plot of Haywood meeting a cash strapped Tom Wilson at a garage at the start of the film. Elvis/Haywood is playing the son of an oil billionaire and is concerned that women are only interested in him for his money rather than his personality. The skint Wilson wants the women but they're not interested in him because he has no money or that rich lifestyle...so en route to Miami, the two men decide to travel together, swap identities and vehicles and "see how the other half lives" which puts an interesting spin on things, for as Wilson is lapping up the playboy lifestyle that he has inherited, Elvis is struggling to land Dianne...because she's only interested in finding a rich man, therefore has her eyes on millionaire power boat champion, Bill Bixby. The soundtrack to 'Clambake' is pretty good, aside from the cringe worthy, dire "Who Needs Money?" that Haywood and Wilson duet on after swapping identities and lifestyles. "Clambake" is not a bad song, if a little daft. "Confidence" is just a kids song in the mould of Willy Wonka's "The Candy Man" and accompanies a nice scene where Elvis and his new friend Wilson are entertaining kids at a playground, but the three stand out tracks are all ballads - "A House That Has Everything" is a smooth, sexy song, "You Don't Know Me" a great cover of the Ray Charles classic, "The Girl I Never Loved" the song of the film. Throughout the film, Dianne appears to be wanting Haywood...but the gold digger craves the flashy Bixby. However, come the race, she's almost been converted and instead of cheering on her lover to another victory, instead ends up roaring Elvis to an expected last gasp win! After that, the two lead men return their identities and back to their normal lifestyles with Wilson now carrying the title of "1967 Miami Power Boat Champion" thanks to Haywood (Elvis)' exploits. The next morning, Dianne commits her future with Haywood and passes out at the news of the icing on the cake...he's filthy rich anyway!

beauzee 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!).

SanteeFats This Elvis film is a cut above the usual ones. There is more acting depth, better writing, good humor, and of course the music is fine. Elvis swaps place with a conveniently met ski instructor while on his way away from his rich father to prove himself. Will Hutchins plays the now rich oil son and is really funny. Shelley Fabares is the love interest who starts out as a gold digger looking for a rich husband. She finds one in Bill Bixby who plays a smarmy, smug, rich butt. He proposes but by this time she has fallen for Elvis, naturally. Elvis's father is played by long time actor James Gregory and he is his usual professional actor. As with most Elvis movies, especially those with beach scenes, there are lots of T and A and bikinis.