best elvis biography movies

All 33 Elvis Movies, Ranked from Worst to Good (Photos)

With Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” hitting theaters, it’s time to look at The King’s checkered history as a movie star

Elvis Aaron Presley was a controversial and transformative figure in American music, and one of the most recognizable 20th century icons. He was also the star of a shocking number of financially successful but, mostly, not very good movies.

“The King,” as he has been called, made an initial attempt at serious acting in the 1950s, but his cinematic career was quickly derailed by a stint in the Army, and upon his return found he could sell the most tickets — and the most soundtrack records — by headlining generic, family-friendly musical fluff. There are hidden treasures in Presley’s filmography, but they are extremely well hidden, and before you find them, you might have to endure some of the biggest stinkers of the era. (Even Elvis himself wasn’t a fan of a lot of them.)

So let us be your guide, as we escort you through the treacherous waters of every single Elvis Presley movie, ranked from worst to… let’s say “good.”

Honorable Mention: “ Elvis: That’s the Way It Is” (1970)

It’s unfair to compare Elvis Presley’s two documentaries to his dramatic roles, so let’s let them off the hook and call them Honorable Mentions. Presley returned to the stage after a decade of focusing on his film career, and in this concert film from Oscar-winning filmmaker Denis Sanders, waves of relief practically radiate off the screen. The first third is a behind-the-scenes look at his rehearsals and backstage nerves, but the rest of the film is a strong set of hit songs, with The King playfully winning over the audience and settling back into his element. It’s not the most polished concert film, but it’s a treat.

Honorable Mention: “ Elvis on Tour” (1972)

Presley’s second concert film tries a little harder to integrate actual documentary filmmaking between the musical numbers, to sometimes satisfying and sometimes comical effect. (One montage of his famous movie kisses seems to have been crafted entirely out of clips from his most embarrassing films.) Too many of the songs are repeats from “That’s the Way It Is,” and Presley already seems to have lost a lot of the energy he regained from his big return to the stage. It’s not The King at his best, but it ain’t The King at his worst.

31. “ Stay Away, Joe” (1968)

Presley (at a low point in his career) plays a Navajo man who arranges for his father, Burgess Meredith (also at a low point in his career), to get a herd of cattle from the U.S. government. If he can make a profit, the government will aid all indigenous peoples, so there’s a lot at stake here. However, they get so drunk and rowdy they kill and eat the only bull. Now Elvis has to find another bull (which can’t perform sexually, and Elvis sings a song about it) when he’s not trying to seduce an underage girl. “Stay Away, Joe” is ugly, insulting and gross, and somehow — and this is the only impressive part — it’s also boring.

30. “ Double Trouble” (1967)

It turns out the girl Elvis Presley has been dating is underage — a plot point which happens twice, but twice too often in these movies — and tries to ditch her as she chases him across Europe. Along the way they encounter a gang of assassins who wants one or both of them dead, for mysterious reasons. Presley made nine films with Oscar-winning director Norman Taurog, and this is the worst, despite some energetic direction and quality production design. The central “romance” is extremely creepy (and having Elvis sing “Old MacDonald” to his leading lady only makes it worse), but the film seems to think it’s whimsical and sweet. Yikes.

29. “ Paradise, Hawaiian Style” (1966)

Presley’s third Hawaiian adventure starts off swimmingly, with Elvis playing an airline pilot who, in a subplot that’s supposed to make him sympathetic, has been fired from every airline for sexual harassment. So he travels to Hawaii and starts a helicopter transport service by manipulating every women he meets into thinking he’s their boyfriend in exchange for personal favors. It gets so bad his business partner, James Shigeta (“Die Hard”) has to ask single women who work for them to pretend they’re married, but Elvis knows. Somehow, he always knows. Lazy and episodic storytelling, even by Elvis-movie standards, and a protagonist who deserves his failures.

28. “ Harum Scarum ” (1965)

The idea of Presley playing a movie star who gets confused for the characters he plays on film is a clever one, and this film is determined to completely ruin it. Presley gets kidnapped in a regressive Middle Eastern country and forced to assassinate a local ruler, in a film which lets lots of white people play Arab roles (yikes) and romanticizes harems (double yikes), to the point that a little kid sings a song about how she dreams of being a glamorous, beautiful slave (all the yikes in the world). The film’s only saving grace is “So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise),” a great song that Presley is unusually invested in at this point in his movie career. But you can hear that song without having to suffer the indignities of the film surrounding it.

27. “ Wild in the Country” (1961)

Just before Presley settled down into a long, long series of programmatic fluff musicals, he took one more stab at serious acting with this unconvincing melodrama (from a screenplay by Clifford Odets). Presley plays a troubled young writing prodigy who tries to overcome his emotional issues with the help of a psychologist (Hope Lange, “Peyton Place”) who, naturally, falls in love with him. At least this movie knows when the romance is inappropriate. It all ends in a court case and life-or-death tragedy, and all of it is seedy, none of it works, and Presley is very much out of his acting wheelhouse the entire time.

26. “ Easy Come, Easy Go” (1967)

Presley plays a Navy frogman who stumbles across a shipwreck full of treasure and schemes to steal it for himself, with a little help from a free-spirited dance enthusiast who lives at a wacky art commune. It’s kinda like “The Deep” if “The Deep” stank out loud, and if it had an absolutely bewildering musical number mercilessly making fun of yoga, with the great Elsa Lanchester on hand (all too briefly) to assist. The underwater footage is interminable — a marginal improvement on the footage that was shot on land.

25. “ Roustabout” (1964)

Barbra Stanwyck had her final film role in a flick that’s drab and plotless even by Elvis-movie standards. The King stars as a big jerk who sings mean songs about his audience, including a group of 40-something frat boys, and then beats them up in the parking lot when they point out — reasonably so — that it wasn’t very nice. (One of his victims hilariously screams “No! No! That’s karate!”) Then Elvis nearly runs Stanwyck’s family off the road while trying seduce her daughter and blocking the highway. But when Presley’s motorcycle crashes, it’s up to Stanwyck to make it up to him (for some reason) by giving him a job at their failing carnival. Sure, he saves the day, but he never stops being a cad, and this movie never, ever picks up steam.

24. “ Girls! Girls! Girls!” (1962)

This unimaginatively-named Presley vehicle barely registers as a motion picture. Elvis is trying to buy a boat in Hawaii, while the person who owns the boat would rather sell it to someone who has enough money to do so. So he takes on jobs to buy the boat, and eventually he gets that boat. Meanwhile, he balances a variety of women in his life who, mysteriously, all want to sleep with him, even though he literally cares only about boats. Somehow the iconic song “Return to Sender” came from this tedious drivel, even though it has literally nothing to do with the rest of the film.

23. “ It Happened at the World’s Fair” (1963)

Elvis plays a crop duster who just happens to befriend a little girl whose uncle goes mysteriously missing at the World’s Fair. But instead of, you know, actually looking for him, the two of them conspire to hook Elvis up with a nurse who hates his guts. The songs are completely forgettable, and the plot isn’t forgettable enough. Historical footage of the fair aside, “It Happened at the World’s Fair” is noteworthy only for the scenes where a young Kurt Russell kicks Presley (who Russell would go on to play multiple times as an adult) in his highly vulnerable shins.

22. “ Clambake” (1967)

Presley famously believed that “Clambake” was his worst movie, and while he wasn’t correct, his point is well taken. The King plays the heir to a gigantic oil-industry fortune who swaps places with a stranger, giving a regular Joe a taste of the good life while Elvis figures out if he can live without his money. Not the worst premise ever, but an insipid b-plot about Elvis alchemically mixing a miracle “Goop” to fix up a racing boat gets way too much screen time, and all the jokes — and the songs — uniformly fall flat.

21. “ Kid Galahad” (1962)

This tepid remake of Michael Curtiz’s 1937 boxing drama (which originally starred Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart) finds Elvis working as a sparring partner who can take such a beating he wears out his opponents. Ostensibly there’s a crime element here, with his promoter (Gig Young) mired in debt to the mafia, but it plays out with all the gin-soaked, desperate tension of a Hayley Mills musical. Charles Bronson plays Presley’s coach, but he looks like he’d rather be in any other movie. Watchable, but utterly forgettable.

20. “ Change of Habit” (1969)

In his final film as an actor, Presley plays Dr. John Carpenter (no relation), who runs a small clinic in Harlem. Mary Tyler Moore co-stars as a nun who, along with her fellow sisters, decide to go undercover as regular folks to make a positive impact on the neighborhood, and possibly to fall in love with Elvis at the same time. Noteworthy for being the first movie to openly discuss autism (even though it gets a whole lot of it wrong) and for Elvis playing an abortion doctor, the film features strong performances, but the film’s approach to sexual violence is unsettling, alternately the source of humor (yikes) and a climactic brutal attack that the film never recovers from (more yikes).

19. “ Kissin’ Cousins” (1964)

It’s not just a title! Elvis stars as an Air Force pilot trying to convince his cousins in the Great Smokey Mountains to let the military construct a missile base on their land. Along the way he ends up in a love triangle with his two cousins, one of whom is played by the original Batgirl herself, Yvonne Craig. They are so closely related that their other relative looks like Presley’s identical twin. (Elvis played both, “Parent Trap”–style.) If you’re thinking that’s a tough sell, don’t worry, because this movie dedicates two (!) whole (!) songs (!) to Elvis saying it’s okay to date your cousins, with lyrics like “Kissing’s allowed because we’re proud to be cousins.” It’s bad, but it’s so flamboyantly bad it’s riveting.

18. “ Live a Little, Love a Little” (1968)

A dangerously unhinged woman randomly sets her sights on Elvis, kidnapping him, getting him fired and kicked out of his apartment, and systematically sexually cajoling him while rejecting him at every turn. Michele Carey co-stars, but all she can do is make her nonsensical character weirdly charismatic, because this movie makes no sense and never pretends otherwise. Somehow it manages to grow on you, thanks partly to the psychedelic performance of “Edge of Reality” and the killer track “A Little Less Conversation,” but mostly because — like Carey’s character — it wears down your defenses until all you can do is stop fighting and get used to it.

17. “ G.I. Blues” (1960)

Presley’s first foray into feel-good musical travelogue inanity finds him in the army, raising money to start his own nightclub. To that end, he makes a wager that he can seduce an unseduce-able dancer (Juliet Prowse), but naturally he falls in love with her and it all gets very, very trite. Amiable, certainly, but very, very trite. Bonus points for the early scene where Presley is performing but gets interrupted when an audience member rudely puts an actual Elvis Presley record on instead, a meta-textual quantum singularity that never gets properly addressed.

16. “ Loving You” (1957)

Presley dyed his hair black for his second film (his first in color), and he never changed it back. This time he stars as a young rocker who’s discovered by a duplicitous managing team who take advantage of his emotional neediness for their financial gain, only to get won over in the end by his earnest charms and on-stage charisma. The way the film connects the dots between Elvis’ stage persona and suspicious personal management is oddly self-aware, and Presley already seems more comfortable on-camera. Sure, this featherweight movie exists only to sell us Elvis, the icon, and Elvis, the records, but it’s adequate at both.

15. “ Charro! ” (1969)

A too-little, too-late effort to revitalize Elvis’s career finds him starring in a relatively violent western as a former criminal framed by his old partners for stealing a valuable cannon. Now the law is after him, the criminals are after him, the townsfolk are after him, the whole country of Mexico is after him, and it should all be much more exciting than this. Presley never really convinces as a tough guy but the plot is strong enough to carry the movie through, and the score by Hugo Montenegro (who composed the “I Dream of Jeannie” theme song) is satisfyingly epic.

14. “ Frankie and Johnny” (1966)

Presley plays a riverboat gambler and showman who, in an incredibly fictional way, inspires the 1904 title song about a woman who shoots her cheating lover. It’s a simultaneously cheap and colorful period piece with forgettable numbers but an amusing plot in which Presley gets convinced that only a redhead can bring him luck at the roulette tables, sending him bouncing between an alluring flame-haired performer and his blonde girlfriend, played by Donna Douglas from “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Extremely insubstantial, but enjoyable in an Elvis-y kind of way.

13. “ Flaming Star” (1960)

One of Hollywood’s great macho filmmakers, Don Siegel, directed this earnest western action film, starring Elvis as a man whose mother is Kiowa, placing his family at the center of a violent feud between racist settlers and violently anticolonialist Native Americans. Elvis tries to capture the conflict of a biracial young man in a complex situation, but the film is as nuanced about its heavy themes as you might expect from a melodramatic 1960s western. Well-intentioned, it seems, and engaging, but never entirely convincing.

12. “ Tickle Me ” (1965)

Presley works at a ranch for women trying to lose weight. Along the way he gets embroiled in a ridiculous plot to find missing gold in a Wild West ghost town, and in the end the filmmakers give up entirely and transform the final act into a quasi–Martin & Lewis haunted-house gag-fest. It’s not a clever film but, unlike most of Elvis’s lesser fare, it knows it’s absurd and leans into it, with whimsically bizarre gags like Presley shooting a silver dollar out of the air and getting four quarters back.

11. “ Love Me Tender” (1956)

The feature film debut of Elvis Presley finds the crooner co-starring as the young, naïve brother of Confederate soldiers hiding ill-gotten gains after the Civil War. So in a funny way, Presley’s obvious lack of acting experience makes for a spot-on performance. He’s married his eldest brother’s sweetheart, after thinking his sibling was dead, so of course it all ends in tragedy. The drama isn’t fully baked, and the songs are clearly tacked on, but “Love Me Tender” was probably the perfect debut for Presley, playing to his limited strengths in a story that didn’t depend on him for anything other than raw, unrefined star power.

10. “ Fun in Acapulco” (1963)

Can former circus acrobat Elvis Presley get over his PTSD in time to save an Acapulco resort by cliff diving? The answer, of course, is “Why in god’s name is that an actual premise of a movie?” Ursula Andress and Elsa Cárdenas are quite good as Elvis’s love interests, and the silliness of the plot makes it more entertaining than it ought to be. But you’re going to be distracted by all the rear-screen projection: Presley didn’t shoot a single scene in Mexico, for surprisingly complicated reasons involving a blank check, a birthday party, the Regent of Mexico City, and false quotes printed in a gossip column.

9. “ Speedway” (1968)

Elvis plays a successful race-car driver who gives all his money away to needy strangers and his lifelong manager, Bill Bixby, only to discover that due to Bixby’s misdeeds, he’s in debt to the IRS for $150,000 (that’d be more than $1.2 million in 2022), and all the nice things he gave to people in need are getting repossessed! Nancy Sinatra co-stars as the IRS agent who falls in love with him, and she gets the best song in the whole movie, but Elvis’s whimsical ode to taxes, “He’s Your Uncle, Not Your Dad,” is a treat too. Spritely and amusing, practically from start to finish.

8. “ Girl Happy” (1965)

How’s this for a fun pitch: If Shelley Fabares has any fun at all during spring break, the mafia will murder Elvis! At first, Presley and his musical back-up band of merry mischief-makers do everything in their power to prevent Fabares from partying, but eventually he falls for her and accidentally shows her a good time himself. A spirited and likable lark, halfway between Presley’s usual schtick and the then-contemporary “Beach Party” genre, but the song “Do the Clam” is one of The King’s musical-movie low points.

7. “ Blue Hawaii” (1961)

Presley’s first Hawaiian adventure is easily the best. Not so much a movie as a cheerful travelogue, Elvis plays a young man returning home to Hawaii from the armed services, only to eschew his family business in order to lead teenagers around the island to show them the tourist spots. The plot, such as it is, completely loses steam in the second half, but “Blue Hawaii” isn’t about story; it’s about beautiful locales and relaxing music. It’s a movie to chill out to, and it’s highly effective.

6. “ Spinout” (1966)

Shelley Fabares is back, and this time she’s a wealthy heiress trying to buy Elvis’s love, while he’s simultaneously torn between the affections of a famous non-fiction author (Diane McBain) and his plucky drummer Les (Deborah Walley). Meanwhile, all Elvis wants to do is rock and roll and race fast cars. Norman Taurog’s best Presley film is skimpy on plot but rife with cheerful characters and silly situations, with one of the most satisfying romantic endings of any of his movies.

5. “ Jailhouse Rock ” (1957)

The most famous of Presley’s musical numbers stems from a surprisingly sour rags-to-riches story, in which Elvis goes to jail for manslaughter, finds his love for music in the joint, and becomes a self-made rock and roll superstar before devolving into a familiar tale of selfishness and excess. The soundtrack is wall-to-wall classics, and the title track is iconic for a reason, emphasizing Presley’s unique physicality with a stark and exciting cinematic aesthetic. Bitter, but with an unconvincingly positive ending, it’s easy to see why, for a brief moment, it looked like Elvis’s motion picture career could go in interesting directions.

4. “ Viva Las Vegas ” (1964)

Presley’s frothiest concoction stars Elvis as a race-car driver who, while waiting for a new engine for his hot rod, takes a menial gig at a Las Vegas casino so he can woo Ann-Margret, who gives off more heat — romantically and musically — than any of Elvis’ s other female co-stars. Energetic and romantic, with great numbers and a climactic auto-racing sequence that visibly presages, in both look and execution, the creation of the “Speed Racer” anime just three years later. “Viva Las Vegas” is the closest Presley ever came to starring in an actual great musical. It’s legitimately close!

3. “ Follow That Dream” (1962)

If you ever wanted to see Elvis Presley play Steve Martin’s character from “The Jerk,” this is that film. And it’s great. In this weird comedy, Elvis’s vagabond family runs out of gas in Florida, then decides to permanently live wherever they just happened to park. Elvis accidentally robs a bank, accidentally takes out mafia hitmen, and accidentally rebukes every single sexual advance thrown his way (of which there is no shortage), and that’s always funny. It’s a delightfully goofy film, and the only comedy that truly knew how to capitalize on Elvis’s patented “aw, shucks” persona.

2. “ The Trouble With Girls” (1969)

Presley’s second-to-last movie as an actor is almost his best, in small part because it’s the only Elvis movie that doesn’t treat his presence like a gimmick. Elvis stars as seasoned showman running a Chautauqua in 1927, traveling from town to town putting on fascinating and informative productions and getting mired in an unusual murder mystery in the process. Bolstered by memorable supporting performances from Dabney Coleman, Vincent Prince, and even Frank Welker and Nicole Jaffe (who would make their debuts as Fred and Velma on “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” just ten days after this film’s debut), Presley’s casual charisma is a valuable piece of an impressive ensemble in an excitingly photographed and memorable period piece.

1. “King Creole” (1958)

The best Elvis Presley movie was very nearly a James Dean movie, but after the actor’s untimely death, it was reworked into an atmospheric and dramatically potent musical. Presley plays a high-school dropout wooed to the nightclub circuit, only to be seduced by a deeply troubled Carolyn Jones and controlled by her vicious criminal boyfriend, played by a fantastic Walter Matthau. Directed by Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca”) and stunningly photographed by Russell Harlan (“To Kill a Mockingbird”), Elvis is the weak link in the cast, but his naïveté is completely justified by the plot, which sends him down a path to ruin, fueled by extremely tragic choices. Presley may never have been a truly great actor, but this was the closest he got.

Elvis Presley’s 10 Best Films

By Joe Leydon

Film Critic

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Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, racked up more than 30 movie credits during the 13 years he was in the narrative acting game. But not all of them are as well-remembered as hits like “Viva Las Vegas” and “Jailhouse Rock.” As Baz Luhrmann’s biopic “Elvis” opens in theaters, here are the top 10 movies starring the King, Ol’ Snake Hips, the Tennessee Troubadour himself — including one concert film that gives fans a chance to hear a full selection of his songs.

The Trouble With Girls (1969)

Elvis comes off more like a genial emcee than the main attraction in his penultimate star vehicle, a lightly likeable mashup of period dramedy, variety show and, starting at the midway point, murder mystery. The King is well cast as the smooth-talking manager of a traveling Chautauqua company who, in 1927, tries to remain graceful under pressure during an eventful engagement in a small Iowa town. But he serves the story by receding into the background whenever director Peter Tewksbury (making amends for helming 1968’s “Stay Away, Joe,” one of Elvis’ very worst films) parcels out screen time to the supporting players, a crazy-quilt ensemble that includes Sheree North, Dabney Coleman, Marlyn Mason, Joyce Van Patten, Vincent Price, John Carradine, and Nicole Jaffee (the original voice of Velma is the “Scooby Doo” cartoons).

Elvis on Tour (1972)

The King’s final film made lightning strike a second time for MGM two years after the studio’s success with another celebratory musical documentary, “Elvis: That’s the Way It is.” Praised by critics and embraced by fans, the ’72 follow-up follows Elvis on a 15-city tour just five years before his death at age 42, and showcases his showmanship as he performs a song list that runs the gamut from credible covers (“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Never Been to Spain”) to his own greatest hits (“Love Me Tender,” “Burning Love”). No less a notable than Martin Scorsese served as montage supervisor for the movie, which has the distinction of being the only Elvis movie ever to receive a significant award: A Golden Globe for Best Documentary.

Kid Galahad (1962)

Believe it or not, this one is a remake of the 1937 Warner Bros. melodrama directed by Michael Curtiz (who, two decades later, worked with The King on “King Creole”) and starred Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis and Wayne Morris. In this, ahem, re-imagined version directed by Phil Karlson (“The Brothers Rico”), Elvis plays the equivalent of the character originally essayed by Morris, an amiable ex-G.I. who returns to his hometown in the Catskills resort area, where he impresses a washed-up boxing promoter (Gig Young) by demonstrating knockout prowess as a natural-born pugilist. While Young feasts on the scenery with relentless relish, Elvis goes the distance with easygoing aplomb — even during credibility-straining scenes where his character takes a licking but keeps on ticking in the ring — and Charles Bronson lends strong support as a seen-it-all trainer who suffers greatly for his loyalty to the young fighter.

Love Me Tender (1956)

Elvis is a co-star, not the lead, in his first big-screen outing, a creaky but compelling post-Civil War drama about a Confederate soldier (Richard Egan) who returns home to find his sweetheart (Debra Paget) married his younger brother (Elvis) after receiving greatly exaggerated reports of his death. Complications ensue. Egan’s heartbroken Vance Reno behaves nobly, but Elvis’ insecure Clint Reno is driven to extremes by irrational jealousy — until he is conveniently killed to allow for a reasonably happy ending. To cushion the blow for The King’s many fans — who, of course, helped turn the film into a box-office smash — the filmmakers superimposed an image of Elvis crooning the title song over the final graveside scene. (Yes, it’s true: Even in an 1860s setting, Elvis got to sing, strum his guitar, and shake those hips. You have to keep the customers satisfied.)

Wild in the Country (1961)

Playwright Clifford Odets provided the screenplay (based on J.R. Salamanca’s novel) for an emotionally charged movie that, in retrospect, can be viewed as The King’s farewell to serious drama and brooding moodiness. (“Blue Hawaii,” also released in 1961, became the paradigm for most of his subsequent big-screen endeavors.) Ironically, Elvis proved conclusively here that he had the potential to tackle even more challenging roles with his affecting portrayal of an angry young man who, while on probation for inflicting serious bodily harm on his brother, reveals previously untapped potential as a writer. He’s torn between a good girl (Millie Perkins) and a not-so-good one (Tuesday Weld), but winds up falling hard for the (slightly) older psychologist (Hope Lange) who wants him to be all he can be. Under Philip Dunne’s sensitive direction, Elvis and Lang share the most tender love scene ever to appear in any of The King’s movies.

Flaming Star (1960)

Director Don Siegel was able to keep the songs to an absolute minimum and, more important, convince Elvis to risk giving his all during some highly emotional moments in this engrossing Western about a half-Native American (Elvis) torn between white and Kiowa cultures. Elvis earned appreciative notices for his performance in a role that, according to Stuart M. Kaminsky’s 1974 critical biography “Don Siegel: Director,” originally was intended for Marlon Brando. Unfortunately, the movie itself was a box-office under-achiever. “Presley was very good in the picture,” Siegel is quoted as saying in Kaminsky’s book. “However, I think one of the reasons the picture did not get the recognition I feel it deserves, especially in terms of its presentation of a racial conflict, is that the public was unable to get beyond the fact that Elvis Presley was in it.”

Blue Hawaii (1961)

The King already had seven features to his credit by the time he made “Blue Hawaii,” but this frothy musical comedy more or less set the mold for what most folks now think of as “an Elvis movie” – lightweight fun and frolic, often in an exotic locale, involving a lovable hunk who sings and sways his way through minimally daunting challenges while encountering only temporary impediments to happily-ever-aftering with a young lovely. Here, Elvis plays Chad Gates, an ex-G.I. who, upon returning home to Hawaii, rejects a job with his father’s fruit company in order to hang with his beach buddies, surf and swim, and work as a tour guide in partnership with his curvy sweetie (Joan Blackman). It’s one of Elvis’ most ingratiating performances, in one of his most undemandingly pleasant movies — with (except for the title song and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”) some of his most forgettable songs. Go figure.

Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Most folks remember this musical melodrama only for the classically campy, insistently exuberant production number (arguably Elvis’ greatest on-screen moment ever) that hard-sells the title song. But take a second look: In sharp contrast to the formulaic fluff frequently concocted for The King throughout the ‘60s, “Jailhouse Rock” actually attempts to package Presley as a semi-sensitive anti-hero with pronounced tendencies toward badassery. After beating a man to death with his bare hands in a barroom brawl (which, to be fair, he didn’t start), construction worker Vincent Everett (Presley) spends a year behind bars as the cellmate of a washed-up country singer (Mickey Shaughnessy) who teaches him how to play a guitar and carry a tune. Once released, Vincent becomes a chart-topping recording star, signs a contract to make Hollywood movies — and devolves into an unpleasantly selfish lout until his former cellmate shows up to provide tough-love discipline by punching him in the larynx. (Don’t worry: There’s no permanent damage.)

Viva Las Vegas (1964)

If you looked up the term “guilty pleasure” in the “Illustrated Dictionary of Cinema,” you’d likely see a photo of Elvis and Ann-Margret shaking their groove things and generating high-potency chemistry in director George Sidney’s well-nigh irresistible extravaganza. The plot, no more complicated than it has to be, revolves around Lucky Jackson (Presley), a race-car driver who unluckily loses the money he needs for a new engine, and seeks employment as a hotel waiter while romancing swimming instructor Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret) as a fringe benefit. Presley is at the top of his game here, striking the perfect balance of smirk and sincerity while placating drunken Texas tourists with a medley of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” and “The Eyes of Texas,” and rambunctiously blowtorching his way through the title song in a low-concept, high-impact production number filmed in one continuous, swaggering take.

King Creole (1958)

What did Elvis Presley have in common with Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, and James Cagney? All of these legends made career-highlight movies directed by the prolific and prodigious Michael Curtiz. In Elvis’ case, the movie was a first-rate, hard-boiled, borderline-noir musical drama (based on the Harold Robbins novel “A Stone for Danny Fisher”) about a sullen New Orleans youth (The King, of course) whose overnight success as a singer in a Bourbon Street nightclub attracts the unwanted interest of vicious gangster and part-time talent manager Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau). “King Creole” was filmed largely on location, and it captures the unique flavor of the Crescent City to a degree rarely matched by other films made there before or since. (Elvis’ first song actually is an ode to crawfish.) The superior supporting cast includes Dean Jagger, Vic Morrow, Carolyn Jones (in one of her all-time best performances), Paul Stewart and Dolores Hart, and the songs include “Trouble,” “Hard Headed Woman” and the rockin’ good title tune. The other films on this list are enjoyable for a variety of reasons. But Elvis was never better as an actor than he was in “King Creole.” And he never made a better movie.

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The Best Movies About Elvis Presley

Kings attract acolytes, even after they pass, and even if their realm is a musical genre. Elvis Presley has been dead 45 years, yet his records still sell, his impersonators still prowl Las Vegas, and his movie legacy continues. Presley's own acting career didn't come to all he'd dreamed it would; per TCM , early hopes for dramatic parts gave way to programmers easily written off by the critics. But the King of Rock 'n Roll has been a subject for motion pictures far more than he was an active participant.

Entertainment reporter John Beifuss covered Presley's ongoing presence in cinema for the Commercial Appeal for 21 years. In his assessment, "Elvis never left the building, if the building was a movie house." Not a year has gone by since his death in 1977 where some tangible reference to Presley hasn't made its way into mainstream film. And works specifically about Presley, fiction and nonfiction, continue to this day; Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" is just the latest example.

To be sure, not all films about Presley are about to sweep the Oscars or the Emmys. Cultural icons make easy fodder for cynical cash-grabs, or crutches for unsteady screenplays. But the best such films can have something profound to say about such iconic figures, or their followers, or else use their iconography and legacy in a meaningful way in an original story. Here are a few highlights from the catalog of Elvis movies.

Elvis (1979)

Elvis Presley isn't the subject most would immediately think of for a director like John Carpenter. He had already made his name with "Halloween" when he became attached to Dick Clark Productions' TV biopic. In an interview promoting the film at the time (via YouTube ), Carpenter called "Elvis" a personal film. He was a big fan of the man's music, and he was intrigued by the elevation of someone into mythic status. The film's star, Kurt Russell, wasn't so big a fan according to Phil Nobile Jr. of BDM , but he had his own connection to the part; he got his start in movies kicking Presley's shins in "It Happened at the World's Fair."

"Elvis" was Russell's first significant acting job as an adult, and his Emmy-nominated performance was so strong that critic and Elvis movie expert John Beifuss called it "the definitive screen portrayal of Presley" in the Commercial Appeal . His take on the rock star is that of a vulnerable outside, never quite satisfied that success has brought him all there is to life. Russell is supported throughout the film by the work of singer Ronnie McDowell, whose uncredited covers of Presley's records carry the musical numbers.

Coming so soon after Presley's death, "Elvis" acted as a rebuttal to the tabloid image of a bloated has-been that dominated in years prior. Collider called it the most earnest of Carpenter's films, and it marked the beginning of his and Russell's long and fruitful collaboration.

This is Elvis (1981)

Documentaries have a choice in how they portray their subjects. They can rely on archival or freshly captured footage, they can reenact material through staged "docudrama" scenes, or they can be guided by the recollections of interviewees. "This is Elvis" makes use of all three methods.

Three different actors play a young Presley for recreations, and various figures in his life offer remembrances and narration. But the most striking element of the film at the time of its release in 1981 was the look into Presley's life through his own material. Colonel Tom Parker allowed the release of home movies and shooting on the Graceland property (per film critic  Roger Ebert ) and the result was a striking illustration at the long deterioration of Presley's health, even as his charisma before an audience endured.

Variety called the blend of styles in "This is Elvis" "an imaginative combination," backed up by plenty of Presley's greatest hits. Singled out was the look into the singer's state of health by the last year of his life. Narrator Ral Donner assumes Presley's voice to offer some insights the man might have had, had he lived to look back on that period. "If only I coulda seen what was happening to me," Donner's Presley says over the archival footage, "I mighta done something about it."

Elvis and Me (1988)

Priscilla Presley's account of her marriage, "Elvis and Me," became a bestseller when it hit bookstores in 1985 (per the New York Times ). It recounts their early (and chaste) courtship and the gentle, playful moments in their time together, but Priscilla didn't spare details on the other side of their relationship. She wrote of struggles with jealousy, Elvis' affairs (via People ) and exercises in control over every aspect of Priscilla's life, and the difficulties surrounding Lisa Marie Presley's birth. The Washington Post described "Elvis and Me" as a "sad, sweet book." Three years later, it became a sad, sweet TV movie.

Priscilla acted as a co-executive producer on "Elvis and Me." While she wasn't a fixture on the set (per the Post ), she was available to actors Susan Walters and Dale Midkiff with additional details to translate her memoirs into television. The focus was on the emotional conflict between the Presleys, and it left a strong mark on Walters in particular. "Almost every day I cried about something as Priscilla," she said of the production. "I thought it was an actor's cliche to say 'I have to recharge' after playing a role. But after this show, I was emotionally flat." Midkiff concurred, describing Elvis and Priscilla's romance as a melodrama and a rollercoaster.

True Romance (1993)

It would not be true to say that " True Romance " is about Elvis Presley. It's about Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) instead, comic store clerk and aficionado of the King. He's such a fan, in fact, that the spirit of his idol (Val Kilmer) appears to him from time to time, offering advice on such everyday dilemmas as whether or not to kill the pimp who controls Worley's wife Alabama (Patricia Arquette). Taking that advice puts the young couple on the road to Los Angeles with a suitcase full of stolen cocaine to fund their life together with, unaware that the Mafia is on their trail to reclaim their stash. But even as the heat turns up, Presley insists all is going well.

According to Film Cred , writer Quentin Tarantino's luck had his script for "True Romance" sold just as he was making waves with "Reservoir Dogs." Directorial duties were assumed by Tony Scott, and the mesh of the two styles won raves. Roger Ebert said of the film: "[It's] made with such energy, such high spirits, such an enchanting goofiness, that it's impossible to resist." Slater's brave-but-dumb hero and Arquette's hooker with a heart of gold proved so endearing even during filming that Scott prevailed over Tarantino's objections to give them a happy ending, one with a little baby named for the rock star whose spirit so helpfully offered wisdom — and whose bust got Alabama out of a jam with mob underboss Virgil (James Gandolfini).

Elvis Meets Nixon (1997)

It's one of the strangest pictures to come out of the White House: Richard Nixon, 37th president and perpetual curmudgeon, shaking hands with Elvis Presley, a charisma-oozing rock star not quite yet gone to seed. According to the Washingtonian , the photo of these unlikely chums is the most requested of the National Archives, and it came about from a spur-of-the-moment visit Presley paid to the White House, hoping for a badge and a chance to get involved in the fight against drugs. It sounds more like the premise of a movie than a real moment in presidential history.

Showtime Networks indeed decided the meeting should be a movie in 1997. "Elvis Meets Nixon," directed by Allan Arkus, depicts Presley's trek from Graceland to Washington by way of Los Angeles. It posits that the journey was his first time out in the world as an adult without handlers, turning the King (Rick Peters) into a fish out of water who can't work a credit card, recognize the Jackson Five on the radio, or buy doughnuts without holding up the store.

" Elvis Meets Nixon " is a mockumentary, its "reenactments" of Presley's trip framed by a series of talking heads led by Dick Cavett. The New York Times singled Cavett out for his deadpan performance as the film's chief narrator. It also gave the film as a whole high marks for a playful tone and affectionate recreation of the actual meeting between president and pop idol.

Finding Graceland (1998)

A big piece of the Elvis Presley legacy is the impersonators. Whatever compels a man to don a sequin jumpsuit and put on a Southern drawl while covering rockabilly tunes, it's an enduring cultural tribute. That one of these lookalikes might be the King himself has been a popular concept for fiction writers. Director David Winkler and screenwriter Jason Horwitch took a turn with the idea in 1998's " Finding Graceland " for Largo Entertainment.

Harvey Keitel stars as a hitchhiking impersonator convinced that he is the genuine article, bound and determined to reach his old Graceland home. He's picked up by Byron Gruman (Jonathon Schaech), a despondent young man drifting aimlessly after losing his wife. Gruman becomes a reluctant caretaker to the supposed Presley, agreeing to see him at least part of the way to Memphis in time for the anniversary of his "death." Whether or not Keitel's hitchhiker is who he thinks, his persona wins him friends easily, and he's not long in putting it to the work of mending his driver's broken spirit.

The public Elvis persona that impersonators adopt — and that Keitel's character may or not be deluded by — wasn't the whole man, and the mythology built up around that persona can be a little silly. But film critic MaryAnn Johanson felt that a light touch of fantasy made such artifice acceptable. And the point of the film, she argues, is that fantasies like a wandering, beneficent Elvis do real good in the world.

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

A geriatric Elvis Presley, a black man convinced that he's John F. Kennedy, and a mummified pharaoh wearing a cowboy hat. Are there any three more natural co-stars? " Bubba Ho-Tep " began as a novella, part of the anthology project "The King is Dead" (per Ain't it Cool News ). It's the story of how Presley (Bruce Campbell), tired of his hollow existence as an idol, switched places with an Elvis impersonator to regain a measure of anonymity. Age and accidents land him in a nursing home where his only friend, Jack (Ossie Davis), believes he is President Kennedy, his skin dyed by Lyndon B. Johnson. The two of them are the only ones who know that a mummy is consuming the souls of their fellow residents and unite to take the undead down.

Everything about "Bubba Ho-Tep," from its premise to the casting of Campbell as Presley, suggests a cheesy cult movie, and the film isn't afraid to put its tongue firmly in cheek. But its makers took pains to avoid formula. "Love it or hate it," writer Joe R. Landsdale told AICN, "you won't come out sayin' there are two just like it." A key way it defies expectations, according to Empire , is its embrace of black humor rather than broad laughs. Campbell's Presley is a regretful, introspective man in his twilight. The film treats its elderly subjects with dignity, per IGN , and it's a character study just as much as it's a horror comedy.

Elvis: The Early Years (2005)

Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Myers took home the Golden Globe in 2006 (per the Irish Times ) for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in "Elvis: The Early Years" the previous year. Richard Harrington of the Washington Post (via the Spokesman-Review ) said of Myers' performance: "[He] does for Elvis Presley what Jamie Foxx did for Ray Charles in 'Ray' — he becomes him." The two-part miniseries for which Rhys Myers won his accolades serves as a straight biopic chronicling Presley's troubled adolescence, his initial rise to fame, the complications in his love and family life, and his 1968 comeback. It's the comeback concert that acts as bookends for the series, Presley's stage fright prior to going on triggering his recollection of everything that's led him to that moment.

"Elvis: The Early Years" was the first dramatization of Presley's life given the rights to use his own recordings for the musical numbers. The Elvis Presley Estate's cooperation with the film could invite accusations of sugarcoating, but Harrington insists otherwise. "Elvis" doesn't shy away from its subject's foibles, whether that's his inability to extricate himself from Colonel Tom Parker 's (Randy Quaid) control or his growing addiction to prescription drugs. Rhys Myers' commitment to the part was strong enough that he kept in character between takes, bought some genuine Elvis costume pieces to use on the series, and came away from filming with his impression of Presley — defined by the singer's declining late period in Las Vegas — completely turned around.

Elvis & Nixon (2016)

The photograph of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon together is so popular — and so strange — that it's inspired multiple interpretations in cinema. Almost 20 years after Showtime Networks made a mockumentary of Presley's cross-country trip to reach the White House in " Elvis Meets Nixon ," Amazon Studios distributed " Elvis & Nixon ." Starring Michael Shannon as Presley and Kevin Spacey as Nixon, the film forgoes a lengthy travel sequence. Instead, it focuses on the efforts of Presley and the White House staff to arrange the meeting with Nixon, with the last third of the film devoted to the conversation the two men might have had before their famous photo-op.

Shannon is not a close physical match for Presley, a fact emphasized by the film's use of pictures of the real deal in its credits. But Peter Travers, writing for Rolling Stone , felt that Shannon found the way to a heartfelt and gently humorous performance. As for the since-disgraced Spacey's Nixon, Travers described his portrayal as "a deft characterization that never drifts into caricature." With the meeting between Nixon and Presley the extended climax of the film, having good actors who could play off one another well was crucial to its success. If the build-up to their talk can feel drawn out, the conversation itself delivers. "It ain't fact," wrote Travers of the comedy-drama's take on what Presley and the president had to say, "but it is d*** entertaining fiction."

Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018)

As an enduring fixture in American pop culture, Elvis has an evolving story as an icon and artistic force as well as a long-concluded story as a man. HBO's "Elvis Presley: The Searcher" explores where those stories meet and why they matter to Presley's fans. Like "This is Elvis" before it, "The Searcher" benefitted from a wealth of archival materials never before available, in this case from Priscilla Presley and family archivist Jerry Schilling (per A.V. Club ). No figures appear before the camera except in archival material; all interviews are audio-only, used to complement both new and familiar footage of Presley's life.

"The image of Elvis shifts, depending on the entry point," writes Sheila O'Malley for RogerEbert.com . "What's so refreshing — d*** near redeeming — about ["The Searcher"] is that the entry point is Presley's art." The work he put into his career and what made his performances so unique takes center stage in this documentary. Archives and interviews give some sense of Presley's attitude toward that process, while successor rockers like Bruce Springsteen weigh in with their own assessments of the King's talent and the reasons for his longevity. Along the way, "The Searcher" asks about fan expectations as well. Presley himself alluded to the issue in a 1972 interview used for the film. "The image is one thing," he said when asked if he enjoyed his public persona. "The human being is another. It's very hard to live up to an image."

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10 Essential Elvis Presley Movies

By Donald Liebenson

Austin Butler, the star of Baz Luhrmann ’s all-shook-up biopic Elvis, joins an eclectic list of men who would be King. Among them: Don Johnson ( Elvis and the Beauty Queen ), Kurt Russell ( John Carpenter ’s Elvis ), Bruce Campbell ( Bubba Ho-Tep ), and Nicolas Cage (Tiny Elvis, SNL ). But there is nothing like the real King.

Elvis Presley made 31 films in 13 years, from the 1956 Civil War Western Love Me Tender to the 1969 social drama Change of Habit, in which he portrayed a hip young doctor who unwittingly falls for a nun portrayed by Mary Tyler Moore. From the start, Hollywood was as anxious to harness his charisma and star power as Presley was to follow in the Oscar-winning footsteps of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, who had parlayed their own pop stardom into respected film careers. His best films show his potential: the raw energy, the presence, the commitment to embody a character that was distinctly not himself.

“His career is complex,” Susan Doll, author of Elvis for Dummies and The Films of Elvis Presley, tells Vanity Fair. “When you say, ‘Elvis movie,’ everyone thinks of the musical romances, what Elvis himself jokingly called ‘the Presley travelogues.’ Elvis plays this archetype where he’s a free spirit with an exciting job in a vacation spot, so he’s never part of the humdrum, everyday world. And then he meets up with his costar, the leading lady. She either wants nothing to do with him and he chases her, or he’s not interested, but she chases him. But that’s what gets him to settle down.”

But in the films he made prior to Blue Hawaii, which set the template for the rest of his screen career, Elvis took his film career seriously. “He learned not only his lines, but everybody else’s lines,” Doll said. “There were prominent actors in some of the films and he would ask them for advice.”

Decades after his breakthrough, Presley remains the standard-bearer rock icon. (In The Beatles: Get Back, Paul McCartney even calls him “our gracious king.”) Yet his movies, by and large, get little respect, something Presley himself fed into. By the late 1960s, as he got his singing and concert career back on track, The King was “chomping at the bit to get back on the stage,” Doll notes. “When he does, as part of his stage patter, he jokes about his movie career. That’s where the bad reputation for his movie career begins—with Elvis himself because he was so disappointed in the direction it went.”

But the early films, especially, which tended to support Presley with strong directors and supporting casts, show a great deal of promise—and several of the travelogues are immensely entertaining. A little less conversation: Here are 10 essential Presley films to see after watching Elvis.

10. Wild in the Country (1961)

With only three songs, it’s not your typical Elvis fare, but with a script credited to Clifford Odets, this was probably the type of prestige film that Presley envisioned for himself when he pursued an acting career. It was also his last attempt at a straight dramatic role following the box office success of G.I. Blues. Here, Presley is not an aspiring singer, but a troubled kid whose social worker (Hope Lange) inspires him to develop his writing talent. Millie Perkins and—speaking of wild— Tuesday Weld shine as competing love interests. “If you want to see Elvis trying to disappear into his roles,” Doll said, “that’s the hook for Wild in the Country and Flaming Star. ”

9. G.I. Blues (1960)

Elvis’s first star vehicle after his military service pairs him with Juliet Prowse, an established star dancer and actress who would help Elvis develop a more mature image (the two were briefly romantically involved). Presley is a soldier stationed in Germany, where he bets his buddies he can make time with Prowse’s nightclub dancer with the cold shoulder reputation. The title tune is great, and “ Big Boots ” is a lovely lullaby. One of Presley’s top five box office hits, this return to the screen confirmed his star power.

8. Flaming Star (1960)

Released shortly after G.I. Blues, this Don Siegel–directed Western did not fare as well at the box office. Presley sings only two songs in a straight dramatic role as Pacer, the son of a white rancher (John McIntire) and a Native American (Dolores del Río), and who desperately tries to ease racial tensions between the white homesteaders and the Kiowa tribe before ultimately choosing where his loyalties lie. It’s a “demanding” role in a film with something for everybody, Variety said at the time: “Indians-on-the-warpath for the youngsters, Elvis Presley for the teenagers and socio-psychological ramifications for adults who prefer a mild dose of sage in their sagebrushers.”

7. Blue Hawaii (1961)

Presley’s film career can be viewed in two phases: pre– Blue Hawaii and post– Blue Hawaii. One of his biggest box office hits to date was a game changer that prompted manager Colonel Parker to insist that Presley give up any Oscar dreams and give his fans what they wanted, which was Elvis in an exotic location and singing enough songs to fill a best-selling soundtrack. Blue Hawaii had 14, the best of which is “ Can’t Help Falling in Love .”

6. Roustabout (1964)

Presley is a hot-tempered drifter (he does karate on some college boys, which gets him fired from his latest music gig) who winds up working at a struggling carnival. He holds his own opposite Barbara Stanwyck, but was in for a rude awakening when he read a 1964 syndicated article with an interview with producer Hal Wallace, who basically said that top-grossing movies like Roustabout were what helped to pay for more prestige projects like the multi-Oscar-nominated Becket, starring Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. “That was a breaking point” for Presley, Doll said. “He was still hoping that Wallace would put him in better movies. After that, he knew his place.”

5. Girl Happy (1965)

The funniest of the Presley travelogues finds Elvis and his rock combo dispatched to Fort Lauderdale by a Chicago mobster during spring break to keep watch over his girls-just-wanna-have-fun daughter ( Shelley Fabares ). There’s great character work by Harold Stone as “Big Frank”; Joby Baker, Gary Crosby, and Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life ) as Presley’s bandmates; John “Piglet” Fiedler; and Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester on The Addams Family ). Fabares was Elvis’s favorite female costar. “Elvis had a torrid affair with Ann-Margret on Viva Las Vegas, but Fabares was sunny, fun, and easy to work with,” Doll said. Plus, there are decent songs, including the ballad “ Puppet on a String ” and the unlikely dance sensation “ Do the Clam ,” which was invented by choreographer David Winters. (He also created the Slide for Viva Las Vegas. )

4. Follow That Dream (1962)

An underrated and overlooked gem that breaks the travelogue template. Presley, playing a cross between Li’l Abner and Forrest Gump, is the dutiful son of an enterprising man who claims squatter’s rights on a strip of Florida highway and sets up a home for his makeshift family. The title tune is a keeper ( Bruce Springsteen has performed it in concert), but the film’s few songs take a back seat to the story. Elvis also acquits himself nicely in a courtroom finale in which his heartfelt testimony and simple-hearted smarts outwit the social worker trying to break up Presley’s family.

3. Viva Las Vegas (1964)

Not the best film Presley made, but surely the best Presley travelogue. Presley hit the jackpot with this throwback to the classic MGM musical. (Director George Sidney also helmed Show Boat and Annie Get Your Gun. ) His chemistry with costar Ann-Margret is off the charts, and the dynamo, hot off her breakthrough role in the screen version of Bye Bye Birdie, matches him shake for shake and shimmy for shimmy. In her autobiography, Ann-Margret herself called Presley her soulmate . While this doesn’t have the gravitas or promise of Jailhouse Rock and King Creole , this is what we’re talking about when we talk about Elvis movies. And that title tune !

2. Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Convicted of manslaughter, Elvis’s Vince Everett is shown the ropes by his cellmate (Mickey Shaughnessy). Once out of the joint, he becomes a singing sensation who only looks out for number one on his way up the charts. The only Elvis film inducted into the National Film Registry of “historically, culturally or aesthetically significant” American films has a great soundtrack that includes perhaps Elvis’s most galvanizing three minutes onscreen, performing the hell out of the title song .

1. King Creole (1958)

As singing delinquent Danny Fisher, Elvis was in the best of hands with Michael Curtiz, who directed Bogie in Casablanca , Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, and Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood. He was also ably backed up by his strongest supporting cast, including Walter Matthau as a ruthless mob boss who insists that Danny sing at his nightclub, Carolyn Jones as Matthau’s good bad girl, and Vic Morrow as a Matthau henchman who tries to lead Danny down a darker, more violent path. The American roots music soundtrack captures Elvis at his rawest. “ Jailhouse Rock has that great production number,” Doll said, “but in King Creole , it’s just a man on a stage , and he has everybody in the palm of his hand.”

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The Best Elvis Presley Movies

Elvis Presley may be best known as a generational rock star, but from the very beginning of his career, he was making waves in Hollywood. From 1956 to 1969, he starred in 31 movies - and all while juggling a massive recording and touring career as well.

Not surprisingly, most of his big-screen productions took advantage of his pipes, as breezy musical romances like  G.I. Blues, Viva Las Vegas, King Creole , and  Blue Hawaii being among his most popular films. Still, the musical element was often paired with other genres - such as his roles as a boxer in  Kid Galahad and a race-car driver in  Spinout  and  Speedway , not to mention his Western forays like  Frankie and Johnny and  Stay Away, Joe .

The selling point for all of these movies was, of course, Elvis himself; they were built around his image as a singer, dancer, sex symbol, and All-American hero. But which Elvis movie is the best Elvis Presley movie? No doubt die-hard Elvis have been debating that question for decades now. Your votes will decide. Just remember that this list only includes his starring roles in feature films. For movies  about Elvis, that’s another story - and you can take your pick among the many stars who have tried their best to emulate the King.

If you're a fan of Elvis Presley, then check out our lists of the best John Cena and Jean Harlow movies as well.

King Creole

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Jailhouse Rock

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Viva Las Vegas

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Blue Hawaii

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• # 18 of 41 on The Best '60s Romantic Comedies

Follow That Dream

Flaming Star

Kid Galahad

Love Me Tender

Wild in the Country

Fun in Acapulco

Change of Habit

It Happened at the World's Fair

Girls! Girls! Girls!

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Live a Little, Love a Little

Frankie and Johnny

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Kissin' Cousins

Paradise, Hawaiian Style

The Trouble with Girls

Double Trouble

Easy Come, Easy Go

Harum Scarum

• Elvis Presley
• Entertainment
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Lists about Elvis Presley, one of the biggest singers, heartthrobs, and cultural icons of the 20th century, who passed suddenly in 1977 in age 42.

Screen Rant

Elvis: 10 best movies starring elvis, according to ranker.

From glitzy romps in Las Vegas to the chivalry of the wild west, these are the 10 best movies starring Elvis, according to Ranker.

As reinforced by the recent  Elvis , Elvis Presley was an iconic performer. His role in popularizing rock and roll during the 1950s and pushing the boundaries of what could be done on stage has rightfully earned him the moniker of the "King of Rock and Roll," but Elvis was more than that.

Despite the accolades he received as a singer, Elvis was also an actor who starred in almost 30 films. Though much of what he put out was soulless fluff that was thankfully glossed over in Baz Lurhman's biopic, he did star in a handful of films that hold up rather well after 50 years. For one reason or another, they're beloved by filmgoers, and the following represents the best Elvis movies according to Ranker .

Note: Ranker lists are live and continue to accrue votes. As a result, some rankings may have changed since the publication of this piece.

Love Me Tender (1956)

Elvis' very first film role, Love Me Tender , sees the King play a supporting role as Clint Reno, the brother of Civil War soldier Vance Reno. Having married his older brother's girlfriend when he was thought dead, tensions rise when Vance returns and Clint lets his jealousy consume him.

Related: 10 Best Portrayals of Real-Life Musicians

Unlike many of Elvis' other movies, he doesn't play the loveable goofball or smoldering hero of the piece who gets the girl. Instead, he's an emotional wreck who can go off at any second, and it's this performance - while raw around the edges - that endears Love Me Tender to so many. It represented a time when Elvis could be in a movie without it being an "Elvis Movie."

Flaming Star (1960)

Directed by Don Siegel,  Flaming Star  features Elvis as Pacer Burton, a half-Kiowa, half-white rancher who tries to play the role of mediator during a skirmish between the Kiowa natives and the white Texas settlers. Upon its release in December 1960, it was a moderate box office success.

Flaming Star,  though a bit formulaic and weighed down by the need to promote Elvis's music, was one of the King's last forays in serious filmmaking before his career became nothing but musical comedies. The emphasis on dramatic storytelling is one that largely works to the film's favor, and Elvis's turn as Pacer Burton is remembered fondly as a result.

Kid Galahad (1962)

Kid Galahad  is a remake of the 1937 movie of the same name and stars Elvis Presley as Walter Gulick, a down-on-his-luck GI and mechanic who takes a job sparring at a New York boxing gym. When he proves capable in the ring, the gym's owner pairs him with a grizzled trainer and begins booking fights.

Though it's rather unbelievable to watch Elvis knock out opponents who are almost twice his size, Presley's charm manages to make up for the lack of believability. His character would rather fix cars than punch other people, and the commitment to that doe-eyed innocence is ultimately why  Kid Galahad  stands as one of the better Elvis musicals from the 1960s .

G.I. Blues (1960)

The first film Elvis made after leaving the military,  G.I. Blues  follows tank crewman Tulsa McLean as he attempts to raise money to open his own nightclub once he leaves the army. When a friend who promised him money is transferred to Alaska, it's up to Tulsa to take his place in a bet which involves a local nightclub dancer.

Related: Every Onscreen Portrayal Of Elvis Presley, Ranked

Though Elvis had done musicals before  G.I. Blues , the film was his first that vied for goofy, wholesome fun over dramatic rebelliousness. It ultimately makes for a decent comfort-flick that lets the King utilize his comedic chops and coast on his charisma, while also boasting several fun songs such as "Wooden Heart."

Loving You (1957)

Elvis' first lead role in a movie,  Loving You largely patterns itself after Elvis's own life  and career. The film is focused on a delivery man who is discovered by a country-western musician and his manager who desperately want to promote the delivery driver's untapped talent.

Given Elvis' career as a singer and origins as a working-class joe, it should come as no surprise that he sells the role of Deke Rivers convincingly. Though still a bit rough around the edges, his performance is decidedly confident, and paired with the iconic musical numbers such as "Teddy Bear," it makes for a film that feels more genuine than many of his subsequent pictures.

Follow That Dream (1962)

One of Elvis' funniest movies,  Follow That Dream  sees the King play Toby Kwimper, a dopey military vet who goes along with his father's attempts to secure a plot of land along a strip of highway. Others soon start to settle there while the state tries to remove the Kwimper family from the property.

Limited to only a handful of songs,  Follow That Dream  is allowed to breathe and let its characters speak and play to Elvis's comedic strengths. His take as a himbo who accidentally robs a bank and takes out gangsters is hysterical, and this choice to take on what might otherwise be considered a degrading role is what cements  Follow That Dream  as one of Elvis' better movies.

Blue Hawaii (1962)

The blueprint upon which most Elvis movies were built on,  Blue Hawaii  follows Elvis as he rejects his inheritance as heir to the Great Southern Hawaiian Fruit Company in favor of a life as a tour guide. Even after he's fired from his job, Elvis' character still chooses his own path rather than running toward the comfort of his family.

In spite of the cookie-cutter plot and lack of conflict,  Blue Hawaii  is an enjoyable watch thanks to Presley's natural charisma and the striking locale. The combination of the two, along with the musical numbers, is enough to make  Blue Hawaii  one of the most fondly remembered movies in Elvis's filmography .

Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Jailhouse Rock  was Elvis' third ever movie and saw the performer take on the role of a construction worker who serves time in jail for manslaughter. While there, he quickly develops a love for music and becomes a rock and roll star upon release, though not without ensuing drama.

Related: 10 Reasons Why Elvis Is The Definitive Story Of The King Of Rock 'N' Roll

In some ways autobiographical,  Jailhouse Rock  is fondly remembered for the title song's dance sequence. It perfectly encapsulates Elvis as a performer, highlighting his physicality and raw vocal talents, and points to what his future movies would look like, barring the enthusiasm that is brimming in each of  Jailhouse Rock' s  musical numbers.

Viva Las Vegas (1964)

Released during the height of Elvis's movie stardom,  Viva Las Vegas  focuses on the exploits of race-car driver Lucky Jackson who loses the money he needs for a new car engine and works as a waiter to recoup his loss. During his time at the restaurant, he ends up romancing Ann-Margaret's swimming instructor.

Though undoubtedly cheap, cornball fluff, the movie sticks out from other Elvis movies of a similar vein thanks to the chemistry between Elvis and Ann-Margaret. The two are equal players in this screwball comedy, with Ann-Margaret even getting some solo musical numbers, and Elvis singing his best movie songs .

King Creole (1958)

Helmed by Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, King Creole depicts the seedy underworld New Orleans nightclub circuit as Elvis' character, Danny Fisher, attempts to make ends meet. It's not too long before Fisher gets sucked into a world of crime and has to grapple with gangsters.

Originally intended for James Dean,  King Creole  was reshaped as a musical once Elvis signed on board, yet it still gave the blossoming actor some meat to chew on and refused to sugarcoat the criminal element of the film. In doing this, it managed to bring the most out of Elvis and proved to be his most successful film with critics as well as a popular choice among fans.

Next: 10 Best Music Biopics Of All Time, According To Ranker

The best Elvis movies, definitively ranked

Brian truitt, 'change of habit' (1969), presley plays an inner-city doctor whose love interest is mary tyler moore – as a nun. what's not to love there, right,  'blue hawaii' (1961), in a perfect world, "blue hawaii" would have been the worst movie presley ever made. instead, it's solidly in the top third., 'love me tender' (1956), presley's first film appearance might rank higher on this list if he had starred in it – but he had only a supporting role., 'kid galahad' (1962), presley, whose weight had ballooned, made for a doughy but hard-punching ingénue who gets caught up in a fight-fixing scheme., 'follow that dream' (1962),  presley played a beach squatter named toby kwimper that new york times film critic bosley crowther described as "a combination sir galahad and li'l abner.", 'viva las vegas' (1964), flashy, gaudy, trashy and thin on story, just like the vegas myth. there's not much of a script, but swimming instructor ann-margret looks hot, and so do presley's cars. , 'wild in the country' (1961), perhaps presley's most ambitious dramatic film, it was ultimately undone by the competing priorities of those making it. , 'flaming star' (1960), 20th century fox tried to re-establish presley's dramatic credentials, casting him in this western as pacer burton, a half-breed caught in a culture war and land dispute., 'loving you' (1957), elvis' first starring vehicle was a fairly conventional showbiz musical, with country boy deke rivers rising to fame then dealing with its pitfalls. , 'jailhouse rock' (1957),  this story of an ex-con pop star has held up better than almost any of presley's other movies. the plot offers parallels to presley's own story, particularly when he gets involved with a manipulative manager., 'king creole' (1958), director michael curtiz brings a noir-ish black-and-white style to the story of a young singer who falls in with organized crime in new orleans., for more on elvis's best films (and which ones ranked the worst), visit usatoday.com.

Elvis Movies Ranked Worst To Best

The "Elvis movie" was a unique phenomenon; there was nothing really like it before, or even since. Of course, pop music stars and film had gone hand in hand since the advent of talkies, from the feature-length musicals of Bing Crosby and Lena Horne to proto-music videos starring bandleaders Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway. And plenty of singers in the years after Elvis Presley's last film have starred in movie musicals or straight films where their songs were prominently placed on the soundtrack: Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini . But Horne and Streisand never pumped out three movies a year for more than a decade, and Crosby's busiest years were in the golden age of the movie musical. Frankie and Annette made a few beach party flicks in the 1960s, and The Beatles had their own post-modern takes on the Elvis movie, but as he often did, The King stood alone.

Presley's films, to be fair, were rarely critical favorites , and at the rate in which they were pumped out — 31 films in just over a dozen years -– some corners had to be cut, particularly in the screenplay department. Most of the films cast Presley as a well-intentioned hunk with a two-fisted job like cowboy, soldier, or race car driver. His rowdy ways are challenged by the love of a good woman, and he sings a song or two that would become chart-topping hits. Despite this staid format, the movies remained massively popular, and made Elvis the highest-paid actor of his day. In a tumultuous decade, you couldn't count on much in the world, but you could count on an Elvis movie. Here are Elvis' 31 starring roles, ranked from worst to best.

31. Harum Scarum

It's romance, action, and a script full of borderline offensive stereotypes in 1965's "Harum Scarum." Presley plays the very Presley-like Johnny Tyronne, a singer and movie star promoting his latest project in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. After falling for a beautiful rebel (Fran Jeffries), Johnny finds himself ensnared in an assassination plot against the local king (Phillip Reed), whose lovely daughter (Mary Ann Mobley) is soon competing for Johnny's affections.

Though the film reunited Presley with his "Kissin' Cousins" director Gene Nelson and producer Sam Katzman, it was by all accounts a rushed, slapdash production, as chronicled in Peter Guralnick's book "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley." Presley was particularly disappointed that what he had hoped to be a dashing homage to the exotic romance films of Rudolph Valentino turned out to be a hokey spoof. And the film's vision of a still-medieval Middle East full of harem girls, palace guards with scimitars, white actors in brownface, and a wily dwarf pickpocket named Baba (Billy Barty) — hoary clichés even in 1965 — has aged like warm milk.

30. Stay Away, Joe

It's never a good sign when a film's title can double as its own bad review. Such is the case with 1968's "Stay Away, Joe," a warning that audiences should have heeded. Presley plays the eponymous Joe, a modern-day cowboy whose life is one big party, jumping between rodeos, cattle drives, and women one after the next. It could have been just another lightweight trifle like so many other Elvis movies, if not for the fact that Joe and his family are supposed to be Navajo, and Presley, Burgess Meredith (playing his father), and several other white actors are slathered in redface. This was already egregiously offensive in 1968, the same year that saw the formation of the American Indian Movement, and is borderline unwatchable today.

In the film's slight defense, Michael A. Hoey's script (based on a novel by Dan Cushman) attempts to depict contemporary reservation life for Indigenous peoples, but any sensitivity is buried under layers of crude makeup and painfully unfunny hijinks, such as the running gag of the local saloon keeper (Joan Blondell) gunning after Joe for seducing her teenage daughter. There isn't even much music to distract from the story; Presley recorded just three songs for the film that wound up on compilation albums over the next few years, as a proper soundtrack was never released.

29. Change of Habit

It's sadly rare for any performer to go out on top, for their last work and their best work to be one and the same. The King proved no exception to this rule in his final film, 1969's "Change of Habit." The film was intended to be something new for Presley, an urban drama with something resembling a message, and an acting challenge to boot. In order to play a sensitive, idealistic doctor tending to impoverished patients on the mean streets of New York, Presley worked with the film's director William A. Graham , who had studied under famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner.

According to Peter Guralnick's authoritative biography "Careless Love," Presley was a quick study and took to the Meisner Technique well, but in service to what ended up being another goofy (if well-meaning) Elvis movie. Presley's Dr. John Carpenter may be a caring man of science, but he's just as quick with his fists and with a song as any of the other heroes in his 30 preceding films, romancing Mary Tyler Moore (as a nun in disguise, hence the film's punny title) and singing "Rubberneckin'," which made it to number six on the Billboard Hot 100 . Still, it's poignant to see Presley commit to what would be his final film performance. Soon after the film's release he would begin the Las Vegas residency that made up the final act of his career; one wonders what he might have done in film in the 1970s.  

28. Easy Come Easy Go

Originally conceived as a project for the surf rock duo Jan and Dean (per The American Film Institute ), 1967's "Easy Come, Easy Go" stars Presley as a recently retired Navy frogman and part-time nightclub singer on the hunt for sunken treasure. Aiding him in his quest is a feisty go-go dancer (Dodie Marshall) and a salty sea captain played by screen and stage vet Frank McHugh in his final film. In their way is a villainous competitor (Skip Ward) and his femme fatale girlfriend (Pat Priest) who sets her sights on distracting our hero from both the treasure and the nice girl at his side.

The film takes a humorous look at the burgeoning hippie culture, setting Presley's character (and by extension, Presley himself) amongst groovy chicks in body paint, student protesters, and a disastrous yoga class. This leads to the most notable, and surreal, moment in an otherwise generic film, as Presley fumbles his way through various yoga positions while singing the novelty song "Yoga Is as Yoga Does" with the class instructor, played by the Bride of Frankenstein herself Elsa Lanchester .

27. Clambake

Shakespeare meets speedboats in Presley's third release of 1967, "Clambake." The King plays a spoiled Florida oil heir who switches places with a beachside resort's new waterski instructor to see if anyone likes him for who he is, rather than for his money. Along the way he meets a gold digger ("Girl Happy" co-star and fellow '50s icon Shelley Faberes) who is working to seduce a local rich kid (Bill Bixby). It all comes together in a climactic speedboat race; notably, very little of the film has anything to do with the titular clambake.

The film's plot is surprisingly stuffed, with mistaken identities and false declarations of love straight out of "As You Like It" or "Twelfth Night," but Presley appears to have little appetite for any of it, visibly uninterested even in the high-energy musical numbers and capturing little of the chemistry he had with Faberes in "Girl Happy." According to Guralnick's book, he was going through a particularly morbid moment while on set, listening to the same album of sad ballads over and over again. Presley's own soundtrack album produced two singles, "Big Boss Man" and "Guitar Man," but neither charted higher than #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 .

26. Girls! Girls! Girls!

Presley and crew returned to Hawaii after the commercial success of "Blue Hawaii" for 1962's "Girls! Girls! Girls!" As simplistic as its title, the film follows suspiciously soft and handsome fisherman Ross Carpenter (Presley) as he pursues his dreams of owning his own commercial fishing boat, while also pursuing nearly every woman on the Big Island and beyond. As with many Elvis movies, he finds himself torn between a fast-talking career gal (Stella Stevens) and a pure-hearted nice girl (Laurel Goodwin).

Though it was nominated for a Golden Globe , the film itself is a step down from Presley's other work of the era. Stevens in particular was offended by the low quality of the script and initially refused to co-star (via Express ); Paramount Pictures won her back by promising that her next film would be with Montgomery Clift (though that film, "Too Late Blues," would eventually star Bobby Darin instead). Three songs from the soundtrack were released as singles, though only "Return to Sender" cracked the Hot 100 , making it all the way to #2.

25. Kissin' Cousins

Presley pulls double-duty via some pretty good split screen effects and so-so stand-in work in 1964's "Kissin' Cousins," playing straight-laced Army man Josh and his backwoods Tennessee third cousin Jody. When the Army needs to requisition Jody's family mountaintop for a missile site, the brass sends in Josh to help smooth things over. Soon enough he's tussling with Jody and juggling the affections of a pair of comely country cousins (Pamela Austin and Yvonne Craig, a few years before playing Batgirl ).

Though the film thankfully avoids the racist overtones of "Harum Scarum" and "Stay Away, Joe," its treatment of Smoky Mountain culture is really no less stereotypical, chock full of pot stills and possum stew, and populated with the same dim-bulb country boys and buxom country girls as seen on "The Beverly Hillbillies" or in "Li'l Abner" comic strips. The film's soundtrack is mostly forgettable; only the title track was released as a single, making it to #12 on the charts . For Elvis completists, though, the film is perhaps most notable for Presley sporting his natural hair color as blond Jody (via Express ).

24. Spinout

"Spinout" from 1966 dares to challenge the Elvis movie template by asking, "What if he had three girls after him instead of two?" The subtext to many (if not most) of these films is to flatter and affirm Presley's virility to an absurd degree. Here, he plays Mike McCoy, who's not just a rock and roll singer but also a hotshot race car driver with three different women literally begging to marry him: a spoiled heiress (Shelley Fabares again), a feminist author (Diane McBain) who considers Mike the perfect man, and the tomboyish drummer in Mike's band (Deborah Walley) who's been carrying a torch along with her drumsticks for years.

But Mike can't be tied down by one woman, or even three; in order to continue his carefree bachelor lifestyle of rocking, racing, and ravishing, he plays matchmaker to find his three would-be brides more suitable husbands than he. But can he do all that and win the big race? The answer might (not) surprise you. This subtle tweaking of the Elvis movie formula was perhaps too subtle to make much of a difference; the film trails behind Presley's other two 1966 releases in both quality and reputation, as we'll soon see.

23. Frankie and Johnny

Romance is in the cards in 1966's "Frankie and Johnny," a quasi-adaptation of the old folk song that stars Presley as Johnny, a turn-of-the-century riverboat performer and inveterate gambler, and Donna Douglas as his long-suffering girlfriend/co-star Frankie. After a string of bad nights at the riverboat's casino, a fortune teller predicts that Johnny's luck will change thanks to a mysterious red-haired woman. And wouldn't you know it, Nellie Bly (Nancy Kovack), their boss' mistress, just happens to be a red-haired woman.

The folk song, of course, has Frankie shooting Johnny in a jealous rage over his affair with Nellie Bly, but the film takes a more circuitous, almost postmodern route to that destination, with the two of them acting out this scenario in their stage act, which gets turned into the song that the film is presumably based on. It's all slightly more clever than it needs to be, and the fake-out ending is sure to disappoint anyone interested in seeing Elvis finally die in one of these movies.

22. Speedway

Elvis is back on the racetrack in "Speedway" from 1968, playing Steve Grayson, a good ol' boy who's a demon behind the wheel but a soft touch with his pocketbook. When the IRS sends a stylish revenuer (Nancy Sinatra) to collect back taxes that his crooked manager neglected to pay, Steve risks it all on one last big race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

This would be the last of Presley's all-ages musical comedies; his last four films would all attempt in their own ways to introduce The King to the more sophisticated, adult world of New Hollywood. While "Speedway" hardly re-invents the wheel, it does offer more thrills than usual thanks to its real-life stock car racing scenes, with stars of the era like Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough playing themselves. The soundtrack album was a bust, with its one single making it just to #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 , though it's notable for having the one song on any Elvis release, Sinatra's "Your Groovy Self," to not feature Presley at all. Roger Ebert's two-star review damns the film with faint praise, finding Sinatra lacking as both a singer and actor.

21. Double Trouble

After taking on the hippies in "Easy Come, Easy Go," Elvis hits up Swinging London in "Double Trouble," released just a few months later in 1967. Presley once again plays the hits as a rock singer caught between two women, one worldly (Yvonne Romain) and the other sheltered (Annette Day), but adds a couple of fun twists in the form of a "Pink Panther"-esque jewel heist subplot and the reasonable recreation of its European locales on a Hollywood backlot. The story goes that Presley's longtime manager Colonel Tom Parker refused to allow him to tour or film outside of the United States, as Parker feared that his own status as an illegal immigrant ( or worse crimes ) would be exposed and he would be deported.

And like "Easy Come, Easy Go," this was originally a project developed with an entirely different performer in mind. Per The Washington Post , first-time producer Irwin Winkler , who would go on to produce the "Rocky" films and work closely with Martin Scorsese, wanted movie star Julie Christie in the lead until a call from the head of MGM turned this into an Elvis movie in an instant.

20. The Trouble with Girls

1969 marked not just the final year of Presley's film career, but an honest attempt to bring the "Elvis movie" into the modern age, taking inspiration from (or just plain ripping off) the era's significant films. None of his three films from that year were quite successful at that goal, but the second one feels like it should have been a perfect re-introduction for The King, at least on paper. A period piece set in the late 1920s, Presley plays the charismatic manager of a Chautaqua show, a kind of traveling educational carnival that roamed rural America in the first part of the 20th century. The film is still a musical, but most of its songs are presented in the context of tent shows, and director Peter Tewksbury doesn't hide from the darker aspects of life in the 1920s, especially for an itinerant band of entertainers led by a charlatan with a heart of gold.

And the title of such a film? Why, "The Trouble with Girls," naturally. Fearing that no one would understand or be able to pronounce "Chautaqua," MGM chose a title that feels of a piece with Presley's more lighthearted films, but didn't prepare the audience at all for what the movie was actually about. Yes, there are girls and yes, Presley gets in trouble with them; despite its more serious tone, this is still an Elvis movie, and romantic shenanigans still abound. Like "Change of Habit," Presley's performance never quite rises to the occasion, even though the character should have been right in his wheelhouse.

19. Paradise, Hawaiian Style

"Paradise, Hawaiian Style" from 1966 was Presley's third and final trip to Hawaii and is his most polished, a gorgeous, frictionless bauble that might as well have been crafted by the state's tourism board. As helicopter pilot Rick Richards, Presley works to keep his charter business afloat while singing in elaborate musical numbers surrounded by photogenic Hawaiian dancers and rescuing his best friend and business partner Danny (James Shigeta, "Die Hard" ). 

There is the requisite love triangle with Suzannah Leigh and Marianna Hill, but the most important woman in Rick's life is Danny's adorable young daughter Jan, played by Donna Butterworth. There are songs aplenty, though none of them were released as singles. The film grossed well for a latter day Elvis movie, and contemporary reviews praised cinematographer W. Wallace Kelley's lush scenic photography, even as they noted that the plot and characters were so weightless that they didn't even need Rick and Danny's helicopter to float away.

18. Charro!

Sadly not a biopic of the celebrated actress and flamenco guitarist , "Charro!" was another of Presley's attempts at cinematic reinvention in 1969, this time taking aim at Clint Eastwood and the spaghetti westerns that made him a household name. Sporting twin bandoliers and a dark scruffy beard, Presley rides into a sparse Western set as Jess Wade, a reformed outlaw who is then captured, branded, and left for dead by his old gang (led by longtime cowboy actor Victor French), who are holding a small town hostage with a stolen solid gold cannon.

According to Peter Guralnick , Presley was thrilled at the original script, chock full of Eastwood-style sex and violence and nary a musical number to be found, then disappointed when he arrived on set and found that the shooting script had been neutered — though still no musical numbers. Presley had played cowboys before, but of the clean-shaven, singing variety; try as he might, he just can't pull off the haunted killer vibe he is desperately reaching for here. It might have helped things if the production didn't look so chintzy; the town he protects from his former gang looks to have a population of about 15, and bears a strong resemblance to the type of movie Western town Mel Brooks would skewer five years later in "Blazing Saddles."

17. It Happened at the World's Fair

No one would accuse any film in the Elvis canon of being too terribly original, but his 12th entry, 1963's "It Happened at the World's Fair," is the first one that feels cobbled together entirely from spare parts of earlier movies: the money troubles of "Girls! Girls! Girls!," the child peril of "Follow that Dream," the half-baked gangster drama of "Kid Galahad." The fact that Presley is a crop duster here instead of a fisherman or mechanic, or that the object of his affections is a no-nonsense Seattle nurse instead of a no-nonsense German dancer, hardly seems to matter. And while the soundtrack album did reasonably well, peaking at #4 while its one single made it to #11 on the Hot 100, none of the film's ten songs have had any lasting power as Elvis standards.

What the film does have is some great footage of the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle, including the romantic musical number "I'm Falling in Love Tonight," filmed at the restaurant atop the brand new Space Needle. And like Presley meeting a young Tom Petty on the set of "Follow That Dream," the film has its own interesting moment of the past meeting the future. In order to get the attention of Joan O'Brien's uninterested nurse, Presley pays a random boy at the fair a quarter to kick him hard in the shin. The boy was played by child actor Kurt Russell , who in just 16 years would be playing the deceased King in a celebrated television movie .

16. Tickle Me

Another film with a title that has little to nothing to do with the rest of the film, 1965's "Tickle Me" is a never-ending pile-on of slapstick gags, puns, and incidents — which, honestly, makes sense for a film scripted by a pair of former "Three Stooges" gag writers. Presley plays unemployed rodeo cowboy and singer Lonnie Beale, who takes a job at a dude ranch. But it turns out that this dude ranch is (gasp) for girls , a fitness camp where dancers and actresses go to lose weight fast.

Just as the film seems to be in the vein of Presley's other resort comedies like "Blue Hawaii," the film pivots into a buried treasure story, with Lonnie and fitness instructor Pam (Jocelyn Lane) searching the ghost town of Silverado for a stash of gold left by her grandfather. Then the film pivots again into "Scooby-Doo" territory (four years before that cartoon premiered) when it appears that the ghost town has actual ghosts in it. Each pivot proves more unfortunate than the last; Presley could play a cad with a heart of gold in his sleep (and often did), but looks out to sea when called on to pull double-takes at fake cowboy ghouls.

15. Blue Hawaii

1961's "Blue Hawaii" was Presley's first cinematic trip to the newly-crowned 50th state, and for better and worse it set the mold for many of his films for the rest of the decade. Presley plays Chad Gates, a recently discharged GI who returns home to Honolulu, where his mother (Angela Lansbury, only nine years older than Presley in real life) expects him to take over the family fruit company. But Chad yearns for the simple life of a tour guide, working alongside his Hawaiian girlfriend Maile (Joan Blackman).

Presley's two previous (and better) films were attempts to expand the definition of what an "Elvis movie" could be, with more challenging subject matter and opportunities for Presley to be seen as a more serious actor. With "Blue Hawaii," producer Hal B. Wallis took a conscious step in the opposite direction ; the film is a light, fluffy dessert, all sandy beaches, ukulele-tinged songs, and weightless conflict that asked little of either Presley or the audience. Of course, it was a major success, on screen and in record stores. The soundtrack album produced at least one all-time classic in "Can't Help Falling in Love," which made it to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 .

14. Fun in Acapulco

1963's "Fun in Acapulco" follows the template set by "Blue Hawaii," setting Presley in the middle of a tropical seaside resort surrounded by exotic (but not too exotic) beauties, where he must prove his mettle in some local competition — in this case, cliff diving. As is often the case, Presley's character is ridiculously talented at a number of things, not just as an entertainer but also as a fisherman, lifeguard, circus acrobat, and expert diver. Working at a fancy hotel, he soon attracts the attention of nice girl Ursula Andress and bad girl Elsa Cardenas, while his overall awesomeness draws the ire of jealous fellow lifeguard Alejandro Rey.

Despite being a "Blue Hawaii" knock-off, "Acapulco" is a looser, more fun film overall, and one with an overall better soundtrack; the single "Bossa Nova Baby" made it to #8 on the charts . Presley filmed all of his scenes in the United States, but this time it wasn't Colonel Tom's fear of leaving the country that kept him out of Mexico, but a bizarre incident in which a Mexican newspaper columnist printed a false, racially inflammatory quote about Mexico attributed to Presley, which caused the Mexican government to ban his entry to the country and caused riots by Mexico's Elvis-loving teens (via The Mexico Daily Post ).

13. Girl Happy

Elvis and Shelley Fabares fall in love the old fashioned way, though needless subterfuge, in the 1965 Spring Break picture "Girl Happy." Chicago singer Rusty (Presley) and his band are hired by their tough-guy nightclub boss (Harold Stone) to look after his college-aged daughter Valerie (Faberes) while she's on vacation in Ft. Lauderdale. Of course, Rusty can't let her know that he's being paid by her father, even as she catches feelings for him and he begins to respond in kind. Will she respond in an even-keeled, reasonable way when Rusty's deception is finally revealed? Or will she instead get drunk and cause a riot in which all of Ft. Lauderdale's coeds are locked up and Rusty and the boys must tunnel their way into the jail?

Spring Break beach movies were all the rage in the early-to-mid 1960s; "Girl Happy" producer Joe Pasternak had made one of the earliest ones, 1960's "Where the Boys Are," and former child star Fabares had starred alongside '50s teen idol Fabian just the previous year in "Ride the Wild Surf." By '65 Presley had made his share of movies that took place on the beach, but this was his sole foray into the "beach movie" genre. Presley is as charming as ever here, and his chemistry with Fabares is solid, though it does feel strange once you notice that he never takes off his shirt in the film, even at the beach. The soundtrack's two singles, "Do the Clam" and "Puppet on a String" performed reasonably well, peaking at #21 and #14 , respectively.

12. Wild in the Country

Presley's last stab at being a dramatic actor until the end of the decade, 1961's "Wild in the Country" is neither fish nor fowl. Based on J.R. Salamanca's debut novel about a troubled young man who battles his demons and goes on to become a writer, the film was written by legendary playwright Clifford Odets and directed by writer-director Philip Dunne, both at the tail end of illustrious careers. The tone and subject matter are decidedly adult, seemingly made for a grown-up audience uninterested in Presley's whole thing, while Elvis fans were more interested in him shaking his hips than wrestling with his emotions.

And yet, the tension between these elements almost works. A major part of Presley's appeal as a recording artist was the vulnerability he could bring to his vocal performances, something that often gets lost in his film work. He fits well into the sort of role that would have been played by James Dean or Marlon Brando a decade earlier, and his casting goes a long way toward justifying why Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, and Millie Perkins would risk it all for a Bible-quoting, two-fisted dirtbag. Still, the film's mostly negative reception sent Presley running for the safety of low expectations with his next film, "Blue Hawaii."

11. Roustabout

It's high times under the big top in 1964's "Roustabout," with Presley as a roughneck musician whose fists and lips keep getting him into trouble. After getting booted from his regular gig due to a fight with some 40-year-old-looking fraternity brothers, Presley's Charlie Rogers takes the first job he can find, as a carnie (or roustabout, if you will) for a traveling fair run by Maggie (Barbara Stanwyck). When Maggie realizes that Charlie looks good on stage and can sing a tune or two, she makes him a star attraction. But Charlie can't help but make trouble for himself, whether it's with fellow carnie Cathy (Joan Freeman) or her overprotective father Joe (Leif Erickson).

Charlie and Cathy is the film's main romance, but its real love story is between Charlie and Maggie. Elvis films rarely have mother figures, which is odd considering what a mama's boy Presley famously (and proudly) was in real life. Stanwyck brings a frankly overqualified gravitas to the role, but like with Charles Bronson in "Kid Galahad," it brings out the best in Presley's performance. The film grossed less than a third of what his previous film, "Viva Las Vegas," brought in, but the soundtrack album went to #1 on the Billboard charts ; it would be Presley's last soundtrack album to reach the top of the charts, and his last #1 album of the entire decade.

10. Love Me Tender

The first Elvis movie wasn't even an Elvis movie. Presley made the jump to film in 1956, in a Civil War melodrama originally titled "The Reno Brothers." "Pollyanna" actor Richard Egan stars as Vance Reno, a Confederate soldier long thought dead, who returns to his family home to find that his sweetheart Cathy (Debra Paget) has married his youngest brother Cliff (Presley). Vance takes the news in stride, but the rest of the family, Cathy included, cannot reconcile with his return. Cliff, especially, grows overcome with jealousy and meets a tragic end.

In the first volume of Peter Guralnick's Elvis biography "Last Train to Memphis," he writes that Presley arrived on set in California not only with his own lines memorized, but everyone else's. No one was quite sure what to make of him at first, but he shortly won his co-stars over with his down-home mix of charm and humility. Director Robert D. Webb worked closely with Presley on line readings and script study; he was a natural, unvarnished actor and a quick study. As Presley was doing his thing on set, Colonel Tom Parker was doing his thing behind the scenes — namely working to use the film as a promotional tool for The King's massively popular single "Love Me Tender," even getting 20th Century Fox to rename the film in the song's honor.

9. Kid Galahad

Elvis ties on the gloves and tries his hand at an old-fashioned boxing picture in "Kid Galahad" from 1962. Presley plays Walter, a recently discharged GI and down-on-his-luck mechanic who takes a job sparring at an upstate New York boxing gym. (For those of you keeping count, that's three different macho jobs.) When he proves to be a natural in the ring, the gym's crooked owner (Gig Young) sets Walter up with a grizzled trainer (Charles Bronson) and starts booking fights. But Walter is ambivalent about his skill as a knockout artist; he would rather fix up old jalopies and canoodle with the gym owner's kid sister (Joan Blackman).

The film is already awash in boxing movie clichés even before gangsters show up looking for Walter to throw the big fight. But clichés become clichés because they work. Presley's soft, handsome face is no one's idea of a boxer's ugly mug, but Young and especially Bronson add some much needed grit, and the result plays like an affectionate cover of an old beloved tune.

8. Follow That Dream

Elvis stands up for squatter's rights in 1962's "Follow That Dream." When an itinerant family breaks down along an unopened stretch of Florida highway, the family patriarch Pop (Arthur O'Connell) and his son Toby (Presley) decide that they should just set down stakes right there. But that kind of old-fashioned pioneer thinking quickly brings trouble in the form of a highway commissioner who wants them gone, a social worker (Joanne Moore) spurned by Toby, and a pair of rough gamblers (Jack Kruschen, Simon Oakland) who set up an illegal casino next door to Pop and Toby.

Released between "Blue Hawaii" and "Kid Galahad," the film's story has a little more meat on its bones than either of them, even if it lacks the former's glitz and the latter's genre thrills. Presley in particular gets a chance to stretch his acting muscles, notably via a heartfelt monologue during the climactic courtroom scene. Befitting its slightly more serious tone, the film goes light on musical numbers, though the jaunty title song made it to #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 . 

Perhaps the most consequential element of the film happened behind the scenes: While filming in Florida, one of the local crewmen brought his nephew — a ten-year-old named Tom Petty  – onto the set to meet Presley. As reported by Gainesville Downtown , that brief encounter put Petty on his own path to rock and roll stardom; he and his band The Heartbreakers would make their first appearance on the charts just three months after Presley died in 1977.  

7. Live a Little, Love a Little

Just before Presley's three attempts at reinvention in 1969, he and longtime director Norman Taurog went full sex comedy in 1968's "Live a Little, Love a Little." The King plays Greg, a swinging fashion photographer who falls for a liberated wild child (Michele Carey) and her hound dog. Based on a novel by Dan Greenburg (who wrote the script with "Stay Away, Joe" scribe Michael Hoey), the film is an honest attempt at a screwball adult comedy, with Greg working gigs at both a "Playboy"-like magazine and an uptight advertising firm located in the same building, dodging his stodgy boss ( Rudy Vallee ) and getting into clinches with one scantily-clad model or another. If this wasn't the first Elvis movie to suggest that Presley's character was anything less than a perfect gentleman with his various love interests, it was certainly the most obvious about it.

Ultimately the film's attempt to bring the Elvis movie formula to a more adult, sophisticated audience doesn't quite work, though Presley's interest in shaking up his image was definitely piqued, as seen in his final films. The film's lightweight soundtrack album was mostly a non-starter, with single "A Little Less Conversation" peaking at #69 at time, though a remix by Junkie XL would make the song a proper hit decades later, going six-times platinum in 2002.

6. Loving You

For Presley's second feature, producer Hal Wallis optioned a 1956 short story by Mary Agnes Thompson about a young, gifted country singer who gets plucked from obscurity and becomes an overnight star, but one could be forgiven for thinking that 1957's "Loving You" was a lightly fictionalized take on Presley's own meteoric and controversial rise to fame. And in a way, it was; Wallis' choice of source material was clearly meant to evoke Presley's real life history as a 21-year-old Memphis truck driver who hit it big, and whose music thrilled the young and baffled the old.

The film was Presley's second, but in many ways it plays like a first. It was his first film as a headliner, his first film in color, and his first on-screen kiss. In his book "Last Train to Memphis," Peter Guralinick notes how Wallis and Colonel Tom Parker made the film as soft a launch for Presley as they could, with a cast and crew of seasoned pros and a good script — a professional, respectable production, as opposed to the rock and roll exploitation cheapies that had been cranked out over the last year after the success of "Love Me Tender." 

And though it would be a few years before the "Elvis movie" calcified into a routine, many of the hallmarks of Presley's later films are already here, from the good girl/bad girl love triangle to a plot that resolves itself so neatly and with so little conflict that it might as well have not been there at all. The soundtrack album, powered by singles like the title track and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" would peak at #1 on the Billboard pop chart .

5. G.I. Blues

After a two-year stint in the Army, in 1960 Presley returned to civilian life — and to Hollywood in the wholesome goof "G.I. Blues." While not quite as winkingly autobiographical as "Loving You," the film takes advantage of Presley's well-publicized military service, telling the story of an Oklahoma boy named Tulsa stationed in West Germany (as Presley was), who dreams of opening his own nightclub once he leaves the Army. To raise money for the club, he and his pal Dynamite (Edson Stroll) bet that Dynamite can seduce and spend the night with local dancer Lili (Juliet Prowse), who has a cold reputation. But when Dynamite is suddenly transferred to Alaska, the more chaste and respectful Tulsa must step in to win the bet. Can he win the bet and win Lili's heart?

The film marked a turning point for Presley and for the "Elvis movie" genre. Per Peter Guralnick's "Careless Love," Hal Wallis and Colonel Tom Parker already had this film lined up for Presley when he was discharged from the Army, along with two more "serious" films ("Flaming Star" and "Wild in the Country"). But "GI Blues," with its genial plot and Presley's new respectability (finally, an Elvis you can bring home to Father!), was a big hit, and its soundtrack album was even more successful, making it to #1 on the Billboard charts and outselling his non-soundtrack album "Elvis is Back!" by a healthy margin. When "Flaming Star" and "Wild in the Country" underperformed, the writing was on the wall: People wanted Elvis for a good time, and Presley and his team obliged with "Blue Hawaii" the next year.

4. Viva Las Vegas

What is it about 1964's "Viva Las Vegas" that makes it the best of Presley's "vacation" movies? On paper, the film doesn't sound terribly different from anything else he was making in the middle of the decade: A race car driver (Presley) coasts into Sin City on fumes, needing a new engine for his car in order to compete in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. While working as a waiter to raise the money, he falls for his hotel's beautiful swimming instructor (Ann-Margaret), tussles with his Italian racing and romance rival (Cesare Danova), and tours the city by land, water, and air.

There's an immediate difference in the film from the likes of "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" in its female lead. Ann-Margaret was coming in hot off the success of "Bye Bye Birdie" the year before, and the script is as much a showcase of her singing, dancing, and acting talents as it is Presley's. Her "Birdie" director George Sidney is behind the camera here as well, working with Presley for the first and last time, and getting sizzling chemistry between the two. The title song, of course, is an all-time banger; though it underperformed on the charts at the time, it has lived on for nearly 60 years as one of The King's signature hits, and the theme song for not just a city, but an entire midcentury modern vibe.

3. Jailhouse Rock

After a relatively breezy take on the Elvis phenomenon in "Loving You," 1957's "Jailhouse Rock" takes a darker look at The King and makes the implied delinquency of the rock and roll era literal. The story itself is a riff on "A Star is Born," with young Vince (Presley) serving a short prison stint for manslaughter when he learns to play guitar and sing from incarcerated country singer Hunk (Mickey Shaughnessy). Vince performs in an inmate talent show that is for some reason broadcast on television and becomes an overnight sensation, but when he is released from prison months later, he finds that it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. Eventually Vince does find the success he craves, but becomes a monster in the process, shoving aside both Hunk (whose country crooning is now too old fashioned) and Peggy ("Howdy Doody" actress Judy Tyler), the nice girl who believed in him when no one else did.

This isn't "A Star is Born," of course, so everything still works out fine by the end, but the film is surprisingly dramatic and surprisingly unsympathetic to Vince; when he receives a potentially career-threatening injury at the end of the film, there's the definite sense that he deserved it. Presley plays the first of many hotheads with a heart of gold here, but does it better than he ever would again. The film's biggest problem is that it has been overshadowed by Leiber and Stoller's killer title track and the centerpiece dance sequence , which burned itself into the public consciousness almost immediately. In 2004, the film was added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry .

2. Flaming Star

One of the two "serious" films starring Presley between "G.I. Blues" and "Blue Hawaii," the 1960 Western "Flaming Star" was a departure in more ways than one. The oater plot was nothing new — Presley is a mixed-raced cowboy trying to keep the peace between white settlers and native tribes in West Texas after the Civil War — but it was something new for The King, a vision (along with "Wild in the Country") of what adult stardom could look like, free of corny plots and musical numbers. Presley sings the title song off-screen and has just one other musical moment, singing at a gathering in a way that doesn't break the realism of the film.

Directed by Don Siegel of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (and later, a frequent collaborator of Clint Eastwood), the film dares to treat Presley and his character Pacer Burton seriously, and Presley gives it his all, something he would do when working with the right director (see the next entry). And while the film's treatment of its Native American characters is simplistic, it is nowhere near the offensiveness of something like "Stay Away, Joe." Critics took notice, giving Presley his best notices since "King Creole." Variety wrote that the film has "Indians-on-the-warpath for the youngsters, Elvis Presley for the teenagers, and socio-psychological ramifications for adults who prefer a mild dose of sage in their sagebrushers."

1. King Creole

Hollywood legend Michael Curtiz, director of "Casablanca" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood." Harold Robbins, the popular prolific novelist. Michael V. Gazzo, playwright and future "The Godfather, Part II" star. Elvis Presley. One of these things might not feel like the others, but this was the creative team behind Presley's best film, 1958's "King Creole." Based on Robbins' novel "A Stone for Danny Fisher," Gazzo and co-writer Hebert Baker transposed the action from New York to New Orleans and turned Danny from an angry young boxer to an angry young singer. On the hot streets of the Crescent City, Danny Fisher (Presley) is caught between a bad girl (Carolyn Jones) and her gangster boyfriend (Walter Matthau), a good girl (Delores Hart) begging for heartbreak, and the fog of petty crime that surrounds the club where Danny sings, the King Creole.

Shot in atmospheric black and white and with a cast of pros like Matthau, Jones, and Dean Jagger as Danny's wet blanket father, producer Hal Wallis once again set Presley up for success. As Peter Guralnick wrote in "Last Train to Memphis," Curtiz was a taskmaster on set, but Presley responded to that strong authority, and the two ultimately had a good working relationship. The film nearly didn't happen, as Presley was drafted right before filming was set to begin. Paramount Pictures petitioned the draft board for a 60-day deferment, which was granted, allowing Presley to complete filming. It was the right decision all around; the film was a critical and commercial smash, and its soundtrack album made it to #2 on the Billboard charts . Presley would have bigger financial successes, but he wouldn't hit the same artistic heights on film again.

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Elvis Presley's Films, Best to Worst

Ranking The King's Films from my personal favorites to the ones I did not admire so much. This is just my personal opinion.

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Follow That Dream (1962)

109 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

A family of ragtag vagabonds sets up a makeshift home on a Florida beach after becoming marooned there, prompting an uptight local bureaucrat to attempt to evict them.

Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Elvis Presley , Arthur O'Connell , Anne Helm , Joanna Moore

Votes: 2,995

Funniest Elvis picture, Arthur O'Connel is a great accompanist to Elvis.

2. Loving You (1957)

Approved | 101 min | Drama, Music, Musical

A musician and a publicist help a delivery man achieve stardom.

Director: Hal Kanter | Stars: Elvis Presley , Lizabeth Scott , Wendell Corey , James Gleason

Votes: 2,513

Elvis plays his part perfectly and his supporting cast also does very well. Raw talent at its best.

3. Flaming Star (1960)

Passed | 101 min | Drama, Western

When fighting breaks out between two cultures in West Texas, the mixed-blood Pacer tries to act as a peacemaker, but the "flaming star of death" pulls him irrevocably into the deadly violence.

Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Elvis Presley , Barbara Eden , Steve Forrest , Dolores Del Río

Votes: 4,075 | Gross: $1.96M

Very emotional performance by Elvis in this one.

4. Blue Hawaii (1961)

Approved | 102 min | Comedy, Musical

After arriving back in Hawaii from the Army, Chad Gates (Elvis Presley) defies his parents' wishes for him to work at the family business and instead goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Joan Blackman , Angela Lansbury , Nancy Walters

Votes: 7,501 | Gross: $10.44M

Very funny picture with a nice story that doesn't jump around too much.

5. Wild in the Country (1961)

Not Rated | 114 min | Drama, Musical

A troubled young man discovers that he has a knack for writing when a counselor encourages him to pursue a literary career.

Director: Philip Dunne | Stars: Elvis Presley , Hope Lange , Tuesday Weld , Millie Perkins

Votes: 2,082

Great dramatic performance, the love triangle (or square depending on how you look at it.) makes a great story line for this one.

6. Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Music, Musical

After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.

Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Elvis Presley , Judy Tyler , Mickey Shaughnessy , Vaughn Taylor

Votes: 9,833 | Gross: $4.00M

Best Performance, not just acting or singing, but his best all-around performance. He lit up the screen every second he was on it the entire show.

7. King Creole (1958)

PG | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Musical

A troubled youth's singing sets New Orleans rockin'. With a sweet girl to love him and nightclubbers cheering, it seems he will shake off his past and head for the top. But will a mobster and his man-trap moll snare him in a life of crime?

Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Elvis Presley , Carolyn Jones , Walter Matthau , Dolores Hart

Votes: 6,431

Best acting performance of all of his movies. Bad boy Elvis at his best.

8. G.I. Blues (1960)

PG | 104 min | Comedy, Musical

Tulsa, a soldier with dreams of running his own nightclub, places a bet with his friend Dynamite that he can win the heart of an untouchable dancer...but when Dynamite is transferred, Tulsa must replace him in the bet.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Juliet Prowse , Robert Ivers , James Douglas

Votes: 4,453 | Gross: $9.37M

Great start to his Post-Army acting career, too bad it was a downward spiral from here. Best soundtrack by far, not one bad song.

9. Love Me Tender (1956)

Approved | 89 min | Drama, Musical, Romance

At the end of the Civil War, a Confederate team is ordered to rob a Union payroll train but the war ends leaving these men with their Union loot, until the Feds come looking for it.

Director: Robert D. Webb | Stars: Richard Egan , Debra Paget , Elvis Presley , Robert Middleton

Votes: 4,712 | Gross: $4.50M

Early Elvis buds into a star in this one.

10. Stay Away, Joe (1968)

PG | 102 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

A mixed-race American Indian rodeo champ returns to the reservation to help his people out.

Director: Peter Tewksbury | Stars: Elvis Presley , Burgess Meredith , Joan Blondell , Katy Jurado

Votes: 1,528

Very funny, the opening scene with Joe Lightcloud chasing cows in his Cadillac and riding the bull into the corral from the pasture is very entertaining.

11. Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)

M | 90 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

Photographer Greg Nolan moonlights in two full-time jobs to pay the rent, but has trouble finding time to do them both without his bosses finding out.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Michele Carey , Don Porter , Rudy Vallee

Votes: 2,047

Very nice adult-comedy, lots of funny scenes in tied into an odd storyline.

12. Tickle Me (1965)

Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

A singing rodeo rider gets hired at an expensive all-female dude ranch/beauty spa and falls for a pretty fitness trainer who's under constant threat from a gang who wants her late grandfather's cache of gold that's hidden in a ghost town.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Julie Adams , Jocelyn Lane , Jack Mullaney

Votes: 2,027 | Gross: $7.41M

13. Girl Happy (1965)

Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

A Chicago mobster hires a rock'n'roll singer and his band to keep an eye on his daughter during Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Director: Boris Sagal | Stars: Elvis Presley , Shelley Fabares , Harold J. Stone , Gary Crosby

Votes: 2,969 | Gross: $7.09M

14. Kid Galahad (1962)

Approved | 96 min | Drama, Musical, Sport

After completing his military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter and takes him under his wing.

Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: Elvis Presley , Gig Young , Lola Albright , Joan Blackman

Votes: 3,111 | Gross: $1.80M

15. Frankie and Johnny (1966)

Approved | 87 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

A riverboat singer with a weakness for gambling wants to find his lucky redhead, but his girlfriend Frankie is not amused.

Director: Frederick De Cordova | Stars: Elvis Presley , Donna Douglas , Harry Morgan , Sue Ane Langdon

Votes: 2,391

16. It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)

Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

Mike and Danny hitch a ride to the World's Fair in Seattle after the sheriff seizes their crop duster biplane to cover Danny's gambling debts. Mike looks after the driver's 7 y.o. niece at the fair, where he meets a cute nurse.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Joan O'Brien , Gary Lockwood , Vicky Tiu

Votes: 3,133

17. Change of Habit (1969)

G | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Music

As an incognito nun tries to help a doctor clean up an inner-city ghetto, the pair grow closer with time.

Director: William A. Graham | Stars: Elvis Presley , Mary Tyler Moore , Barbara McNair , Jane Elliot

Votes: 2,720

Elvis wraps up his acting career with a decent performance.

18. Viva Las Vegas (1964)

Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Musical

A race-car driver preparing for the Grand Prix wiles his time in Las Vegas working as a waiter to pay for his new engine and soon strikes up a romance with a beautiful young woman.

Director: George Sidney | Stars: Elvis Presley , Ann-Margret , Cesare Danova , William Demarest

Votes: 9,225 | Gross: $5.13M

19. Speedway (1968)

G | 94 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

Poor bookkeeping saddles stock-car driver Steve Grayson with a huge bill for back taxes which hampers his ability to continue racing competitively.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Nancy Sinatra , Bill Bixby , Gale Gordon

Votes: 2,743

20. Roustabout (1964)

PG | 101 min | Drama, Music, Musical

After a singer loses his job at a coffee shop, he finds employment at a struggling carnival, but his attempted romance with a teenager leads to friction with her father.

Director: John Rich | Stars: Elvis Presley , Barbara Stanwyck , Joan Freeman , Leif Erickson

Votes: 3,314 | Gross: $7.19M

21. Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

PG | 106 min | Comedy, Musical

When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, a sailor has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. He is also caught between two women: insensitive club singer Robin and sweet Laurel.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Stella Stevens , Jeremy Slate , Laurel Goodwin

Votes: 3,624

22. The Trouble with Girls (1969)

G | 97 min | Comedy, History, Musical

Chautauqua manager Walter Hale and his loyal business manager struggle to keep their traveling troupe together in small-town America.

Director: Peter Tewksbury | Stars: Elvis Presley , Marlyn Mason , Nicole Jaffe , Sheree North

Votes: 1,777

23. Kissin' Cousins (1964)

Approved | 96 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

An Army officer returns to the Smoky Mountains to try to convince his kinfolk to allow the Army to build a missile site on their land. Once he gets there, he discovers that he has a look-alike cousin.

Director: Gene Nelson | Stars: Elvis Presley , Arthur O'Connell , Glenda Farrell , Jack Albertson

Votes: 2,502

24. Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)

Approved | 91 min | Comedy, Musical

Rick Richards is a helicopter pilot who wants to set up a charter flying service in Hawaii -- along the way he makes some friends, including a young Hawaiian girl and her father, romances Judy Hudson, and sings a few songs.

Director: Michael D. Moore | Stars: Elvis Presley , Suzanna Leigh , James Shigeta , Donna Butterworth

Votes: 2,467 | Gross: $2.50M

25. Charro! (1969)

G | 98 min | Western

Vince Hackett's gang steals a prized victory cannon from Mexico and blames the deed on ex-gang member Jess Wade, who wants to go straight.

Director: Charles Marquis Warren | Stars: Elvis Presley , Ina Balin , Victor French , Barbara Werle

Votes: 2,376 | Gross: $3.27M

26. Clambake (1967)

TV-G | 99 min | Comedy, Musical

The heir to an oil fortune trades places with a water-ski instructor at a Florida hotel to see if girls will like him for himself rather than for his father's money.

Director: Arthur H. Nadel | Stars: Elvis Presley , Shelley Fabares , Will Hutchins , Bill Bixby

Votes: 3,230

27. Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)

PG | 95 min | Adventure, Comedy, Music

Navy frogman, Ted Jackson (Elvis Presley), balances his time between twin careers as a deep sea diver and nightclub singer. During a dive, Ted spots sunken treasure and returns with hope to retrieve it.

Director: John Rich | Stars: Elvis Presley , Dodie Marshall , Pat Priest , Pat Harrington Jr.

Votes: 1,877 | Gross: $4.25M

28. Fun in Acapulco (1963)

PG | 97 min | Comedy, Music

A yacht owner's spoiled daughter gets Mike fired, but a boy helps him get a job as singer at Acapulco Hilton etc. He upsets the lifeguard by taking his girl and 3 daily work hours. Mike's also seeing a woman bullfighter.

Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Elvis Presley , Ursula Andress , Elsa Cárdenas , Paul Lukas

Votes: 3,783

29. Spinout (1966)

Not Rated | 93 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

Band singer/race driver Mike McCoy must choose between marrying a beautiful rich girl and driving her father's car in a prestigious race.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Shelley Fabares , Diane McBain , Deborah Walley

Votes: 2,358

30. Double Trouble (1967)

Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

When singer Guy Lambert goes on tour in Europe, he is pursued by two beautiful women, bumbling jewel thieves, and a mysterious killer.

Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley , Annette Day , John Williams , Yvonne Romain

Votes: 1,855 | Gross: $3.49M

31. Harum Scarum (1965)

Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical

American singer Johnny Tyronne is enlisted by sinister forces to assassinate an Arab king--and falls in love with that very king's daughter.

Director: Gene Nelson | Stars: Elvis Presley , Mary Ann Mobley , Fran Jeffries , Michael Ansara

Votes: 1,974

Bad, just bad. Poor acting by every single person in this picture.

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13 actors who have played Elvis Presley, ranked

• Elvis Presley has been portrayed countless times in movies and on TV.
• Here, we highlighted the best and ranked them.
• See where your favorite ranked.

13. Don Johnson, "Elvis and the Beauty Queen" (1981)

Four years after Presley's death, Don Johnson played Presley in this made-for-TV movie. It chronicled Presley's love affair with a beauty-pageant contestant in the last years of his life.

Johnson dressed as Elvis is hilarious and it's wild that Johnson didn't even attempt to mimic Presley's voice. It's just Johnson's voice. That's what we got.

12. David Keith, "Heartbreak Hotel" (1988)

A year after making his hit directorial debut "Adventures in Babysitting," Chris Columbus wrote and directed this silly comedy about a boy who kidnaps Presley.

Though David Keith looks nothing like the king, he at least attempted an Elvis Presley voice.

11. Jacob Elordi, "Priscilla" (2023)

A year after Austin Butler wowed audiences playing Presley in "Elvis," Jacob Elordi gave us his interpretation of the icon. He probably should have passed.

Though Sofia Coppola's latest is focused on Priscilla Presley, there's a lot of Elvis in it, and Elordi, though trying his best, falls flat.

Not only is his Elvis extremely unlikable, but it looks like the actor didn't put much preparation into playing the King, either. His portrayal is very one-note.

10. Harvey Keitel, "Finding Graceland" (1998)

With this late '90s drama, you get a dose of the road-trip genre and the magic of Presley.

Harvey Keitel plays a drifter who hitches a ride to Graceland, forming a bond with the man who picked him up in the process.

Keitel makes no attempt to give any Elvis flair to his performance, which is part of the charm of it.

9. Michael Shannon, "Elvis & Nixon" (2016)

The famous meeting between Presley and President Richard Nixon comes to life in this wacky movie.

Kevin Spacey plays the president and Michael Shannon is the rock-and-roll legend.

Thanks to some great make-up and costume work, Shannon pulls off the look of Presley, but when it comes to the voice, Shannon needed a little more work.

8. Bruce Campbell, "Bubba Ho-Tep" (2002)

There have been a lot of ways people have plugged Presley into stories, but this is one of the most creative.

Bruce Campbell takes on the mystique of Elvis in this adaptation of the cult-favorite novella.

Here, Campbell plays an elderly man in a nursing home who claims to be Presley. Along with friend Jack (Ossie Davis), a Black man who thinks he's John F. Kennedy, the two take on an ancient mummy who is taking the souls of residents of the nursing home.

7. Jack White, "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (2007)

We're pretty sure Jack White had more fun playing Presley than anyone on this list.

With a cameo appearance in this John C. Reilly comedy, White delivers an amazing portrayal as a pissed-off Presley who encounters Reilly's Dewey Cox backstage at a concert.

6. Tyler Hilton, "Walk The Line" (2005)

In the Oscar-winning biopic on Johnny Cash, Hilton's Presley has several encounters with Joaquin Phoenix's Cash.

Hilton has the look and voice to play young Presley, then a rocker who was just having fun playing music to screaming fans.

5. Val Kilmer, "True Romance" (1993)

Despite viewers never getting a good glimpse at Kilmer as Presley in this movie, Kilmer managed to captivate us anyways, earning him a high spot on this list. 

His performance as Presley as a figment of Christian Slater's Clarence character's imagination is fascinating, even though he's hardly in the camera's frame.

4. Kurt Russell, "Elvis" (1979)

Two years after Presley's death, John Carpenter (yes, the horror maestro who created the "Halloween" franchise) directed this made-for-TV biopic with Kurt Russell giving an impressive portrayal of the iconic musician.

It went on to earn three Emmy nominations, including a lead actor nomination for Russell.

3. Michael St. Gerard, "Elvis" (1990)

Though this TV series on the early years of Presley bombed (it was re-edited into a mini-series due to low ratings), the look and vocals of Gerard in the role is impressive.

Focusing on the Sun Records days, Gerard perfectly plays an Elvis who is just forming his craft.

And Gerard should know how to play Presley. Before the series, he had done it already in movies "Great Balls of Fire!" and "Heart of Dixie."

Then, after the series, he played Presley again in a 1993 episode of the hit TV show "Quantum Leap."

2. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, "Elvis" (2005)

Up until recently, it was an Irish actor who gave us the best Presley performance.

Meyers, who mastered both the look and the dance moves, is explosive as the King of Rock and Roll in this CBS miniseries that looked at Presley's rise to superstardom.

The performance earned Meyers an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globes win.

1. Austin Butler, "Elvis" (2022)

In Baz Luhrmann's explosive and dazzling biopic, Austin Butler's take on Presley elevates the movie from another visually stunning Luhrmann project into a story of substance.

He has the dancing down, the singing, the swagger, but it's Butler's raw acting that's most impressive, as we follow Butler's Presley on his journey to superstardom and watch as he deals with the weight that comes with it.

Butler's skills are put on full display from the late 1960s section of the movie all the way into the gripping final scenes. His heated encounters with Tom Hanks as his twisted manager Colonel Tom Parker were especially phenomenal.

Correction: November 16, 2023 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Don Johnson's acting career. He appeared in "Miami Vice" after "Elvis and the Beauty Queen," not before.

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Elvis Presley

Musician and actor Elvis Presley rose to fame in the mid-1950s—on the radio, TV, and the silver screen—and is one of the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll history.

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Who Was Elvis Presley?

Quick facts, presley’s music career, military service and marriage, movies and soundtracks, daughter, divorce, and drug addiction, death and legacy, how tall was elvis, elvis’ favorite foods, elvis’ pets, movies about elvis, elvis memorabilia at auctions, elvis impersonators, elvis presley today: ’reinventing elvis’ on paramount+.

Elvis Presley’s famous 1968 television special , which reignited the music icon’s career, is the subject of the new Paramount+ documentary Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback . Streaming August 15 in the U.S. and Canada, the movie provides a behind-the-scenes look at Presley’s legendary performance, which became the most-watched television event of that year. It will also feature updated versions of classic Elvis hits performed by Darius Rucker , Latin Grammy winner Maffio, and more.

Elvis Presley came from very humble beginnings and grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll—commonly referred to as “The King” of the genre. By the mid-1950s, he appeared on the radio, television, and the silver screen. On August 16, 1977, the 42-year-old died of heart failure, which was related to his drug addiction. Since his death, Presley has remained one of the world’s most popular music icons.

FULL NAME: Elvis Aaron Presley BORN: January 8, 1935 DIED: August 16, 1977 BIRTHPLACE: Tupelo, Mississippi SPOUSE: Priscilla Presley (1967-1973) CHILD: Lisa Marie Presley ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. (He later changed the spelling of his middle name to the biblical form of Aaron.) Presley was supposed to be a twin, but his brother, Jesse Garon (sometimes spelled Jessie), was stillborn. From very humble beginnings, Presley grew up to become one of the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll.

Raised by loving, working-class parents, Vernon and Gladys, Presley and his family had little money, and they moved from place to place frequently. He was deeply devoted to his parents, especially his mother, and was raised to have a strong faith in God. Presley attended the Assembly of God Church with his parents, where gospel music became an important influence for him.

Presley received his first guitar as a gift from his mother on his 11 th birthday in 1946 and had his first taste of musical success a few years later when he won a talent show at Humes High School in Memphis. After graduating in 1953, he worked a number of jobs while pursuing his musical dream. He cut his first demo record at what later became known as Sun Studio that year, and before long, Sam Phillips, the record label owner, decided to take the young performer under his wing. Presley soon began touring and recording, trying to catch his first big break. “That’s All Right” was Presley’s first single in 1954.

In 1955, Presley began to develop a following with fans being drawn to his unusual musical style, provocative gyrating hips, and good looks. That same year, he signed with RCA Records, a deal worked out by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker . Presley was on a roll, scoring his first No. 1 single with “Heartbreak Hotel,” as well as his first No. 1 album, Elvis Presley , and signing a movie contract with Paramount Pictures—all in 1956. Despite the uproar that his sexy dance moves caused, he also became a popular guest on a number of television variety shows.

Soon, Presley was everywhere, working as a musician and actor. His first film, Love Me Tender (1956), was a box office hit.

Throughout his amazing career, Presley helped popularize rock ’n’ roll music in America, earning his nickname as the genre’s king. He also won three Grammy Awards for his gospel recordings. A major musical force, Presley had 18 No. 1 singles, including “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Good Luck Charm,” and “Suspicious Minds,” as well as countless gold and platinum albums.

His career launched into superstardom thanks to a September 9, 1956, appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show . Sixty million viewers tuned in to watch Presley, then 21, perform “Don’t Be Cruel” as well as “Hound Dog” and “Love Me Tender” complete with the hip gyrations many found vulgar. He appeared two more times on the show over the next year, with the third censored from the waist down.

Presley’s 1957 album Elvis’ Christmas Album topped the Billboard charts for four weeks and would go on to sell more than 20 million copies in various editions, becoming the most popular holiday album of all time.

Also in 1957, Presley’s song for the film Jailhouse Rock of the same name reached No. 1. Rolling Stone ranked it 216 th on its list of the 500 best songs of all time in 2021.

Other notable Presley hits include “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “All Shook Up,” “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

In 1986, Presley was one of the first performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But he has been recognized for his contributions to several musical genres, most notably rock, country , and gospel. In 1998, Presley was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; three years later, he was posthumously inducted into the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Even a stint in the U.S. military couldn’t put a damper on Presley’s thriving career. He received his draft notice in 1957 and was inducted into the Army the following March. He eventually served in Germany for about a year and a half.

Shortly before Presley left for Europe, his beloved mother, Gladys, died. He was granted a leave and returned to Memphis for the funeral. Deeply saddened by her death, Presley returned to duty.

While in Germany, his spirits were lifted slightly when he met a young teenager named Priscilla Beaulieu . The pair fell in love and married on May 1, 1967, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

After leaving the Army in 1960, Presley resumed his career and was soon back at the top of the charts with the soundtrack for his film GI Blues . He continued recording music and acting in such films as Blue Hawaii (1961), Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). Although his films were often hit or miss with both critics and audiences, they brought in a profit, and the soundtracks usually sold well.

By the late 1960s, however, the enigmatic performer appeared to be losing his box office appeal. Proving he was still The King, he recorded his first TV special in 1968, often referred to as the ’68 Comeback Special . He wowed audiences with his performance, which showcased his talents as a singer and a guitarist.

Around this time, Presley’s personal life also seemed to be on an upswing. A year after he and Priscilla married, they had a daughter, Lisa Marie Presley , in 1968. Unfortunately, this joyous time would not last. By the early 1970s, Presley’s marriage was falling apart. The couple divorced in 1973, and Priscilla received custody of Lisa Marie.

Presley was also wrestling with other personal problems, including a growing addiction to prescription drugs. The once-thin rock star was battling a weight problem, and his destructive lifestyle caught up with him that fall when he was hospitalized for drug-related health problems.

Despite his personal obstacles, Presley remained a popular draw in Las Vegas and on tour. He performed at his last concert in June 1977, in Indianapolis, Indiana. After the concert, he returned home to his Memphis mansion, Graceland , to prepare for another tour.

On the morning of August 16, 1977, Presley died of heart failure at the age of 42. It was later ruled that his death was related to his prescription drug abuse. Presley was buried on the Graceland property, near the gravesites of his mother, father, and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood Presley.

Presley’s passing brought sadness to many. The FTD flower delivery service reported that more than 3,100 floral arrangements were ordered the day of his death, setting a one-day record in the United States.

An estimated 18,000 people with signs, flowers, and memorabilia lined Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis to catch a glimpse of his funeral procession on August 18. According to The Washington Post , a white Cadillac hearse transported Presley’s body, which laid inside a rose-covered coffin. About 200 family members attended a private ceremony at Graceland. Celebrities and notable figures like John Wayne , Burt Reynolds , Ann-Margret , and Caroline Kennedy were also there.

Presley was survived by his only daughter, Lisa Marie, and four grandchildren, who were all born after his death. Lisa Marie and her first husband, Danny Keough , had two children: daughter Danielle Riley Keough in 1989 and son Benjamin Storm Presley Keough in 1992. Now an actor, Danielle goes by her middle and last names— Riley Keough . She has had credited roles since the 2010s and recently starred in the series Daisy Jones & The Six . In 2008, Lisa Marie and her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, had twin daughters: Harper Vivienne Anne and Finley Aaron Love.

Presley’s height varies by source, but he is generally believed to be around 6 feet tall.

Army records have listed him at an even 6 feet, but an authenticated paper driver’s license that sold at auction in 2015 said Presley was 5-foot-11. A costume designer that worked with him has also claimed he is slightly under 6 feet tall.

Presley’s go-to snack was a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. His former cook Mary Jenkins Langston detailed the process of finding the perfect recipe in a 1996 BBC documentary The Burger & the King .

According to Priscilla Presley, Elvis rejected Langston’s first five attempts at making the sandwich before his father suggested toasting the bread first. It worked, but Langston had to use two sticks of butter for every three sandwiches Presley requested. She said he would ask for the delicacy at all times of the day, including the middle of the night.

The same documentary said Presley’s love of food went back to his childhood in Mississippi. His family sometimes ate squirrel, but he was most fond of pig feet, collard greens, and chitlins.

Among the other foods Langston cooked for Presley—often in large portions—were meatloaf, cheeseburgers, chicken-fried steaks, caramel cakes, and banana pudding. “He said that the only thing in life he got any enjoyment out of was eating,” Langston said .

Presley and his family owned a variety of different pets and animals. Elvis had a turkey named Bowtie, and his mother and father raised chickens and hogs on the land surrounding Graceland.

At one point, Elvis had a mynah bird that was trained to repeat excuses for why the singer couldn’t come to the telephone. Presley also owned several horses and dogs throughout his lifetime.

Presley also bought a chimpanzee named Scatter in 1961. The chimp wore human clothes and often hung out with Elvis and his friends but eventually became difficult to control. He was known to drink alcohol and trash dressing rooms on film sets. It is alleged that Graceland servants became so tired of dealing with Scatter’s antics that they poisoned him.

Presley’s Memphis home, Graceland , is open to the public, and numerous fans from around the world visit the legendary residence annually, especially around Presley’s birthday and the anniversary of his death.

Thousands of fans traveled to Graceland on August 16, 2012—the 35 th anniversary of Presley’s death—for a special vigil in honor of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. During the gathering, fans held lit candles and stood outside of Presley’s home. Although the Presley family holds a tribute event each year to mark the anniversary of Presley’s death, the 2012 gathering was unique: Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla, and daughter Lisa Marie appeared together for the first time at the annual event.

“You should see this from our point-of-view. It’s amazing,” Priscilla said during the event, according to the Washington Post . “The candles are lit. It’s truly a sight to behold... This is something that Elvis would never, ever have believed could have taken place here.”

Lisa Marie became the sole heir to Graceland following the deaths of her grandfather Vernon and great-grandmother Minnie May in 1979 and 1980, respectively. She took ownership of the estate on her 25 th birthday in 1993.

Lisa Marie passed control of Graceland to her children upon her death in January 2023. However, Priscilla quickly challenged her daughter’s will in court, claiming a 2016 amendment that replaced her as a co-trustee of Lisa Marie’s trust was invalid. Ultimately, the dispute between Priscilla and her granddaughter Riley Keough resolved in an August 2023 settlement that passed Elvis’ estate to Keough and her twin sisters.

Since his death, Presley has remained one of the world’s most popular music icons. Over the years, several documentaries and films have explored the enigmatic performer.

In 1979, John Carpenter directed the made-for-TV biopic Elvis , which starred Kurt Russell as Presley. However, Russell didn’t sing for the part; he lip-synced to country singer Ronnie McDowell. The film omits much of Presley’s life, including his death, but received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Two movies have been made about Presley’s famous visit with President Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970. Rick Peters played The King in the 1996 mockumentary Elvis Meets Nixon , while Michael Shannon took the role in 2016’s Elvis & Nixon . According to a 2020 Washingtonian article , a picture from the actual visit is the most-requested photograph from the U.S. National Archives.

A 2005 CBS television miniseries starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Presley, with Meyers winning a Golden Globe for his performance.

In 2018, a two-part documentary, Elvis Presley: The Searcher , was released; it explored his early life, rise to fame, and his myriad musical influences.

Austin Butler played Presley in the stylish 2022 biographical drama Elvis , directed by Baz Luhrmann. Tom Hanks played Colonel Tom Parker . The film received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Butler’s performance. Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie called the film “absolutely exquisite” and praised Butler, who “channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul beautifully.”

In 2023, Paramount+ announced it would stream a documentary, Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback , starting August 15 about Presley’s famous December 1968 television special. “I’m so proud of this film, because it presents Elvis as he really was, and looks at a specific moment in time—when Elvis took control of his life, his career, and his legacy,” said Steve Binder , who directed the 1968 special and serves as an executive producer.

Items from Presley’s career are coveted at auctions and have brought in big bucks.

His first record , an acetate recording of “My Happiness” from 1953, sold for $300,000 at Graceland in 2015. Presley originally paid $4 for the recording.

In 2018, an Omega watch gifted to Presley by RCA Records in 1961 sold in Geneva for more than $1.8 million. The watch is 18K white gold and has 44 diamonds around the bezel.

Another 2018 auction, held at the Guest House at Graceland and online, featured more than 200 keepsakes from third-party collectors which were all once owned, used, and signed by the King himself. The highest-priced item, a 1942 Beretta M1934 pistol given to Presley by General Omar Bradley, sold for more than $51,000.

Presley’s white jumpsuit from his first live performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1972 sold for $1,012,500 at the 2021 Artifacts of Hollywood and Music auction. Other Presley items sold included a jar of his hair for $72,500 and his racing helmet from Viva Las Vegas for $23,750.

In January 2023, Presley’s 1962 Lockheed JetStar airplane sold for $286,000 in Florida. The plane was in poor shape after sitting at the Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico for decades but featured red velvet upholstery and gold-finish hardware.

Because of the popularity of his music and his status as an iconic celebrity, Presley impersonators and tribute acts remain in high demand. They range from parodists and amateurs to actual part- and full-time professionals. One of the most famous was comedian Andy Kaufman , who made impersonating Presley part of his act in the 1970s.

In 2007, the BBC hosted a televised competition called The World’s Greatest Elvis that featured 30 of the top Presley tribute artists from around the world. Shawn Klush from Pittston, Pennsylvania—known as the “closest thing to the King”— won the title.

Since 2007, Memphis has hosted the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest during an annual Elvis Week celebration. The winner receives a $20,000 prize.

On July 12, 2014, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in North Carolina hosted a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of Elvis impersonators with 895 in attendance.

• Fingerprints are like values—you leave them all over everything you do.
• After a hard day of basic training, you could eat a rattlesnake.
• Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.
• Animals don’t hate, and we’re supposed to be better than them.
• Thank you, thank you very much.
• When things goes wrong, don’t go with them.
• Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a while, but it ain’t going away.
• Man, I really like Vegas.
• When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero of the movie. So every dream I ever had has come true a hundred times... I learned early in life that without a song, the day would never end. Without a song, a man ain’t got no friend. Without a song, the road would never bend—without a song. So I keep singing a song.
• Some people tap their feet, some snap their fingers, and some sway back and forth. I just sorta do them all together, I guess.
• Man, I was tame compared to what they do now. Are you kidding? I didn’t do anything but just jiggle.

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Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

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The 48 Best Movies on HBO Max Right Now (April 2024)

Another streaming service means another vast library of titles to sift through to find what you want to watch. Max is the streaming service from WarnerMedia, hosting not just titles from the pay cable channel HBO, but a bevy of films from the Warner Bros. library and other studios. There’s a great selection of classics, fairly new releases, quirky indies, and yes, superhero movies. The studio behind The Dark Knight and Man of Steel has a solid number of DC films available to stream. But if you’re daunted by all the good movies on Max to choose from, we’ve got your back. Below, we’ve put together a curated list of the absolute best movies on Max. Films that will be well worth your time, with our writers making the case for why each film is special.

So check out our list of the best movies on Max streaming below. And for more recommendations, check out our list of the best shows on Max , best drama movies on Max , and best horror movies on Max .

Editor's note: This article was updated April 2024 to include The Zone of Interest.

'The Zone of Interest' (2023)

Rotten tomatoes: 78% | imdb: 7.5/10, the zone of interest.

Release Date December 15, 2023

Director Jonathan Glazer

Cast Max Beck, Freya Kreutzkam, Sandra Hller, Christian Friedel

Runtime 105 minutes

Genres Drama, History, War

Read Our Review Jonathan Glazer ’s The Zone of Interest is a much-acclaimed historical drama that focuses on the family of an Auschwitz commandant who lives next to the concentration camp. While inspired by Martin Amis ’s 2014 novel of the same name, the film actually looks at the real-life people who inspired the book instead of being a direct book-to-screen adaptation. The movie stars Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller and premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, winning the Grand Prix and receiving praise for its direction, script, cinematography, sound design, and atmosphere. The movie won Oscars for Best International Feature and Best Sound and was nominated in three other categories. Hailed as one of the best films of 2023, The Zone of Interest presents a dispassionate look at the ordinary people who were part of extraordinary cruelty. With this brilliant movie, Glazer juxtaposes the mundane life of a family with the heinousness of the Holocaust, creating a film that is devastatingly real.

Watch on Max

'Priscilla' (2023)

Rotten tomatoes: 84% imdb: 6.5/10.

Release Date November 3, 2023

Director Sofia Coppola

Cast Ari Cohen, Jorja Cadence, Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi

Runtime 113 minutes

Genres Biography, Drama, Music

Based on Priscilla Presley ’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me , Sofia Coppola ’s Priscilla stars Cailee Spaeny in the title role alongside Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley . Coppola wrote and directed the film, which presents the untold story of the Presleys’ marriage and relationship through the eyes of Priscilla. A critical success, Priscilla is an intimate film about female youth and the toxicity of fame. Rather than be just another Elvis story, the movie focuses instead on Priscilla’s life and her growth as a person over the course of their many years together. The heartfelt narrative is further elevated by stellar performances by the two leads, who capture a tenderness and humanity that audiences don’t generally associate with such larger-than-life celebrities. Spaeny’s performance, in particular, is fascinating and earned the actor a Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globe Awards. It’s not much of a crowd-pleaser, but Priscilla has an emotional depth that looks beyond the rock-and-roll glamor of stardom.

'Dune' (2021)

Rotten tomatoes: 83% | imdb: 8.0/10.

Release Date October 22, 2021

Director Denis Villeneuve

Cast Josh Brolin, David Dastmalchian, Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya Coleman, Jason Momoa

Runtime 155 Minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Adventure

Adapted from Frank Herbert 's classic science fiction novel, Denis Villeneuve ‘s Dune is a sci-fi adventure drama that focuses on the conflict between two influential families on an alien planet. The movie features an ensemble cast that features Timothée Chalamet , Zendaya , Rebecca Ferguson , and Oscar Isaac . Highly successful at the box office and generally well-received by critics, Dune is an expansive work of worldbuilding, the likes of which are few and far between. It’s well-acted and well-written, but the visual spectacle of the film is what truly blows you away. The movie is truly cinematic in scale and ambition, presenting a beautiful and absorptive world that’s both strange and familiar. The film received a sequel in 2024, Dune: Part Two , which may be even better, but Dune remains a colossal work of science fiction cinema that should be required viewing for all lovers of cinema.

'Barbie' (2023)

Rotten tomatoes: 88% | imdb: 6.8/10.

Release Date July 21, 2023

Director Greta Gerwig

Cast Helen Mirren, Margot Robbie, Ariana Greenblatt, Simu Liu, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera

Runtime 114 minutes

Genres Comedy, Adventure, Fantasy

Greta Gerwig ’s Barbie is a surprisingly existential adaptation of Mattel’s eponymous fashion doll line. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling star as Barbie and Ken, who leave Barbieland and journey to the real world on a quest for self-discovery. The movie also features a stacked supporting cast that includes America Ferrera , Kate McKinnon , Issa Rae , and Michael Cera . With her Barbie movie, Gerwig takes the ultra-commercial entity and gives it a deeply thoughtful indie-movie-esque adaptation. That incongruity is precisely what has made Barbie such a celebrated film. Credit is also due to the stellar cast that balances comedy and real emotion to create relatable, three-dimensional characters. Witty and insightful, this Barbie broke records and wormed her way into hearts around the world, and we could all stand to learn from what she has to say.

'The Player' (1992)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 7.5/10, the player (1992).

Release Date April 10, 1992

Director Robert Altman

Cast Brion James, Greta Scacchi, Cynthia Stevenson, Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Robbins, Peter Gallagher, Fred Ward

Runtime 124 minutes

Genres Satire, Comedy

Written by Michael Tolkin and directed by Robert Altman , The Player is a hilarious satire about Hollywood. Starring incredible talents like Tim Robbins and Whoopi Goldberg , The Player also features a whopping 65 A-list cameos. That's right — there are 65 celebrity cameos in this movie. A film about filmmaking, The Player cleverly pokes fun at the industry with an outlandish plot about a movie exec who receives death threats from a screenwriter whose script was overlooked. Highlighted by biting humor and self-deprecation, The Player charms dark comedy lovers, earning several Oscar nominations and, ironically, even winning Best Adapted Screenplay. - Yael Tygiel

'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg' (1964)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 7.8/10, the umbrellas of cherbourg.

Release Date December 16, 1964

Director Jacques Demy

Cast Marc Michel, Anne Vernon, Nino Castelnuovo, Catherine Deneuve

Runtime 91 minutes

Genres Drama, Romance, Musical

Written and directed by Jacques Demy , The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a gorgeous musical romance where the entire film’s dialogue is sung. Even casual conversations are shared through music by Michel Legrand . Starring Catherine Deneuve , Anne Vernon , Nino Castelnuovo , and Marc Michel , Umbrellas of Cherbourg follows a young couple (Deneuve and Castelnuovo) attempting to find their way back to each other after being separated by circumstance.

Aside from award nominations and being an obvious influence on the 2016 musical La La Land and Greta Gerwig’ s Barbie , The Umbrellas of Cherbourg itself is a stunning musical masterpiece expressed through a clever format and unforgettable French songs.

'La Strada' (1954)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 8.0/10.

Release Date September 6, 1954

Director Federico Fellini

Cast Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart

Runtime 1 hr 48 min

Genres Drama

La Strada stars the dazzling Giulietta Masina as a young woman sent to live with a brutish street performer ( Anthony Quinn ), joining his traveling act as a clown, as well as his wife. The often uncomfortable yet absolutely unforgettable parable from director Federico Fellini explores themes of identity, strength, and compassion through fantastic acting and harsh scenes, co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli , and Ennio Flaiano .

La Strada ’s initial release on the festival circuit garnered immense criticism and controversial reactions, setting a foundation for Fellini's creative flair in his subsequent films. Highlighted by Quinn’s charisma and Masina’s wide-eyed naivety, La Strada devastatingly captures the audience's attention. - Yael Tygiel

'Judas and the Black Messiah' (2021)

Rotten tomatoes: 97% | imdb: 7.4/10, judas and the black messiah.

Release Date February 12, 2021

Director Shaka King

Cast LaKeith Stanfield, Martin Sheen, Ashton Sanders, Dominique Fishback, Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons

Runtime 126

Genres Biography, History

Directed by Shaka King , Judas and the Black Messiah is a powerful film. Inspired by a true story, it shines a light on an important part of American history. This biographical crime drama co-stars Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and LaKeith Stanfield as William O'Neal, a reluctant FBI informant tasked with infiltrating the party in late-1960s Chicago. Judas and the Black Messiah also features Jesse Plemons and Dominique Fishback.

Judas and the Black Messiah not only earned a handful of Oscar nominations for the film, but Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, competing against co-star Stanfield. While the acting, soundtrack, and production are truly stellar, the harsh realities of revolution exposed in the film are triumphant and moving. - Yael Tygiel

'8 1/2' (1963)

Release Date May 29, 1963

Cast Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, Marcello Mastroianni

Runtime 2 hr 18 min

Genres Drama, Comedy

Directed by Federico Fellini , who co-wrote the film with Ennio Flaiano , Tullio Pinelli , and Brunello Rondi , 8 1/2 delightfully blends comedy, drama, and avant-garde surrealism. An Italian film about movie making, 8 1/2 f ocuses on a frustrated filmmaker attempting to direct his epic sci-fi movie. Starring Marcello Mastroianni as the harried director who finds himself withdrawing into his own mind, electing to live in memories and fantasies rather than reality, 8 1/2 imaginatively explores the creative mind in honest and dream-like ways.

A classic film that utilizes clever practical effects to explore dreamscapes, 8 1/2 gorgeously touches sensuality, the plight of artists, and both internal and external pressure when pursuing greatness. 8 1/2 has earned awards and critical praise, but the film’s respect from modern visionaries like Guillermo del Toro is an endorsement on its own. - Yael Tygiel

'Bicycle Thieves' (1948)

Rotten tomatoes: 99% | imdb: 8.3/10, bicycle thieves.

Release Date November 24, 1948

Director Vittorio De Sica

Runtime 89 minutes

Vittorio De Sica directs Bicycle Thieves , an Italian neorealist film starring Lamberto Maggiorani as a desperate father in post-World War II Rome. Bicycle Thieves co-stars Enzo Staiola as the man’s plucky son, who joins him on his journey to recover his stolen bicycle, a necessity for employment and to keep his family afloat. Writer Cesare Zavattini adapted Luigi Bartolini ’s novel for the screen, allowing for grounded performances and torrid emotional turmoil to be showcased above all else.

With a depressing setting and heavy plot, Bicycle Thieves is, at its core, a powerful film about desperation and resilience, expressed through a heart-wrenching story. Although set in a particular time and place, it is devastatingly relatable regardless of history and location. - Yael Tygiel

'The 400 Blows' (1959)

Rotten tomatoes: 99% | imdb: 8.1/10, the 400 blows.

Release Date May 4, 1959

Director Francois Truffaut

Cast Claire Maurier, Albert Remy, Jean-Pierre Laud

Runtime 1 hr 39 min

Serving as the directorial debut of François Truffaut , who co-wrote the film with Marcel Moussy , The 400 Blows is a French coming-of-age drama about a rebellious pre-teen boy in Paris who turns to petty crime and delinquency when neglected. Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud , Albert Rémy , and Claire Maurier , The 400 Blows is considered a defining film of French New Wave filmmaking.

While many films explore adolescence and coming-of-age stories are a dime a dozen, The 400 Blows beautifully and sympathetically offers a raw perspective at a transitional time period with an honest reflection on the sometimes heartbreaking realities of growing up. - Yael Tygiel

'Stalker' (1979)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 8.1/10.

Release Date May 25, 1979

Director Andrei Tarkovsky

Cast Alexander Kaidanovsky

Runtime 162 minutes

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi

A mesmerizing sci-fi masterpiece from director Andrei Tarkovsky , Stalker was written by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky and based on their trippy 1972 novel Roadside Picnic . The film stars Aleksandr Kajdanovsky as the illegal guide journeying across a postapocalyptic landscape where the laws of physics seem irrelevant, bringing a writer ( Anatoliy Solonitsyn ) and scientist ( Nikolay Grinko ) to a mythical place believed to grant wishes.

Stalker explores a variety of existential themes through haunting scenes and stunning shots, which slowly draw in audiences to dive into complex philosophical conundrums. With a unique approach to narrative, sound design, and humanity, Stalker ’s influence expands beyond cinema by inspiring the evolution of the annual festival known as Burning Man. - Yael Tygiel

'Wages of Fear' (1953)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 8.2/10, wages of fear.

Release Date April 22, 1953

Director Henri-Georges Clouzot

Cast Yves Montand, Folco Lulli, Charles Vanel

Runtime 2 hr 33 min

Genres Thriller

Wages of Fear is an intense existential thriller from director Henri-Georges Clouzot . Adapted from Georges Arnaud ’s 1950 novel and starring Yves Montand , Charles Vanel , Peter van Eyck , and Véra Clouzot , Wages of Fear follows four European men in a South American jungle who are hired by an American oil company to transport nitroglycerine. Through gritty shots and spine-tingling extended suspense sequences, Wages of Fear includes countless scenes that will leave viewers holding their breath.

Wages of Fear continues to captivate audiences, particularly with its balance of biting satire and heart-pumping intensity. It comes as no surprise that Netflix is currently in the process of remaking the French movie. - Yael Tygiel

'Stagecoach' (1939)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 7.8/10.

Release Date March 2, 1939

Director John Ford

Cast Andy Devine, John Carradine, John Wayne

Runtime 1 hr 36 min

Genres Western

Considered John Wayne ’s legendary breakout role, Stagecoach is an exciting Western that follows a group of strangers traveling via stagecoach through Apache territory. Based on Ernest Haycox ’s short story The Stage to Lordsburg , Stagecoach was directed by John Ford ( The Grapes of Wrath ) and features an ensemble cast alongside Wayne, including Claire Trevor , Andy Devine , and John Carradine ( The Ten Commandments ).

Earning two Academy Awards as well as a slew more nominations, Stagecoach has been adapted for radio, as well as remade quite a few times. Although a fun ride, the historical inaccuracies and blatant prejudices portrayed in the movie, particularly pertaining to indigenous cultures, are undeniable and should not be overlooked. - Yael Tygiel

'Tokyo Story' (1972)

Tokyo story (1953).

Release Date March 13, 1972

Director Yasujir Ozu

Cast Setsuko Hara, S Yamamura, Chieko Higashiyama, Chish Ry

Runtime 136 minutes

Yasujirō Ozu ’s Tokyo Story is a gorgeous drama that follows a retired couple on their journey to visit their grown children in the Japanese capital. Starring ChishÅ« RyÅ« and Chieko Higashiyama , Tokyo Story is a slow burn as it cleverly weaves a story through dialogue, with many key scenes not being shown on screen. Highlighted by a unique use of camera angles, Tokyo Story leans into the generational tale with a rich emotional complexity.

While the technical aspect of Tokyo Story is captivating, the true draw is the generational story, focusing on themes of Westernization. While this film is specifically about a traditional Japanese family as they recover from World War II, these types of shifts within societies are relatable to a multitude of cultures around globe. - Yael Tygiel

'Battleship Potemkin' (1925)

Rotten tomatoes: 100% | imdb: 7.9/10, battleship potemkin.

Release Date December 21, 1925

Cast Grigori Aleksandrov, Aleksandr Antonov

Runtime 1 hr 17 min

Battleship Potemkin is a truly unique film from writer-director Sergei Eisenstein . A silent film that unfolds over five separately titled acts, Battleship Potemkin focuses on the 1905 naval mutiny of an Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet’s battleship. Battleship Potemkin features a collection of non-actors, including Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barksy, and Grigori Aleksandrov , as Eisenstein opted for specific looks and vibes over identifiable movie stars.

Bringing history to the screen, Battleship Potemkin cleverly shares the gruesome realities of revolution, resulting in just over an hour of cinematic brilliance. Over the years, Battleship Potemkin has been praised for its clever montage editing techniques, which earned the film a place within the top ranks of many "best films" lists. - Yael Tygiel

'Pulp Fiction' (1994)

Rotten tomatoes: 92% | imdb: 8.9/10, pulp fiction.

Release Date September 10, 1994

Director Quentin Tarantino

Cast Tim Roth, Bruce Willis, Amanda Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, Eric Stoltz, John Travolta

Runtime 154

Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime

Read Our Review

Pulp Fiction , directed by Quentin Tarantino , follows several interconnected storylines. One follows Vincent Vega ( John Travolta ), a hitman in the employ of gangster Marsellus Wallace ( Ving Rhames ). His encounters with Mia Wallace ( Uma Thurman ), Marsellus's wife, result in a sequence of intense and unpredictable events. Another narrative thread focuses on Jules Winnfield ( Samuel L. Jackson ) and Vincent Vega as they carry out their assignments. The last one centers on Butch Coolidge ( Bruce Willis ) and his decision to defy Marsellus Wallace's orders, which sets off a chain reaction of events that intertwine with the other characters.

Pulp Fiction is a landmark neo-noir crime film that gained widespread acclaim for its unique narrative structure and impactful storytelling. Almost 30 years later, it remains a cultural touchstone and a testament to Tarantino's influence on contemporary filmmaking. Furthermore, the dialogue is razor-sharp, the performances are flawless, and the twists consistently deliver surprises. Notably, iconic dance moves serve as the film's signature, enduring the test of time. The film was also crafted as a satirical commentary on the themes of contingency and redemption, foundational elements often found in more conventionally typical Hollywood productions. As lively as it is gripping, Pulp Fiction is a thrilling blend of pop culture and pulp, and it undeniably stands out as one of the finest movies of the 1990s. - Jessie Nguyen

'Eighth Grade' (2018)

Rotten tomatoes: 99% | imdb: 7.4/10, eighth grade.

Release Date August 3, 2018

Director Bo Burnham

Cast Deborah Unger, Greg Crowe, Missy Yager, Emily Robinson, Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton

Runtime 93 minutes

Genres Drama, Comedy, Documentary

Directed and written by Bo Burnham , Eighth Grade follows Kayla ( Elsie Fisher ), a teenager navigating the challenges of middle school, grappling with anxiety while striving for social acceptance in the final week of eighth grade. To cope, she creates video blogs offering motivational advice, but her fixation on social media strains her relationship with her otherwise supportive father ( Josh Hamilton ), who desires to be an active presence in her life as her sole parent.

In his directorial debut, Eighth Grade is Burnham’s meticulously crafted ode to the tumultuous and bewildering middle school years, offering reassurance to those experiencing it that things will ultimately get better. Eighth Grade is also one of those rare movies that, despite its subjective individuality, appeals to both adolescent and adult audiences by teaching universal life lessons that everyone must experience and master in order to become an adult. In addition, viewers truly experience Kayla's awkwardness, embarrassment, and cringe-worthy nature as she and other schoolchildren attempt to appear older than they actually are, demonstrating Fisher's true talent and the potential impact of their future. Additionally, Burnham's comedy experience comes through, as his comedic timing both eases the tension and warmly welcomes the audience to the plot. - Jessie Nguyen

'Room' (2015)

Rotten tomatoes: 93% | imdb: 8.1/10.

Release Date October 16, 2015

Director Lenny Abrahamson

Cast Amanda Brugel, Megan Park, Sean Bridgers, Brie Larson, William H. Macy, Joan Allen

Genres Drama, Thriller, Documentary

Based on Emma Donoghue 's 2010 novel of the same name, Room is directed by Lenny Abrahamson and adapted for the screen by Donoghue. The movie follows Ma, played by Brie Larson , a young woman who has endured seven years of captivity, during which her five-year-old son ( Jacob Tremblay ) was born. Their escape finally grants the boy his first experience of the outside world.

Room presents both the highest and lowest facets of humanity within a captivating narrative that delves into the boundless resilience of the human spirit, even in the face of the most daunting challenges. In this examination of loneliness, identity, and the illusion of protection, Larson showcases her most vulnerable state and also displays the height of her talent. She was then awarded an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the portrayal. Jacob Tremblay's performance is also exceptional, indicating his potential to become a prominent star in the future. Additionally, director Lenny Abrahamson and cinematographer Danny Cohen , in collaboration with Donoghue's screenplay, present a distressing story through the lens of the most innocent perspective, resulting in a truly distinctive cinematic experience. Rather than avoiding the harsh realities, Room confronts them directly and unflinchingly. - Jessie Nguyen

'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006)

Rotten tomatoes: 75% | imdb: 6.9/10, the devil wears prada.

Release Date June 30, 2006

Director David Frankel

Cast Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway, Simon Baker, Meryl Streep, Adrian Grenier

Runtime 109 minutes

Based on Lauren Weisberger 's 2003 novel of the same name, The Devil Wears Prada follows Andy ( Anne Hathaway ), a recent college graduate with ambitious dreams. When she secures a job at the renowned Runway magazine, she becomes the assistant to the formidable editor, Miranda Priestly ( Meryl Streep ). Andy then embarks on a challenging journey, questioning her ability to endure her demanding role as Miranda's assistant without getting burned.

It's a rare film that not only matches but surpasses the quality of its source material. Viewers continue to ponder the movie's valuable lessons long after the laughter has faded, as these lessons are well-founded, enduring, and skillfully conveyed by the talented actors who bring genuine depth to the material. The Devil Wears Prada continues to be a frontrunner in people's minds when it comes to the most stylish films. However, it goes beyond that, offering a captivating and often comedic peek into the high-speed and alluring realm of high fashion. It also provides viewers with a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes operations of a prestigious fashion magazine. Furthermore, the characters, especially the formidable Miranda Priestly, have achieved icon status in popular culture, solidifying the film's position as a classic. Streep's performance also earned her another Oscar nomination, further recognizing her outstanding portrayal. - Jessie Nguyen

All 74 Movies Leaving Hulu in May 2024

May thy knife chip and shatter.

Hulu will have over 120 new shows and movies coming to the platform this May, but that also means it will have its share of departures. With nearly 75 titles leaving the streamer, it can be hard to keep track of what you need to watch before it's gone. Luckily, we have the entire list below. From Denis Villuenve 's Dune to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom , here is everything leaving Hulu in May 2024.

The 21 Best Horror Movies on Hulu Right Now

Read more about the best movies and shows on hulu:.

• The 65 Best Shows on Hulu Right Now
• The 36 Best Movies on Hulu Right Now
• The 17 Best Thrillers on Hulu Right Now

Leaving May 7:

'war dogs' (2016).

Loosely based on the true story of two young men, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, who won a three hundred million dollar contract from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan.

Leaving May 11:

• The Last Unicorn (1982)

Leaving May 13:

• Empire of Light (2022)

Leaving May 14:

'dior and i' (2014).

Also leaving May 14:

• The Brass Teapot (2012)
• The Cleaner (2021)
• Dramarama (2020)
• Elena Undone (2010)
• Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room (2005)
• The Etruscan Smile (2018)
• Hurricane Bianca (2016)
• One Last Thing … (2005)
• Pit Stop (2013)
• Sordid Lives (2000)
• We The Animals (2018)

Leaving May 15:

'popstar: never stop never stopping' (2016), popstar: never stop never stopping.

Also leaving May 15:

• The Fabulous Filipino Brothers (2021)
• The Tiger Rising (2021)

Leaving May 16:

• Under the Eiffel Tower (2018)

Leaving May 18:

• Sophie’s Choice (1982)

Leaving May 25:

• How to Please a Woman (2022)

Leaving May 30:

'elvis' (2022).

The life of American music icon Elvis Presley, from his childhood to becoming a rock and movie star in the 1950s while maintaining a complex relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

Leaving May 31:

'ali' (2001), 'divergent' (2014).

In a world divided by factions based on virtues, Tris learns she's Divergent and won't fit in. When she discovers a plot to destroy Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents dangerous before it's too late.

'Dune' (2021)

'jurassic world: fallen kingdom' (2018), jurassic world: fallen kingdom (2018).

When the island's dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen and Claire mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.

'Pokémon: Detective Pikachu' (2019)

'taken' (2009).

Also leaving May 31:

• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
• Bad Teacher (2011)
• Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
• Bend It Like Beckham (2003)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Blockers (2018)
• Dangerous Beauty (1998)
• The Descendants (2011)
• The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015)
• The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016)
• Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
• Drive Angry 3D (2011)
• Epic (2011)
• Ever After (1998)
• Firehouse Dog (2007)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
• The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)
• Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
• Kingdom Come (2001)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Life of Pi (2012)
• The Little Hours (2017)
• Masterminds (2016)
• Melancholia (2011)
• Night School (2018)
• No Good Deed (2014)
• Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
• Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
• Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)
• ​​​​​​​Salt (2010)
• Scarface (1983)
• Sexy Beast (2001)
• Shark Tale (2004)
• Street Kings (2008)
• Takers (2010)
• Thank You for Smoking (2006)
• Thirteen (2003)
• The Tree of Life (2011)
• Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011)
• Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
• A Walk in the Woods (2015)
• The Upside (2017)
• Win Win (2011)
• The Wrestler (2008)
• 21 & Over (2013)

Every Movie Leaving Hulu in May 2024

Hulu subscribers will most certainly want to add these films to their watch lists before they leave the platform.

Hulu is well known for having a deep library of content. As such, it’s easy for viewers to add a slew of films to their watchlists and then forget about the never-ending selection. However, before the end of May, subscribers of the streaming service will want to make sure they check off the movies below and add the exciting titles to their next movie night before it’s too late.

Given the myriad of films leaving the platform in the coming weeks, viewers will most definitely want to act quickly. Otherwise, a film they’ve been itching to see for a while will be gone. With the wide array of genres to choose from, Hulu subscribers will most certainly want to add a number of films to their watch lists before they leave the platform for good. Here is every movie leaving Hulu in May 2024.

Empire of Light

Leaving may 13.

Directed by Sam Mendes, Empire of Light is a drama about the necessity for human connection during unsettled times. Set in the early 1980s in an English coastal town, the film follows Hilary (Olivia Colman) and Stephen (Michael Ward), whose lives intersect at a time when they both could use a friend or possibly something more. The manager of a movie theater known as Empire Cinema, Hilary struggles with her mental wellbeing. A new employee at the theater, Stephen longs to leave the limited town where he faces adversity and racism on a regular basis. Together, they ultimately find a sense of belonging with each other and experience the healing power of music, movies, and community.

Why Empire of Light Didn't Get the Awards Attention Many Expected

While the film received mixed reviews from critics upon its release, audiences seemingly loved it. With a myriad of wonder performances and a director like Mendes at the helm, Empire of Light understandably captured the hearts of many viewers. Lauded as a beautifully haunting and tender film, Hulu subscribers will undoubtedly want to watch it before it leaves the platform for good. Empire of Light is leaving Hulu on May 13.

Leaving May 30

Elvis is an award-winning music biopic film starring Austin Butler as the American music icon. The film follows the rise of Elvis’ career as well as the complex and toxic relationship he had with his longtime manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). While the film is a story about Elvis, it’s mainly told from the perspective of his controversial and divisive manager. Chronicling the highs and lows of his career, Elvis showcases the financial manipulation and drug abuse the singer endured as a result of Parker’s actions before his untimely death in 1977.

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing, but failed to take home any statues. Nevertheless, Elvis is a phenomenal movie about a legendary artist, with an amazing performance by Butler, who perfectly captured the swagger and spirit of the beloved singer. Elvis is leaving Hulu on May 30.

Pokémon Detective Pikachu

Leaving may 31.

Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a live-action comedy film for children and adults who love the world of Pokémon. The film follows Tim (Justice Smith) as he sets off to discover what happened to his father, Harry Goodman, a phenomenal detective who recently went missing. Before his journey begins, Tim encounters his father’s previous Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds). An adorably hilarious and wise-cracking creature, Pikachu teams up with Tim to help find Harry.

Unlike other Pokémon, Pikachu can actually talk, although Tim is the only one who can understand him, which means they’re uniquely equipped to investigate Harry’s disappearance. As they follow clues through the streets of Ryme City, a metropolis where humans and Pokémon happily coexist side by side, they cross paths with a slew of beloved Pokémon characters viewers will likely revel in seeing on screen. Unfortunately, the pair eventually uncover a shocking conspiracy that could shatter the city’s harmony and ultimately threaten the entire Pokémon universe. Pokémon Detective Pikachu is leaving Hulu on May 31.

Detective Pikachu

Jurassic world: fallen kingdom.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a science fiction action film and serves as the second installment in the Jurassic World trilogy . Following the events of the first film, Isla Nublar is now abandoned after everyone escaped the island, which now belongs to the wild dinosaurs. However, when a previously dormant volcano threatens to kill them off, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) recruits Owen (Chris Pratt) to garner support for a rescue campaign to save the remaining dinosaurs from extinction yet again.

Given that his beloved Velociraptor, Blue, faces imminent death, Owen inevitably agrees to join the cause. However, as expected, nothing goes according to plan. As Owen does his best to track down Blue, he inadvertently uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the entire planet by potentially disrupting the natural order of every creature on the globe. Although, as is always the case in the universe of Jurassic World , life finds a way. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is leaving Hulu on May 31.

For a complete list of every movie leaving Hulu, check the list below.

• Apollo 18 (2011)
• The Libertine (2004)
• War Dogs (2016)
• The Last Unicorn (1982)
• Empire of Light (2022)
• The Brass Teapot (2012)
• The Cleaner (2021)
• Dior and I (2014)
• Dramarama (2020)
• Elena Undone (2010)
• Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room (2005)
• The Etruscan Smile (2018)
• Hurricane Bianca (2016)
• One Last Thing … (2005)
• Pit Stop (2013)
• Sordid Lives (2000)
• We The Animals (2018)
• The Fabulous Filipino Brothers (2021)
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
• The Tiger Rising (2021)
• Under the Eiffel Tower (2018)
• Sophie’s Choice (1982)
• How to Please a Woman (2022)
• Elvis (2022)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
• Bad Teacher (2011)
• Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
• Bend It Like Beckham (2003)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Blockers (2018)
• Dangerous Beauty (1998)
• The Descendants (2011)
• Divergent (2014)
• The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015)
• The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016)
• Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
• Dune (2021)
• Drive Angry 3D (2011)
• Epic (2011)
• Ever After (1998)
• Firehouse Dog (2007)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
• The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)
• Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
• Kingdom Come (2001)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Life of Pi (2012)
• The Little Hours (2017)
• Masterminds (2016)
• Melancholia (2011)
• Night School (2018)
• No Good Deed (2014)
• Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
• Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
• Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)
• Pokemon Detective Pikachu (2019)
• Salt (2010)
• Scarface (1983)
• Sexy Beast (2001)
• Shark Tale (2004)
• Street Kings (2008)
• Taken (2009)
• Takers (2010)
• Thank You for Smoking (2006)
• Thirteen (2003)
• The Tree of Life (2011)
• Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011)
• Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
• A Walk in the Woods (2015)
• The Upside (2017)
• Win Win (2011)
• The Wrestler (2008)
• 21 & Over (2013)