Sunday, September 29, 2013

Stay Away, Joe



Cigar smokin', beer drinkin', womanizing Elvis
Stay Away, Joe was filmed in the beautiful Sedona, Az area circa
1968. The aesthetic value of enjoying this unspoiled scenery is
worth the price of admission or price of the video.
A departure from the previous Elvis formula movie...Elvis drinks
beer, smokes cigars, puts the moves on every women he sees, regardless if she is spoken for or not. Oddly enough, Elvis
does not "get the girl." in the end.
Stay Away, Joe is totally slapstick, silly, outrageously camp.
The indian stereotypes are politcially incorrect by today's standards. But both whiteman and indians are portrayed as boozing, brawling buffoons.
This is perhaps the worst editing I ever saw in a film. Fight
scenes and dance scenes and at time the music soundtrack is
uneven and incongruous. Burgess Meredith portrays Elvis' indian
father and is without a doubt the worst makeup job ever fimed.
His makeup looks like it was applied with a putty knife...

They Threw Away The Boilerplate and Still Made a Bomb
If you watch the original trailor or listen to the songs from this movie you can't imagine that it could be so bad - the primary reason is that Native Americans are portrayed in the most stereotypical way possible. This is amazing in light of Elvis' Pacer character from "Flaming Star" eight years before, which received formal recognition as a positive portrayal. The film also has a very low budget look. For Elvis historians, it's possible to view it as a step closer to the '68 TV Special and re-emerged credibility.

Truly dreadful - stay away from Stay Away Joe
I found this at Big Lots for $3.00. One of the most truly dreadful movies ever to use up perfectly good film stock. Now and then there is a scenic view of the beautiful country around Sedona, Arizona, but you would be better off looking at a National Geographic magazine of the same. To call this movie "slapstick" is an insult to the Keystone Kops and Laurel and Hardy. Do not be fooled by the supporting cast of formerly good actors. They must have been desperate for a movie role to have accepted these roles. This must be an example of why Elvis became sick and tired of making cheesy movies and went back to performing on stage. I saw Elvis in person twice (Honolulu, 1957 and San Diego, 1976) so am predisposed to like Elvis. I liked him before he was cool.

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