KING CREOLE **

To say that "King Creole" is Elvis Presley's best picture isn't really saying much for whatever else Elvis was he was never an actor. Actually, I much prefer Siegel's outstanding and underrated western "Flaming Star" and the nonsensical but hugely enjoyable "Jailhouse Rock"but this was Michael Curtiz and the source material was the trashy but serious best-seller "A Stone for Danny Fisher" by Harold Robbins. It also had the best cast of any Elvis film, including a couple of Oscar  winners, (Dean Jagger as Elvis' father and Walter Matthau as a mobster). Then there was Carolyn Jones as the vamp who turns our hero's head, Vic Morrow as a thug, Paul Stewart as a club owner and Miss Sweetness and Light herself, Dolores Hart as the girl Elvis falls for. Miss Hart must have taken her good girl role seriously since she was to take the veil shortly afterwards. It's reasonably entertaining and is very crisply photographed by Russell Harlan. The New Orleans setting also helps and the songs are pretty good.