zardoz-13 All you need to know about "Viva Las Vegas" is Elvis Presley gets Ann Margret! This one of Elvis' better musical efforts and the Las Vegas scenery is a treat, too. Lucky Jackson (Elvis Presley of "Love Me Tender") has come to Las Vegas to buy a new engine for his car, but he loses his money when it gets sucked into a swimming pool. He winds up hanging around Sin City, and he meets ravishing Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret of "Kitten with a Whip") and finds himself competing with rival auto racer Count Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova of "Chamber of Horrors") for Rusty. Elvis and Ann conjured up some charisma together that wound up making the gossip columns. Veteran Hollywood helmer George Sidney never lets the action slow down.

Wuchak Released in 1964, "Viva Las Vegas" stars Elvis Presley as a race car driver, Lucky, who wants to compete in the Las Vegas Gran Prix, but he needs an engine for his vehicle. Ann-Margret plays a dancer/singer and Lucky's romantic interest while Cesare Danova plays his competition. William Demarest is on hand as the girl's father while Nicky Blair plays Lucky's buddy. I prefer the more serious and dramatic Presley flicks (e.g. 1964's "Roustabout") as opposed to the farces (e.g. 1966's "Spinout"). While "Viva Las Vegas" veers closer to the latter, it compensates with Margret's charismatic performance and her chemistry with Elvis, which paved the way for a dynamic and fun musical (not to mention an affair). Ann truly shines and never looked better. In addition, the race in the last act is actually thrilling with some quality stunts. The film runs 85 minutes and was shot in the Las Vegas area.GRADE: B+

Prismark10 To enjoy Elvis films the trick is to watch the better ones and forget about the inferior ones where the film studios almost treated his films like production line fodder.Viva Las Vegas is fun and undemanding entertainment showing a Vegas outside of downtown that no longer exists.Elvis plays talented race car driver Lucky Jackson trying to earn enough money in Vegas to pay for a new engine so he can take part in a race whilst sparring with aristocratic Count Mancini an ace racer himself. Both also try to court Rusty Martin (Ann Margret) also working at at the same hotel as Lucky.Its a smart, light story with plenty of joshing between Mancini, Lucky and Rusty and the songs are more consistent thanks to the ageless title song. It helps that the rivalry with Mancini is friendly rather than malicious and there is good racing sequence at the end of the film.The selling point is the chemistry between Elvis and Ann Margret, both lift each other and Ann in one of her earlier roles shows that she was a rising star.Its a well filmed Elvis musical, a good introduction for anyone who wants to watch a good Elvis movie.

Jacob Rosen It's hard to quibble with something that has so much goodwill, so let's just say that Elvis Presley and Ann-Margaret have obvious chemistry (and had it been in the hands of someone other than George Sidney, it could have exploded off the screen), and the set decoration by Harry Grace and George R. Nelson coupled with Joseph F. Biroc's lighting highlight the stars' classic features. Everyone else--from Cesare Danova to William Demarest--is wasted and the songs (the title tune notwithstanding) are hardly memorable. As a travelogue, there's not much old Vegas to look at. If you pine for the days when movies looked far too similar to sitcoms, check it out. Other than that, for fans only.