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Film Director, Michael Curtiz and Elvis

There was an extra-good reason why King Creole was to be directed by Michael Curtiz.

"You are the man to give Elvis what he wants most in life," producer Hal Wallis told the noted Hollywood director. "That's respect - respect from both Hollywood and the world at large. Elvis knows the trend of his own publicity and he's painfully aware that not everyone is in his corner. Now he wants to do something he can be proud of.

Director Curtiz and actor-singer Presley hit it off right from the start. "At first, Elvis was so respectful that I secretly suspected he was putting on an act." Mr.Cutriz said. "I thought he was trying to sell me a bill of goods that he wasn't the exhibitionist sexpot I might imagine him to be from all I'd read about him.
"But the closer I got to him, the more it struck me that he was a genuine and sincere actor who was the victim of his own publicity snowball," Mr.Curtiz continued. "Elvis was the first one on the set at 7.30 in the morning, with all his lines learned, always within earshot of the camera so he never had to be called twice."

One day Mike Cuttiz told Elvis that he would sing a ballad without one single body movement. "I expected an argument about it, you know! I expected some sort of answer like, "I've made millions out of my style, so why should I change it?" But there was no argument. Elvis merely nodded and said simply, "You're the boss, Mr.Curtis."

After three weeks of shooting, Curtiz suggested that since he and Elvis would be working together so closely (Elvis even spent several week-ends at the Curtiz ranch, soaking up direction and advice from the older man), Elvis should call him by his first name.
Elvis smiled brilliantly, but shook his head. "Oh, no, Mr.Curtiz," he said, "I just couldn't do that."

The story of the filming of King Creole repeats the comments of every other movie crew who ever worked with Elvis. "He's a great guy," says the men. "He's a perfect darling!" says the women.

Says Curtiz: "He's an actor. Yes, he has much to learn, but you can always tell about young people...which ones are going to learn, which ones are going to be tops for a while, then die."

To the man who had directed about every great name in Hollywood, it was Elvis Presley's meticulous behaviour and thoughtfulness that was endearing. After seeing the rushes of the day before, Elvis invariably said to the director,"Are you satisfied,Sir? Can we do better?" Once Elvis said, "Mr.Curtiz, this is the first time I ever realized what direction is. Thank you,Sir."

A major surprise to Mike Curtiz was that Elvis' usual entourage was conspicously lacking on the set. "He came to work, and he wasn't a weakling who needed a crew of yes-men,"Curtiz says. "He didn't want anyone to tell him he was good...unless he was!"

Curtiz noticed, too, that every afternoon at 5.30 Elvis was on the telephone. "One day I remarked, "You must have a lot of friends," and he said to me with the utmost simplicity:"No, I don't, Mr.Curtiz. I talk to my folks back in Tennessee every day."

But director Curtiz found another side to Elvis Presley. He was easily discouraged and frankly confessed there were many a night when he couldn't sleep. He would go to bed with his script and study hard and restudy, always hoping to make the next day's work more perfect.

"The Elvis Presley I got to know and like," Mr.Curtiz said in conclusion,"was an amazingly restless, ever-searching young man - pliable, absorbing, with a bounce like a rubber ball.

"In a way, I found he possessed much the same qualities which Gary Cooper and John Wayne showed when they first started in pictures - with one notable exception. "They capitalized, and still capitalize, on an element of awkwardness, while Elvis is agile and resilient, with a smoothness you'd expect only in a veteran."

What did Mike Curtiz (who discovered such top stars as Doris Day, Errol Flynn, Elenor Parker and Anne Blyth) think of the Elvis Presley who appeared in King Creole. "Audience and critics alike got a big surprise! This boy can act," Curtiz said with deep sartisfaction.

A correspondent for foreign newspapers agreed. "I went to a screening," he says."Frankly, I went to scoff...but I came away to praise! The boy's got something, far beyond a passing fad that intrigues teenagers. "You'll see: he's going to last!" Something else Elvis possesses is a keen sense of humour, coupled with great tact. Always polite to his fans, he sometimes creates such a spirit of genuine friendliness that the question become impertinent.

Source: Movieland and TV Times magazine January 1959