TheLittleSongbird Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.'Live a Little, Love a Little' is not one of Elvis' overall best, 'King Creole' and 'Flaming Star' in particular are two of few exceptions to have good stories and scripts, elements that tended to be the weak links. It is a long way from being one of Elvis' worst, with a couple of exceptions like another one of his best 'Viva Las Vegas' Elvis' film career declined a lot between 'Kissin' Cousins' and this, 'Harum Scarum' and 'Stay Away, Joe' being especially poor. If anything, 'Live a Little, Love a Little' is one of Elvis' better later films and his best since 'Viva Las Vegas'. By all means it's far from flawless. The second half lacks the energy of the first half, instead it drags and gets on the wrong side of weird. The dream sequence is rather bizarre and feels out of place. The script is not a strong suit, being a little clunky and forced.However, after some cheap-looking films mid-late career, 'Live a Little, Love a Little' is a welcome return to the very nicely filmed and mounted films seen earlier pre-'Kissin' Cousins'. As far as the soundtrack goes, it's the most tuneful and consistent one since 'Viva Las Vegas'. After some pretty bad soundtracks, tending to have few memorable songs, some disposable ones and ones that one really wants to forget as long as they live, all the songs are good, especially "A Little Less Conversation". Story-wise, the first half is full of energy and very compelling, so much so that it is such a shame that the second half doesn't live up. Elvis gives one of his most confident and enthusiastic performances of his mid 60s-late 60s films, having phoned it in due to clearly knowing how bad a lot of his material had gotten. Michelle Carey is charming enough with good chemistry, while the dog is a sheer scene-stealing delight.Overall, surprisingly good later effort. 7/10 Bethany Cox

mrsastor This is easily the worst Presley vehicle ever, which would bring us pretty close to the worst film ever made. It is measurably worse than even the revolting "Happy Ending" song at the end of "It Happened At The World's Fair", and here I thought that moment when Elvis buys all of the vendor's balloons for his girl, and then the balloon vendor gets jiggy to the marching band was the epitome of bad cinema and could not be topped. I usually enjoy the random Elvis flick if for no other reason but the memories of a time when we were innocent enough to sit through it. This one, however, ought to be called "Live a Little, Wish You Were Dead a Little", and makes "Stay Away Joe" look like Olivier playing Othello.Here, Elvis plays Greg, who is essentially a hippie free-lance photographer except for the Establishment haircut. After a fun morning of reckless driving, he ends up at the beach where he is abducted by a woman who's name changes depending on the scene and who is speaking to her. Clearly Michele Carey was selected for her resemblance to and ability to mimic Elizabeth Taylor (if I watched this without my glasses, I would have thought it was late 1960's Liz playing the female lead). She sics her dog on Elvis until he runs into the water and catches convenient movie pneumonia, then she keeps him doped up out of consciousness in her beach pad so long he loses his job and his apartment so she moves his stuff into her house before he awakens without even telling him (the audience does not know about it either, until Elvis tries to go back to work and his boss has him beaten up for no reason except he deserved it for making this movie, and tries to go home and finds some hateful woman in a slip living in his house).Rather than having her arrested for kidnapping, larceny and assault, he goes out and gets two jobs to repay the back rent Miss Crazy Pants had to spring for when stealing all of his belongings. Job one is working for Don Porter at a Playboy type magazine, job two is upstairs working for Rudy Vallee at a snobby fashion magazine. I think the two-job shuffling is supposed to be the comedy, too bad it isn't the least bit funny, unless you'd laugh the 100th time you saw someone run up and down stairs in fast-motion to silly music. The predominate obstacle that keeps Greg from falling for his abductor is her other love interest, the dreadfully miscast Dick Sargent (let's face it, either Porter or Vallee, even given their advanced ages in 1968, would have made far more believable competitors for Miss Crazy's affections).There are a variety of uninteresting and unfunny twists and turns, I kept waiting for something, anything to happen that would make all of this make sense. It never did. Entertainment totals approximately three minutes and is comprised of Elvis' rendition of "A Little Less Talk" (which I can listen to on CD without this painful movie inflicted upon me) and a funny five second bit where Elvis flops on the couch and Crazy Pants has apparently disassembled it so it flies all to pieces when he lands on it. That's it, folks, busted furniture, the only laugh in this entire film. No amount of mod sixties clothing, music, or décor can salvage this high-heaven stinker and it should be avoided at all costs. Viewing this can create an unnatural desire on the part of the audience toward the self-infliction of grave bodily harm.

ryancm LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE is one of Elvis' weirdest movies. Part slapstick, part fluff, part surreal and part strange. Elvis meets up with a very off-beat girl with an annoying voice. She looks like Jennifer Aniston. Story doesn't make much sense as is the case with most Elvis Presley movies, and there a bunch of odd characters galore. Not much music in this one, but what there is I liked, although none are memorable. Strange continuity. Elvis and Michelle Carey go into her beach house at night, but a few minutes later a delivery boy comes in and it's stark daylight!! What?? That's about the essence of the movie. What?? Oh, two good things about the movie: A) Elvis looks great and B) the dog steals the show.

serpico-usa What a shame that at a time when it appeared that Elvis was finally getting some mature comedy roles it was nearing the end of his film career. Maybe if the brains ?? behind Elvis had been more selective in choosing his movie roles, he may have been still with us and may have been credited for being a far better actor than people gave him credit for. To have him act alongside the Elvis of the twenties in Rudy Vallee was a great piece of casting. The only other great piece of casting would have been to have him act alongside the great John Wayne, which I believe they offered him the part in True Grit played by Glen Campbell. What a sad waste of talent, another screw up by Hollywood suits who have no idea on talent just getting their greedy hands on as much money as they can.