Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Wuchak Released in 1962, "Kid Galahad" stars Elvis as an ex-GI who returns to his rustic home town in upstate New York looking for employment as a mechanic. He's roped into becoming a boxer by a dubious manager-turned-innkeeper (Gig Young) while catching the eye of his kid sister (Joan Blackman). With the mentorship of his trainer (Charles Bronson), he quickly becomes the top-drawing champion "Kid Galahad." Then the mob tries to muscle in on the action. Lola Albright plays the innkeeper's significant other and assistant.I prefer the more serious Elvis flicks (1964's "Roustabout") to the silly farces (1966's "Spinout") and "Kid Galahad" falls into the former bracket. While boxing is a big part of the plot, don't expect the urban-situated "Rocky" films or "Southpaw" (2015). What sets "Kid Galahad" apart is the setting – the awesome lodge in the mountains. In the story it's supposed to be either the Catskills or Adirondack Mountains, but it's obvious that it was shot out west. Regardless, the locations are exemplary. Beyond that, the story is dramatic and compelling.The movie runs 95 minutes and was shot in Idyllwild, California, with studio work done in Culver City.GRADE: B

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Dale Evans be RAGING BULLS, too? KID GALAHAD asks the question, "What if Justin Bieber were a better singer, and a top-notch prize-fighter, to boot?" Elvis Presley never would have appeared politically correct enough to make the Final Four in national AMER1CAN IDOL voting. However, Mr. Presley had a gentleman in his corner known as "Col. Tom Parker," who ran his own beta version of "Reality TV," starring Elvis in his own "Bum of the Month Club." That is, about once a month, Elvis would show up on the Big Screen, pretending to be a broke scrapper who runs afoul of anyone with Money (and sometimes their law enforcement henchmen), charms the nearest Rich Girl with his singing, and waltzes off into the sunset with his new Sugar Mommy (in usually VERY abrupt endings!). KID GALAHAD fits Col. Parker's formula to a Model T. My copy of this movie says that it's a remake of a 1937 flick starring Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. I would guess that this story in the original version had a lot less crooning, and a lot more BELIEVABLE scrapping.

classicsoncall Comparisons to the 1937 version of "Kid Galahad" are pointless, the only similarity between the two films is the nickname of the title character. It probably suits Elvis Presley a bit better than Wayne Morris, the knight in shining armor who at the film's opening touts his reputation in song as 'King of the Whole Wide World'. The movie's trailer calls it a 'honey of a picture', and for his fans back in the day, maybe so.Events in the story conspire to turn Presley's character Walter Gulick from an ex-GI mechanic into a successful local boxer, thereby earning him a paycheck and the heart of Rose Grogan (Joan Blackman), kid sis of Willy (Gig Young). Together they own the Grogan Gaelic Gardens, an upstate New York resort that can't turn a profit because Willy Grogan is a gambling lush in hock to local hoods.You'd be hard pressed to call this a boxing movie though, Elvis takes turns as a punching bag in virtually every ring scene until he finds the magnetic wonder punch to knock his opponent out. The dramatic set up for Cream Valley's Labor Day extravaganza includes Grogan's encounter with the bad boys who hope to make a killing with bets on the fight. Kid Galahad comes through, but you knew that, this is the King's movie.There are some interesting casting surprises here, highlighted by Charles Bronson's turn as Galahad's trainer, and a very early film appearance by the uncredited Ed Asner. Gig Young is generally competent as Grogan, while female leads Lola Albright and Joan Blackman don't have a lot to do except play off their respective boyfriends. Albright's Dolly Fletcher gets to fire off an effective one liner defending Elvis' character when she starts to lose patience for Grogan's marriage delays.Every now and then you'll catch an art deco tease with vivid reds, yellow and blues interspersed with Presley's songs. All are fairly mellow tunes; the "I Got Lucky" number brought a chuckle as I imagined it being performed in a corn field instead of by the side of a lake. You know, the slow twist accompaniment seemed a bit, well, corny.Hey, it's not a bad little flick and a better way to remember Elvis by than the bloated self destructive image he came to bear in the years before his death. A bit of escapist entertainment that in it's way echoes Dolly Fletcher's sentiment early in the film - "Thanks Galahad".

nancyann56 This was an Elvis movie with some drama, some comedy, some music. It was a little more than the formula movies and had some good fights. Mushy Callahan a boxing coach who coached all the big stars into the 60s for fight movies said of all the actors he coached " Elvis was best, quick hands, knew karate and judo...."Great so-stars and scenery. If its not Rocky or even Rocky 5 its an enjoyable escape. The few songs are pleasant including "I Got Lucky" and "A Whistling Tune" Reportedly Charles Bronson was not very friendly to Elvis. Joan Blackman also made "Blue Hawaii" with Elvis. If you want a diversion on a rainy Sunday this is a possibility.