Clambake

Elvis's outfits are impressive in 1967's Clambake, especially a groovy, belted sport coat and a cream-colored suit covered with cowhide-style stitching. The costumes are more creative than the soundtrack, which is heavy with the mindlessness of late-period Elvis movies. As he sings "Confidence" (an obvious rip-off of the Oscar-winning "High Hopes"), you can almost see Elvis batting out "Just shoot me" in Morse code with his eyelids. The only decent tune has the star crooning a nice, lonesome version of the standard "You Don't Know Me." This one's set in Florida, but with none of the scenic fun of his Hawaii pictures. He plays a rich oilman's son pretending to be a water-skiing instructor, with Shelley Fabares (a three-time Presley costar) as the girl. The camp highlight is an ensemble number with go-go girls helping Elvis fix a speedboat, which is just about as far from Sun Studios as you can get. --Robert Horton