Tom Lisanti

I am a bit late on this , but with all the Elvis movie marathons I thought I would share my top 5 1960s Elvis movies. My ranking as changed over the last few years and I know I will get grief over this but as of today my favorites stand as:

1. Paradise, Hawaiian Style (high flying Elvis, gorgeous Hawaiian scenery, catchy songs, Marianna Hill, Irene Tsu, Suzanna Leigh, and a bevy of even more beauties, what more can you ask for?)
2. Roustabout (Elvis as a tight black jean clad biker meets carny owner Barbara Stanwyck in a rousing carnival setting backed by Joan Freeman and Sue Ane Langdon, ‘nough said.)
3. Girl Happy (The title says it all with Elvis and his combo on Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale where the girls are: Shelley Fabares, Mary Ann Mobley, Chris Noel, Lyn Edgington, Gail Gerber, Nancy Czar, Pamela Curran.)
4. Kid Galahad (Elvis goes dramatic to excellent affect as a returning G.I. who becomes a sparring partner at a boxing camp run by Gig Young. Guess who wins the big fight and gets the girl, Joan Blackman, by fadeout?)
5. Kissin’ Cousins (An amusing hillbilly hoedown with not one but two Elvi as a brunette service man and his brainadled blonde cousin whose family owns mountain land that those varmit government types want to buy. With Yvonne Craig and Pamela Austin as barefootin’ Daisy Maes dark-haired Elvis cannot seem to be able to choose. Best scene is watching Elvis wrestle himself.)

Honorable Mention: Blue Hawaii; Clambake; Easy Come, Easy Go

Happy New Year from all the ’60s beach/Elvis/biker/hippie/spy/western movie actresses & actors found in my BearManor Media and McFarland & Company book!

[amazon_textlink asin=’B00005Y6Z5′ text=’Wild Guitar’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’44797bdd-e2aa-11e8-89f1-2b0716d10253′] opened in 1962 starring [amazon_textlink asin=’B002WJZWCI’ text=’Arch Hall, Jr.’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’54c1bab3-e2aa-11e8-b765-876225fa9f7e’] and Nancy Czar, [amazon_textlink asin=’B071764GRZ’ text=’Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’6c3e4d6b-e2aa-11e8-9328-fb864eb18a38′] cover gal. It was directed by Ray Dennis Steckler a.k.a. Cash Flagg and produced and written [amazon_textlink asin=’B000GW2BHM’ text=’Arch Hall, Sr.’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’7c953112-e2aa-11e8-88be-1fb498401b84′]  A dancer trying to make it big in Hollywood, Vicki (Czar) meets at the Coffee Cup Cafe (shamelessly decorated with posters from Arch Hall, Sr.’s previous movies) the newly arrived Bud Eagle (Hall, Jr.) described as “a guitar-playing, motorcycle-riding hipster” who comes to the big city from South Dakota to become a rock ‘n’ roll star. Feeling sorry for him as he spends his last fifteen cents on coffee and a donut, she offers her sandwich, which he gulps down heartily. When she finds out he is a musician, she invites him to accompany her to The Hal Kenton Show, a national talent program. Steckler (whom Nancy described as being “a real trip”) directed these scenes rather oddly with medium shots of Czar sitting at the counter looking up and speaking her lines it seemed to the Klieg lights.

On the TV program, Vicki twists with abandon in a solo while Bud watches from the wings. As luck would have it, an ailing singer bows out and Bud takes his place stealing the show. He is signed by promoter Mike McCauley (William Watters aka Arch Hall, Sr.). He allows Bud to live in a penthouse apartment, with private swimming pool, but asserts complete authority over the boy including prohibiting him to meet back up with Vicki at the café. Instead, McCauley sends his weird beady-eyed associate Steak (Steckler) to retrieve Bud’s belongings. Steak lies to Bud that Vicki was a no-show and that Marge the waitress (Marie Denn) hit him up for $10 to get his suitcase back. In reality, Vicki was there and deeply disappointed that Bud stood her up and never mentioned her according to Steak. She shows up back at the café a few weeks later still crestfallen. Marge plays Bud’s first single on the jukebox for her and she then heads to a record store to buy a copy.

Bud is feeling gloomy too when he learns McCauley has paid off high school students to start up his fan clubs across LA. “Does everything have to be so phony,” he asks. When Bud says he has had it and is returning home, McCauley pretends to agree and then mentions the $50,000 he invested in Bud to make him a star. The boy falls for his lie and agrees to stick around for six months to earn the money back. Bud becomes the newest teen sensation and on a national TV show croons “Vicki” a love song to the girl that got away.  Vicki sits at home watching and is touched by the feeling he puts into the tune. She hightails it over to the studio and the couple reunites. Instead of heading to the nearest motel, they go ice skating—in Los Angeles! Obviously this was to show off Czar’s expert skating skills, which she does quite nicely.

The next day, Bud receives a late night drunken visit from former singer and McCauley client Don Proctor (Robert Crumb) who schools Bud to the ways of his manager’s shady dealings including how he cheats his protégés out of royalties. Proctor ends up unconscious at the bottom of a stairwell at the hands of Steak, while Vicki catches Bud in the arms of a sexpot hired to seduce him. While running after his love, Bud is jumped by three low-lives that hang around the Coffee Cup Café and is kidnapped. The bunglers have no idea what to do so Bud helps them out writing his own ransom note demanding $15,000. After retrieving the money, the trio is followed by Steak. A melee starts and Bud slips away. Hiding out, he takes a job as a dishwasher at Marge’s diner where he reunites again with Vicki.

A clean-cut young man shows up at McCauley’s office and for $20 reveals Bud’s whereabouts. He turns out to be Bud’s brother Ted and he secretly tapes McCauley while he threatens Bud and Vicki with violence if the singer tries to get a new manager or doesn’t show up at the scheduled gigs.  Bud gets to beat the crap out of Steak, but decides to stay with McCauley, due to his “smarts,” with a renegotiated contract. McCauley’s first idea is to put Bud and Vicki into a movie about the Twist. Wild Guitar ends on the beach with Bud singing “Twist Fever” with Vicki, inexplicably clad in a man’s shirt over her swimsuit, shimmying besides him.

Hall, Sr. and Jr. made a few popular thought less-then-stellar movies (The Choppers, Eegah, and The Nasty Rabbit) and Wild Guitar is arguably the most admired due to the straightforward storytelling (somewhat aping true life as it was reported that Hall, Jr. never wanted to act and was pushed into it by his father) and the energetic twisting by Nancy Czar who also has a nice believable rapport with Hall. They make quite a cute couple.

Pretty blonde Nancy Czar (born Nancy Jean Czarnecki in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) went from champion figure skater to Elvis’ girlfriend to actress all by the time she was twenty. However, unlike many of Presley’s former lovers and co-stars who give interviews and attend Elvis conventions, Nancy Czar (who had small parts in his musicals Girl Happy and Spinout), has been tight lipped about her relationship with the King until now. Besides working with Elvis, Czar had leading roles in Wild Guitar starring Arch Hall, Jr. and the beach-party-in-the-snow Winter a-Go-Go.

Commenting in Wild Guitar, Nancy Czar said,

Arch Hall, Jr. was very nice and recently got in touch with me after all these years. Arch Hall, Sr. was just as sweet and shot this movie with practically no money. Since I was an ice skater they purposely wrote in an ice skating scene.

You wouldn’t believe what a huge following this film. It is funnier than hell to me. I think most of it is because the second unit photographer was [amazon_textlink asin=’B00DJZNLUE’ text=’Vilmos Zsigmond’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’906f6ff6-e2aa-11e8-95b4-43c2e1f5fb97′] who is one of today’s top cinematographers in the entire business. Film schools study his film technique and this is one of his earliest jobs. I never looked at the movie other than looking at the movie until I started to really look at it. For its small budget it does not look like other B-films at the time. I never knew why until I realized it was due to Vilmos’ exemplary work on it.

With [amazon_textlink asin=’B004CZZZ7W’ text=’Winter a-Go-Go’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’bd9b8313-dca5-11e8-8cd2-5fc2cfdc5fa2′] opening this week 53 years ago in 1965, I want to pay tribute to actor/screenwriter Bob Kanter who inadvertently or not created the arguably first gay character in the 1960s teenage beach movie genre and cast himself in the part. A personal favorite though most critics consider it one of the lesser beach party movies.  Unlike [amazon_textlink asin=’B0095MPVG2′ text=’Ski Party’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c9dba62b-dca5-11e8-a891-999f5d8fb7d4′] and Wild Wild Winter, which incorporated beach scenes into their plots, Winter a-Go-Go heads straight for the slopes and remains there the entire time though there is an obligatory bikini scene. Jeff ([amazon_textlink asin=’B01K0UYEV0′ text=’William Wellman, Jr.’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’dd5a57f2-dca5-11e8-a3e6-850e19ec1b6f’]) inherits a ski resort and with a pack of friends (including love interest Beverly Adams, Duke Hobbie, Julie Parrish, Nancy Czar, and Linda Rogers) heads off to turn the lodge into a success but trouble ensues when the mortgage holder hires two goons to wreck havoc so he can foreclose. Of all the beach-party films this was this is the closest to being camp with its scantily-clad dancing Winter a-Go-Go girls, to [amazon_textlink asin=’B003VFUT7U’ text=’James Stacy ‘ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’198b20ab-dca6-11e8-8f90-5f1b4e6b20c9′]as lothario Danny singing “Hip Square Dance” in his pajamas, to musical performances by the Nooney Rickett Four and Joni Lyman, to the bitchy barbs thrown out by Kanter’s Roger.

It is Roger who makes the movie especially interesting and an undiscovered camp classic as he descends on the ski resort accompanied by his best gal pal the snobbish selfish socialite Janine (Jill Donohue) and her cute timid friend Dori (Judy Parker). Though both babes are hot there is absolutely no evidence of any current or past romance with either gal. During the course of the film Janine sets her sights on Danny and Jeff, without a trace of jealousy from Roger, but winds up reuniting with tough guy Burt (Anthony Hayes). Dori makes goo-goo eyes at Frankie (Tom Nardini) throughout the film. Poor Roger has no romantic contact with anyone. The closest he gets is when running to Jeff and Danny for protection from the bullying Burt. Otherwise, he just sits there drinking his cokes making amusingly catty comments about the proceedings. He is like Paul Lynde in The Hollywood Squares sitting center stage cracking jokes at the others expense. He shows no sexual attraction to either Janine or Dori and barely looks at the other scantily clad snow bunnies who double as cocktail waitresses and dancers. These gals barely give him a glance and Roger could care less. You just know if he is going to hit the sheets oops slopes with anyone, he would choose Danny or Jeff to winter a-go-go.

Regarding his thoughts if Bob Kanter’s character was a homosexual, William Wellman, Jr. opined in my Hollywood Surf and Beach Movie book, “I don’t know what Bob Kanter’s sexual preference was in real life. He authored the screenplay and wanted to act so he wrote the part of Roger for himself. The character made no sense and I guess it does sort of come off like the gay best friend.”

There is not much to biographical info on Bob Kanter and I have no idea what his sexual orientation was. As an actor, he seemed to be the go-to guy for war movies beginning with small roles in Two and Two Make Six (1962) starring George Chakiris and [amazon_textlink asin=’B00008R9M6′ text=’The War Lover’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’3f95bdb3-dca6-11e8-95d5-1b9c2fa6fac3′] (1962) starring Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner. He graduated to a major supporting role in WWII adventure [amazon_textlink asin=’B000I9VZ0C’ text=’The Thin Red Line’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’sixtiescinema-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’4c5e730c-dca6-11e8-9e36-1ffe9b0ed6a2′] (1964) starring Keir Dullea. On TV he guested on a few TV series again most of the war kind such as 12 o’Clock High and Combat!  His first screenplay was for the forgotten film Mike and the Mermaid (1964) about a little boy who tries to convince his parents that he befriend a real life mermaid. He was directed by Richard Benedict who also directed Winter a-Go-Go. Perhaps they had a directing/writing partnership? Kanter’s last acting credit was in 1965 on the TV’s Convoy–you guessed it another WWII series. He then disappears from the Hollywood scene. Per IMDB he died on August 2, 1993 in Dade City, Florida.

So for something a bit different, check out Winter a-Go-Go the next time it turns up on some obscure cable TV channel. It is worth the look.