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The Elvis Film Encyclopedia
Author: Eric Braun
Published in paperback by The Overlook Press, New York
ISBN 0-87951-814-6
What a pity that Elvis fans are still being presented with nonsense such as this!
To be fair, "The Elvis Film Encyclopedia" does list all of Elvis's films and provides a largely accurate and reasonably detailed synopsis of each. The main actors in each film are listed, though their roles are not shown, other than when they are specifically referred to elsewhere in the text. The synopsis is followed by the author's own comments about the film (though such comments are absent for "Paradise Hawaiian Style") and then by an often strange list of the songs performed in the film. Strange because the list is headed by the soundtrack recording title and catalogue number (and only vinyl releases are referred to — very strange for a book published in 1997!), but the list itself appears to deal with the numbers as performed in the film, though they are listed in soundtrack order! Confusing to say the least. And it gets worse, as readers are informed that some numbers have never been released, or were never even recorded, whereas they in fact appeared in the Double Features CD series of a few years ago (examples include "Dominic" and "Dainty Little Moonbeams"). Braun also provides a list of the various singles, EP's, and albums on which each track appears, but this list is neither complete nor consistent: why on earth state the "Wooden Heart" was released on a single together with "Love Me" (under "G.I. Blues") and that it was released as a single with " Puppet On a String " (under "Girl Happy"), without ever mentioning its standard issue, coupled with "Tonight Is So Right For Love"? And why indicate that a number of songs were issued on rare promotional releases, such as the "Clambake" EP, without actually indicating that these are indeed rare releases?
On the positive side, as far as Braun's discussion of the soundtracks is concerned, as indicated above, he describes each song's place and how it is sung in its respective film. This perhaps helps to explain the sometimes unusual ratings: presumably the author is judging a number not solely on its musical merits, but also on its relevance within its movie. But even here Braun falls down by sometimes incorrectly describing the scene in which a number is performed — his description for "Santa Lucia" bears no resemblance at all to the comedy scene in which it actually appears, for example.
The information supplied in this "Encyclopedia" is so often incorrect as to destroy any faith in the whole. It would require an article of almost the same length as the book to present all the errors, so here are just a few for you to consider: Braun states that D.J. Fontana had a fantastic bass voice and was the leader of the Stamps, a group that had been with Elvis from the beginning; Hal Wallis did not work with Elvis again after "G.I. Blues" (even though the preceding entry is for "Fun In Acapulco," and guess who produced that!); Elvis wrote "Hurt" the year before he recorded it; Scotty Moore wrote "Return To Sender" as well as several other film numbers recorded by Elvis; Elvis's character in "King Creole" was Danny Stone; "Dixieland Rock" does not appear on the "King Creole" soundtrack album.
And if you think that "The Elvis Film Encyclopedia" would be the ideal place to find information about co-stars in Elvis's films, then think again! Okay, there is the occasional entry (Donald Woods and Elsa Lanchester, for instance), but try to find entries for the likes of Shelley Fabares, Ursula Andress, Michelle Carey, Carolyn Jones, Mary Tyler Moore, Arthur O'Connell, Walter Matthau or even Ann-Margret, to name but a very few of the most prominent, and you will be sorely disappointed! But then again, if you want to know about Mae West (who declined an offer to appear in an Elvis film), Gracie Fields (who once made a comment about Elvis) or Cliff Richard (but you'll have to look under "K" for "Knight, King and Movies"), no problem — there are profuse entries for each of these, as well as for several other obscure characters whose direct relationship with Elvis films is equally obscure!
And talking about the strange classification of Cliff Richard under "K", where would you look for information about Dixie Lock? Now I know you probably wouldn't look for her in a film encyclopaedia, but she is actually here, though not under the "L" — that would be too easy! No, "The Elvis Film Encyclopedia" has an entry for Dixie, along with several other of Elvis's flings, under "Girls, Girls, Girls (not the film)".
Unfortunately, the author, who genuinely seems to have an interest in the history of films, cannot even get the names of actors and other prominent personages right! Marlyn Mason becomes Marilyn Mason, Jerry Leiber is constantly referred to as Jerry Lieber, Bill Belew becomes Tom Belew, Currie Grant is James Curry, Lizabeth Scott is here Elisabeth Scott and Geraldo Rivera is Geraldo Rivers! And these are only some of the many instances!
As one would expect, "The Elvis Film Encyclopedia" is illustrated. Unfortunately, the quality of the illustrations leaves as much to be desired as the quality of the textual information. The first main photo, showing Elvis and Ann-Margret picnicking together, looks as if the photographer had a bad case of nerves and was shaking uncontrollably, and there are photos of soundtrack album covers that are badly scanned or badly cropped, resulting in poor reproduction and oblong "Clambake" and "Roustabout" LP covers! If the author indeed "...had access to some of the most extensive collections of Elvis Presley stills and memorabilia in private hands today," as is indicated on the back cover, then it is a pity that he did not make use of this privileged position.
Can anything good be said about "The Elvis Film Encyclopedia"? Well, the paper is of a good quality, and the film synopses are excellent (though even these contain inaccuracies — Elvis did not fight a tiger in "Harem Holiday", for example — tigers don't have spots!). Unfortunately, however it fails on just too many points. Firstly, I had expected more information that was in fact pertinent to the title of the book: far more information about co-stars, producers, directors should have been included at the very least. To some extent, this might be forgivable, were the information which is included accurate, but there are just so many errors (the ones I have mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg, believe me) that one is forced to doubt everything and that is simply unacceptable in what purports to be a reference book. Furthermore, one must question the relevance of a number of entries in this so-called film encyclopaedia (definitely a misnomer as far as this publication is concerned!). For example, "Pearl and Tony" is a more than half-page entry about a couple who run one of the branches of the UK's OEPFC; an admirable activity, I admit, and I am sure that Pearl and Tony carry it out to the best of their ability, but I just don't see why this justifies an entry in this particular book.
If you're looking for worthwhile information about Elvis's films and related topics, there are several other books which are more useful and more accurate. "The Elvis Film Encyclopedia", however, is definitely one to avoid!
David G. Neale
Copyright 1997