Elvis Presley stars in trailer for Double Trouble in 1967
It’s over 45 years since we lost Elvis Presley and his music and that unmistakable voice lives on, as iconic and recognisable today as ever. The King wasn’t just a music idol, of course. He also made a vast selection of films of, unfortunately, variable quality. In both careers, he increasingly chafed against the small boxes he was forced into, nowhere more so than on the soundtracks of some of his movies. Priscilla Presley recalled her husband’s towering fury peaked over one particular song, as he raged “How has it come to this?”
On April 5, 1967, Elvis’ 24th film Double Trouble was released – extraordinarily just two weeks after his 23rd, Easy Come, Easy Go. In a pattern of largely diminishing returns, the films were 58th and 50th on the annual box office charts.
The light-hearted romp about society heiresses, jewel thieves and bumbling detectives introduced 17-year-old British actress Annette Day in her first-ever role.
During one of their romantic scenes, they were on the back of a rickety old truck loaded with farm animals in cages – and Elvis found himself singing perhaps te most embarrassing song of his career.
As with his music career, his manager Colonel Parker had an iron-clad control over his acting roles and film soundtracks.
Priscilla later wrote: “Elvis really didn’t want him at the studio – either the movie studio or the music studio… But of course it was the Colonel who had negotiated the deals for the film and records, which meant Elvis’ artistic opportunities were limited.”
And, she added, on Double Trouble it reached a new nadir: “I remember when Elvis had to sing Old MacDonald in the film Double Trouble, he stormed out of the session.”
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Priscilla described how Elvis raged “for days” and shouted: “You mean it’s come to this?”
Elvis added: “Those damn fools got me singing Old MacDonald on the back of a truck with a bunch of animals. Man, it’s a joke and the joke is on me.”
To add insult to injury, Elvis had to shoot the children’s song for the actual film and then again for the accompanying soundtrack. It all added to his mounting unhappiness with where Parker was steering his film and music careers.
Elvis’ Double Trouble co-star Annette Day, recalled: “I think, more than anything, he wanted to be back out on stage to his fans. I think he was quite pleased when the musicals had stopped.
“I think he would like to have got a more serious picture, he wanted to do more than just musicals. I think he could have been a very good actor, but the films he was in were all the same sort of thing, family films with a few more songs in between.”
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