Spinout

Elvis is harried by three, count 'em, three marriage-minded dames in Spinout, in which he plays a race car driver/rock & roll singer. He's offered big bucks to compromise his lifestyle by playing a party for a rich girl (frequent co-star Shelley Fabares) and drive a millionaire's prototype car, but Elvis isn't tempted by material gain. (Sort of an inverse plot to EP's real showbiz career.) Most of the picture has the flat, studio-bound look that director Norman Taurog perfected in his many Presley vehicles, with only the big race scene in the last 10 minutes perking things up. However, the songs are rockin'-er than usual for a mid-Elvis movie, with "Stop, Look and Listen," "I'll Be Back," and "Adam and Evil" all fun in a dragstrip kind of way. (Let us ignore "Smorgasbord.") Elvis is in his chunky pre-comeback form here, and looks understandably bored by the plot. --Robert Horton