Musicals—12

Yes, we’re still in the 1950s as we look at film musicals. But, oh what a decade! And one of the new stars on the horizon this decade was Elvis Presley—and over this decade and the next he would make about 25 film musicals. None of them were adapted from plays, all were written for the screen, and all were pretty much the same.

A young, talented singer in trouble at work and with the ladies, finds success and romance. Period. End of movie.

But it does give birth to a new category of movie musical, and that’s the one that’s based on an actual singer. Elvis was HUGELY popular. He gave birth to a kind of sexy rock and roll that wasn’t contrived, or didn’t seem to be—it just seemed to be him. And the movies? Well, who’s the current big audience for film, any film? Teenagers Today the prime movie-audience demographic is 14-22 year old males [I’m sorry to say]. One hopes it’s changing, it seems to be sometimes, but back then it was really all about drawing the teens into the theatres. Because their parents had been going to the movies forever, their parents WERE the audience. But when Elvis came along, all bets were off. And some smart movie moguls realized that getting Elvis on the screen would bring the teens into the theatres—boys wanted to be him and girls wanted him as their guy.

One of the films he made in the 50s was Jailhouse Rock [1957] by Guy Trosper. The plot is pretty simple [as is the case with every single one of Elvis’s musical films]. Elvis plays a guy who’s getting out of jail after serving a sentence for manslaughter and he wants to make it as a singer.

Here’s a clip of the title song—in it, Elvis’s character has become a star and so intros this TV performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=qka6JrKUM5U. The first thing you’ll note is that the film is in black and white. This is a time when films were making that transition from black and white to color. And given the prison background of this film, the black and white really fits.

How much easier is it to include songs in your script when the main character is a singer!! Not one of those musicals where people just seem to burst into song for no reason, but one where the songs come from the setting—young singer trying to make it, lots of reasons for him to be singing his songs.

So, question—how far-fetched is it for you to think about making your own musical with original songs? Do you have friends who fancy themselves composers? Do you like their stuff? Any chance of you collaborating with them to produce a film musical? Sometimes songs can inspire a story or your story could inspire your friend the songwriter… think about it.

Copyright © Diane Lake

13Oct19

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com