The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age
On October 23, 1968 MGM released "Live A Little, Love A Little". Even though there are no figures available, it's safe to say that it wasn't much of a success. Once more the film wasn't shown globally and I am pretty sure that it would have gone directly to the streaming platforms today. But in 1968 even the by now long gone VHS system wasn't invented yet and so MGM was forced to put the movie on the silver screens if they wanted to earn any money. In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of Elvis' dead a German tv station produced a dubbed version and aired it on August 20, 1987 under the name of "Liebling, Lass Das Luegen". Translated the title meant "Stop Lying, My Dear".
Due to adverse circumstances the photographer Greg Nolan (Elvis) meets Alice, gets narcotized and accomodated at her house. When he awakes, he realizes that the lady had quit his job and his apartment.
Douglas Laurence (producer), Norman Taurog (director), Michael A. Hoey und Dan Greenburg (script, based on the novel "Kiss My Firm, But Pliant Lips" by Dan Greenburg), Billy Strange (music), Fred Koenekamp (camera), John McSweeney (editor).
Elvis Presley (Greg Nolan), Michele Carey (Bernice), Don Porter (Mike Landsdown), Rudy Vallee (Pennlow), Dick Sargent (Harry), Celeste Yarnall (Ellen) und Sterling Holloway (Milchmann). The German voice of Elvis was dubbed by Peter Kirchberger.
This time MGM really tried to produce a modern Presley film. The look of the star was up to date, the storyline was somewhat cheeky and the music mirrored the currend trends. The movie was shot between March 13th and May 1st 1968 at the MGM Studios in Culver City and the area around Los Angeles. In one scene Vernon Presley, Elvis' father, portrayed a best-ager model. But it's an urban legend that MGM used the king's dog Brutus to "act" as Albert. In fact it was a "professional" dog, trained especially for movies.
Once again Elvis received $850,000 plus a profit share of 50%, reduced by the fee. Today his payment, at least when trusting our factor of 15, would have been 12.75 million USD.
Originally RCA Victor had planned to release two singles in connection with "Live A Little, Love A Little". But after the first one had barely sold half a million copies, they just put "Edge Of Reality" on the flipside of "If I Can Dream" and spreat the other tunes on several budget albums issued by their sub-label CAMDEN. A tap on the covers leads to the reviews.
In 2007, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the singer's demise, Warner released a boxed set called "The Hollywood Collection", which also included a digital version of "Live A Little, Love A Little". For a short review just tap on the cover.
The story is weird and entertaining, the songs are good and Elvis looks better than he had in years. Unfortunately in 1968 the audience had enough of Mr. Presley and neither bought his records, nor watched his movies.
Movie Poster (C) MGM, DVD Cover (C) Warner Brothers, Record Covers (C) RCA Victor