Elvis Movies Ranked Worst To Best

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.