Viva Las Vegas (1964)

Watching this film made me want to shout something out loud... and it wasn't "Viva Las Vegas"... but rather "VIVA ANN-MARGRET!!!". The swedish bomb-shell has had a long and steady career in films, but seldom on the A-list. Here, in one of her first films, she reaches the peak of her beauty, sexuality, and pleasure for acting, singing and dancing, in which she excels and steals the spotlight from the film's supposed star: Elvis Presley. Conceived as yet another Elvis vehicle, "Viva Las Vegas" has nothing that hadn't been done before in terms of story and film, following the same lines as other musicals with great stars such as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. There is a setting: Las Vegas, with its hotels, casinos and nightclubs. There is a star with a problem: Elvis is a race driver who lacks the money for the motor so that he can enter the Las Vegas grand prix. There is a girl: Ann-Margret. This girl, off course, at first deslikes him, then falls in love with him, then gets upset with him (the dilemma) because he does not want to give up racing for her, but eventually capitulates. And then there is the rival, both for the racing and for the girl (Cesare Danova). The story basically follows Elvis and Ann-Margret as they fall in love and he tries to find the money for the motor. Everything is an excuse for Elvis to sing and for Ann-Margret to dance, and the plot is as thin as ice, just an excuse to go from one song and dance sequence to the next. And that's ok. Let's face it, Elvis is not the best actor in the world, but he can sing like nobody. Let's face it, Ann-Margret's lines and her "dilemma" are the usual stuff seen a hundred times, but her beauty is breathtaking and the way she dances mesmerizing. I hadn't been so surprised to see someone as beautiful dance as good since I saw Audrey Hepburn in "Funny Face". In the end, off course (spoiler alert), he enters the race, wins and gets the girl. One thing I don't understand. We get 75 minutes of a light film, of dance, colour, song and a little humor. And then we get the 10 minutes of the race raw style, with cars crashing into flames, and really nasty accidents. In the end Elvis wins the race and no-one seems to care for the poor old drivers in the flaming racing cars... It gives the movie a well needed pace (85 minutes is too long for this picture), but c'mon, this is supposed to be a light movie! Director of musicals George Sidney (the one who directed "Kiss Me Kate" and "Anchors Away") new what he was doing musical-wise, and new that Elvis could not be the star of this picture alone. But you just scream for the dialog parts to end to see a little more song and dance. "Viva Las Vegas" is worth it not for its story nor its characters, but as an excuse to witness Elvis' singing and Ann-Margret's show stealing performance and exquisite beauty.