Stay Away Joe (1968)

This average Elvis Presley musical features the King starring as Navajo rodeo rider Joe Lightcloud, who returns home to settle down on the ranch, singing his way into the local girls’ hearts as he goes.

Elvis takes a break from flirting with Mamie (Quentin Dean), the teenage daughter of diner owner Glenda (Joan Blondell), to help his shiftless father, Charlie (Burgess Meredith in bizarre brown-face makeup), pull a cattle scam on the government.

Somewhere along the line, Elvis rides a bull – or rather, Elvis’ stunt double rides a bull.

Anyway, at the party that evening to celebrate Joe’s return to the fold, he accidentally barbecues that same bull (how do you slaughter and cook a bull by mistake?).

Now Joe has to find a new bull, which he does in the shape of Dominic, a large but sleepy beast, who Elvis embarrassingly sings a song about, relating how the animal has to live up to his reputation as a prize-winning stud.

There’s a subplot about Joe’s sister, Mary (Susan Trustman), wanting to impress her new (white) boyfriend’s family, only to be continually let down by her family’s uncouth ways.

This Elvis romp was uncharacteristically bawdy for director Peter Tewkesbury, who’d made his name with such wholesome TV series as Father Knows Best and My Three Sons.

Rarely called upon to sing, Presley shambles along with a self-satisfied expression, as he’s repeatedly upstaged by his veteran co-stars.

Interior shots took place at the MGM Studios in Culver City. The exterior shots were filmed in Arizona, where a Native American reservation was established near the town of Sedona. For the scene with the large nighttime celebration, nearly 140 extras were hired, all of whom came from the Navajo Nation near Tuba City.

Critics were divided, but, as was often the case with Elvis, this had no impact on sales.

Joe Lightcloud
Elvis Presley
Charlie Lightcloud
Burgess Meredith
Glenda Callahan
Joan Blondell
Annie Lightcloud
Katy Jurado
Grandpa
Thomas Gomez
Hy Slager
Jones Henry
Bronc Hoverty
L Q Jones
Mamie Callahan
Quentin Dean

Director
Peter Tewksbury