Director Richard Thorpe
Starring Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy
Rated PG
Score 4/6

After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.

I am certain that I have not reviewed an Elvis Presley movie for The Movie Boards, so suppose considering that his birthday is on January 8th it’s a good enough reason to review one (maybe two). For those of you who might be interested Jailhouse Rock was released in 1957 and was the third movie Presley starred in. When I think of Elvis movies, I guess I tend to think of the movies that he released in the mid to late 60’s, so I was a little shocked to see how young Elvis looked in this movie. He was only 22 at the time. Also, for those of you who might avoid a movie because it’s a ‘musical’ it should be noted that even though there is singing throughout the movie there is only one dance number (for Jailhouse Rock) in the entire movie.
I got the impression with Presley’s performance that perhaps he might have been still finding his feet as an actor. What I really liked about the movie was the chemistry he had with Judy Tyler which was very much a ‘Will they? Won’t they?’ kind of relationship.
Mickey Shaugnessy who portrayed Hunk Houghton had an interesting look (sitting here writing I thought perhaps he had the look more of a prison enforcer then that of a prison kingpin) though what I really liked him was singing voice.