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 EASY COME, EASY GO
(Paramount, 1967)

 
Easy Come, Easy Go was Elvis's ninth and final film for producer Hal Wallis and Paramount Studios. By this time, Elvis's films were very different from his first Paramount movie, Loving You. It has to be said that ten years had elapsed between these films and the structure couldn't remain the same. Changes in Hollywood films, as in any other industry, can be quite radical over a full decade. This was also the final time Elvis would play a military role. Previous roles found him in, or, leaving, the U.S Army, as a pilot in the Air Force, and now he was playing a U.S. Navy frogman - his assignments to de-activate old war mines. Co-stars in this production were not particularly outstanding, with perhaps the exception of veteran actor Frank McHugh as the eccentric `Captain Jack'. Direction was given by John Rich, who had previously directed Elvis in the superior Roustabout almost three years earlier. It has been reported that Elvis had no great regard for Rich as a director.

Of the six songs used on the soundtrack, there were no stand-outs. In the U.S. the EP issued to coincide with the film's release contained all six songs, whilst the British version only had four songs. The two missing tracks - `The Love Machine' and `You Gotta Stop' were issued separately on a single and just managed to make the top 40. Other song titles have been mentioned as being written for the film, but probably never recorded - such as `Leave My Woman Alone' and `Freakout'.

During production of the movie there were several working titles, including `A Girl In Every Port', `Come Easy, Go Easy' and `Port Of' Call'. The latter title alludes to the name of the ship in the story's plot. This was Elvis's twenty-fourth Hollywood feature film, and perhaps not the strongest of material with which to bow out of his Paramount Studios contract. It later emerged that Hal Wallis and Colonel Parker were not quite in agreement over terms and that the parting of ways was inevitable.

This information was produced by the Elvis Presley Film Society in June 1999
© 2003 Elvis Presley Film Society