TheLittleSongbird
Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.As said many times, a lot of Elvis' early efforts were decent or more, his five best films overall being 'King Creole', 'Flaming Star', 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Viva Las Vegas' and 'Loving You'. It was from 'Kissin' Cousins', his first real mediocre at best effort, onward when his films became hit and miss or worse. While Elvis certainly did worse, like 'Harum Scarum', 'Double Trouble' generally is down there with his weakest.Regarding Elvis himself, there is more of the relaxed charisma and the enthusiastic charm than in most of his 1965-7 output (most of which he looked utterly disinterested in), the role really doesn't require much but he does his best and while he has looked in better shape he still sounds good. A few of the songs are decent, "Long Legged Girl" is the best of the lot and for a song from an Elvis film from this period is good. "City of Night" and "Could I Fall in Love" also fare well.Some of the supporting cast also don't fare too badly considering what they were given to work with. Fun Leon Askin, lovable Norman Rossington, urbane John Williams and sultry Yvonne Romain come off best. Chips Rafferty is quite good too.However, not all the supporting cast and songs work. Annette Day's acting inexperience comes through loud and clear in a performance that neglects any acting ability of any kind. She shares very little chemistry with Elvis either. Michael Murphy, in his screen debut, does his best and gives a creepiness at times but in a way where the darkness doesn't balance particularly well with the rest of the film. Stanley Adams and Walter Burke try too hard in bumbling roles more at home in a sitcom and the Wiere Brothers are just annoying and don't fit.Apart from a few songs, the rest of the soundtrack suffers from being very forgettable, very sloppy lip-synchronisation (very rarely in time) and from being poorly recorded, almost like the equipment used was on its last legs and on the verge of breaking down any second. Only one of them reaches risible level though and that's "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", even Elvis himself looks embarrassed.Norman Taurog's, a wildly variable director dependent on the material, direction is all over the map. As is the corny (even for an Elvis film) and wildly disjointed script, that is far too busy, and a story that is a mess of style, structure and tone, again trying to do too much and very little of it comes together (just didn't see the point of the diamond subplot especially considering how barely remembered it is in the film).Overall, not awful but messy. Really strictly for the fans, and most likely even they will be pining for a film that lives up to Elvis' considerable talents rather than working against them. 4/10 Bethany Cox
bkoganbing
In his career Elvis Presley did three Hawaiian based films for which he got a nice Hawaiian vacation to shoot there. But for Double Trouble which is European based, the King never left the MGM lot for this film. All the scenes in London, Brussels, Antwerp, and Stockholm were strictly second unit establishing stuff. He must have thought he was gypped.And Double Trouble is not as good as either Paradise Hawaiian Style or Blue Hawaii, the latter one Elvis's very best. And he's not playing or courting twins either. Instead he's a pop singer on tour in Europe who gets mixed up with a pair of women. One is Yvonne Romain a worldly, but deadly sophisticate the other is a teen just days shy of seventeen played by Annette Day.For reasons it takes the whole film to figure out why people keep trying to kill Presley. In fact this plot is quite serious as young Annette Day is in danger and Presley by his association with her. But this is an Elvis film so songs and comedy are added. I would say rather shoehorned in to fit the kind of films Presley was making. It's entertaining, but muddled.As always, Colonel Tom Parker made sure that Elvis was surrounded with veteran film names and established character players. Chips Rafferty and Norman Rossington play an inept pair of smugglers and con men who slip a fortune in jewels into his luggage and spend the entire film trying one loony scheme after another to recover them. John Williams is Day's uncle and guardian, Leon Askin is a Swedish police lieutenant with the Wiere Brothers as his assistants.Note the hair stylings of the musicians backing Presley up in his act. If that wasn't a salute to the British invasion and an attempt to steal a few Beatles fans, I don't what else you could call it.Not one of the King's best
cealban-1
I do not know if other copies are as bad as mine, but My copy of this move has areas in it that the sound is not in sync with the film, it is very obvious that the film broke multiple times and jumped sprocket even more. I was very unhappy with it, as it really detracted from the quality. I would like to know if others have had this trouble, my copy is a Warner Brothers logo ISBN 0-7907-4555-0, UPC 012569514126. Other than that, I felt that this was a typical Elvis movie, Annette Day is certainly cute, but I have never seen an Elvis movie that did not have beautiful women in it. The thought of the King driving a Volkswagen Bug is hilarious, but having the sync problems is a true shame.
funkyfry
Amusing Elvis fare, in which E is stuck protecting a wealthy heiress (Day) from her greedy uncle (Williams) who wants her killed before her 18th birthday so it won't be discovered that he's been stealing from her inheritance. Of course, this same date also explains why Elvis is reluctant to hook up with the petite Brit, and enables the evil uncle to send bumbling Belgian cops on E's trail for kidnapping. Also, groupie Romain turns out to be after more than E's autograph -- she's in the employ of the uncle too! Elvis sings some pretty good songs, some pretty bad songs, and gets involved in some funny situations. He even kills a guy in a fight (well, actually, he does that in a lot of his movies). Did frozen funds inspire this Anglicization of Presley? hmmmmm......