King Creole is a fun musical crime-drama with Elvis Presley obviously in his and the chemistry with Carolyn Jones was absolutely wonderful.
King Creole
— Paramount Presents —
(1958)
Genre(s): Musical, Drama
Paramount | PG – 115 min. – $29.98 | April 21, 2020
Date Published: 04/25/2020 | Author: The Movieman
Paramount provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
PLOT SYNOPSIS |
Denied his high school diploma because of a schoolyard fight, Danny Fisher (ELVIS PRESLEY) is unsure how he’s going to support himself and his unemployed father (DEAN JAGGER). He briefly flirts with a life of crime before a club owner (PAUL STEWART) hears him singing and offers him a job. Things look promising until rival club owner and Danny’s former boss, Maxie (WALTER MATTHAU), tries to lure him back with threats and the charms of his sometimes-girlfriend, Ronnie (CAROLYN JONES). |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5 |
This release comes with a slip cover with the front folding out revealing the film’s original poster artwork. The only feature is Filmmaker Focus (6:10) interview with Leonard Maltin. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
This black and white presentation of King Creole is #2 of the new Paramount Presents line of releases. The movie, shown with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio, has been given a new 1080p high-definition transfer taken from a new 4K film transfer. This picture does indeed look pretty phenomenal. Detail is relatively sharp throughout and the black levels do appear well balanced. This is also mostly clean, free of major debris or flaws. |
AUDIO – 4.5/5 |
The movie comes with both a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track as well as a restored Dolby Digital Mono track. Either option is more than satisfactory, dialogue (or singing) does come through with good clarity, and there is some nice depth during the musical sequences. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
King Creole is a fun musical crime-drama with Elvis Presley obviously in his element even though I didn’t quite buy him as a high school student (though he was only 22 when this was filmed), however his chemistry with Carolyn Jones was absolutely wonderful and seeing Walter Matthau as a villain was eye-opening. |