17-year-old Jill Conway is a precocious teenage heiress played by 19-year-old Annette Day, an English girl who happened to be in Hollywood at the time, yet neglected to take any acting lessons.
Jill falls for Guy Lambert (guess who?), an American pop singer touring Europe. The scene shifts from London to Bruges and finally to Antwerp – although the film was actually filmed on a badly designed MGM set in Culver City.
Jill’s fortune has been secretly depleted by Uncle Gerald (John Williams), who decides she must die for his sins, sparking some memorable scenes. The masked mayhem in Antwerp is genuinely menacing.
Yvonne Romain adds intrigue as sophisticated playgirl Claire Dunham, but isn’t seductive or sinister enough to convince as a femme fatale, and her pursuit of Elvis is so languid it undermines the title, which presumably alludes to the star’s ‘trouble’ in being pursued by two women.
The movie’s tone veers from slapstick to menace, though the drama is handled better than the comedy. Double Trouble feels more like a movie that started life as a darker, more suspenseful story, over which 17 minutes’ worth of songs, some slapstick, and a talking parrot were overlaid.
Elvis sings one decent rock number, Long-Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On), and is joined in the cast by Australian Chips Rafferty and lovable Norman Rossington – the only actor to co-star with both Elvis and The Beatles (in A Hard Day’s Night).
This film (the 23rd for Presley) is one of the closest-to-real-life Elvis movies and certainly worth a look.
Guy Lambert
Elvis Presley Jill Conway
Annette Day Gerald Waverly
John Williams Claire Dunham
Yvonne Romain Archie Brown
Chips Rafferty Arthur Babcock
Norman Rossington
Director
Norman Taurog
Video
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Jill’s fortune has been secretly depleted by Uncle Gerald (John Williams), who decides she must die for his sins, sparking some memorable scenes. The masked mayhem in Antwerp is genuinely menacing.
