Elvis started work on “King Creole” in January 1958, after successfully arranging a deferment of his induction into the US Army.
The movie is often considered by critics and fans as Elvis’ finest acting performance and the peak of his early career.
“King Creole” is based on the Harold Robbins novel “A Stone for Danny Fisher”, about a troubled youngster who finds success in boxing. The role was originally intended for James Dean, who had been killed in a car accident in 1955. Elvis was an admirer of James Dean, and in his early movies, comparisons between the two were often drawn. When the “King Creole” was given to Elvis, the story was adapted from Danny Fisher being a boxer to a singer.
The movie opens with Danny singing “Crawfish” with a street vendor. It becomes clear that the family is not living in the best area of New Orleans. It is Danny’s last day of school, and his father and sister expect him to graduate. But before he goes to school, he must work to clean up in a Bourbon Street bar. On this occasion, Danny encounters two drunk men and a drunk lady still in the bar from the night before. They want entertainment, and the lady asks Danny to sing his school song. When the men turn violent towards the lady, Danny comes to her aid, quickly smashing bottles on a table with the intent of using them as weapons should he need to, whilst the two of them escape the bar.
It turns out that the lady, Ronnie (played by Caroyln Jones), is the unwilling girlfriend of the bar owner and New Orleans gangster Maxie Fields (played by Walter Matthau). Danny and Ronnie get a taxi, and Danny is dropped off at the school. Ronnie insists that Danny kiss her before she leaves. Danny does so, witnessed by others at the school gates. One student makes a smart comment, so Danny punches him.
This leads to Danny failing to graduate. When he goes back to the club in the evening to work as a bar boy, Ronnie enters with Maxie. Danny says hello to her, much to Maxie’s annoyance. When Ronnie tells Maxie that she heard him sing once, Maxie forces Danny to sing in the bar. Danny impressively belts out “Trouble”. Charlie LeGrand (Paul Stewart) witnesses the performance. Charlie is the owner of the King Creole club, the only club on the street in which Maxie has not got his hands in the till. Charlie offers Danny a job as a singer, which he accepts despite his father’s objections. Before taking up the job, Danny is confronted by the older brother of the boy Danny punched in school, known as Shark (Vic Morrow) who attacks him. Danny comfortably defends himself, and Shark encourages him to join their gang. In need of money, Danny agrees, and he distracts shop assistants and customers in a five-and-dime store that the gang robs by singing “Lover Doll” whilst the rest of the gang steal from the counters. Only the girl at the refreshments counter, Nellie (played by Dolores Hart), realises what happened. Nellie is attracted to Danny despite his involvement in the robbery and keeps quiet about it. The two end up dating.
Danny goes to work at the King Creole and proves to be a big hit. Meanwhile, Danny’s sister Mimi (Jan Shepard) and Charlie begin dating, and Danny’s success at the King Creole starts to put Charlie on a better financial footing.
This irritates Maxie Fields. It turns out that Shark and his gang are working for Maxie, with Shark being the lead thug. Maxie and Shark devise a plan that allows Maxie to blackmail Danny into leaving the King Creole and get Danny to return to work for him. This involves robbing a drugstore where Danny’s father is working, but also being bullied by the manager. Shark persuades Danny to be the lookout. On the night, Danny changes his mind, but the robbery goes ahead. Instead of attacking the manager as planned, it is Danny’s father who is attacked. He is seriously injured. Maxie pays the medical bill. He uses this to blackmail Danny, threatening to inform his father that Danny was in on the robbery unless Danny comes to work for him.
Danny and Ronnie start to grow close, both being in similar positions, stuck with Maxie.
When Danny’s father goes to see Maxie to try and persuade Maxie to let him go back to work at the King Creole, as Mimi and Charlie intend to marry and because of Charlie’s financial situation, he needs Danny back at the club as his star attraction. Shark turns up whilst Danny’s father is with Maxie, and Danny’s father recognises him. Maxie is cornered into telling Danny’s father about Danny’s involvement in the robbery.
When Danny finds out Maxie has double-crossed him, he attacks him, leaving him knocked out on the floor of his living room. When Maxie comes round, he calls on his thugs to find Danny. This leads to a more serious fight between Danny and Shark. Danny is wounded, but Shark ends up dead. When Danny’s father refuses to help the wounded Danny, Ronnie comes to his aid. They escape to a hideaway that Ronnie believes is secret from Maxie. However, after a few days, Maxie discovers where Ronnie might be leading to a shootout, which leaves both Ronnie and Maxie dead. With this all behind him and the truth coming out about what really happened, Danny returns to the King Creole, and his father forgives him, turning up at the club to see Danny singing “As Long as I Have You”.
It is a rock ‘n’ roll movie with a terrific storyline, a great supporting cast, and packed with great music that infuses a little bit of jazz into rock ‘n’ roll on songs like “Trouble” and “Dixieland Rock”.
The movie generated phenomenally successful singles, including “Hard Headed Woman” and “King Creole” plus two extended play (EP) volumes, and a soundtrack album.
Importantly, Elvis earned respect from movie critics.
Billboard wrote, “Elvis Presley’s new film shapes up as a box-office winner. It’s got plenty of action and characterisation, and the star gives his best acting performance to date. As Danny, Presley exhibits improved histrionics, delivering many moving and tense moments. Carolyn Jones is a knockout as a fallen thrush who would like to love him; their aborted romance gives the pic its finest scenes.”
Variety declared that the film “shows the young star as a better than fair actor.”
The New York Times wrote, “Mr Presley, in his third screen attempt, it’s a pleasure to find him up to a little more than Bourbon Street shoutin’ and wigglin’. Acting is his assignment in this shrewdly upholstered showcase, and he does it, so help us over a picket fence.”
The reference to the movie being Elvis’ third attempt in the New York Times was incorrect, as it was Elvis’s fourth appearance in a movie. It was, however, Elvis’s third starring role, as his headline-grabbing appearance in “Love Me Tender” was considered a supporting role to Richard Egan. The comments, though, were signs of a shift in the attitude of critics towards the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
“King Creole” had set a new benchmark for rock ‘n’ roll movies, and for Elvis; however, Elvis’s career was interrupted by army service. After two years in the army, Elvis returned to a world where rock ‘n’ roll had lost its rebelliousness, and Elvis’s movies post-army took a different path.
