This is basically a neat reworking of IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD’S FAIR (1963) by the same director, no less: Bill Bixby replaces Gary Lockwood as Elvis’ scoundrel sidekick (and results in being quite amusing), Nancy Sinatra stands in for (and easily upstages) Joan O’Brien – Ol’ Blue Eyes’ daughter, a singing star in her own right, makes a better-than-usual match for The King – and, instead of one Asian child, we get six homeless kids and their ex-racer father, etc. Besides, the songs are also above-par and rockier than usual and even Sinatra gets her own “impromptu” number.
The instances of crazy comedy – usually brought on by Elvis’ frustration with I.R.S. ”agent” Sinatra’s doggedness – are also present here and anticipate the next, and last, Presley/Taurog collaboration, LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE (1968); among the highlights are Elvis punching through a hotel-room door and knocking out a passerby and then punching his racing rival in the hotel lobby who consequently slides on his back all the way into an empty elevator! The racing-car scenes themselves are okay – a milieu with which Elvis was quite familiar, having already played similar roles (or so I hear) in both VIVA LAS VEGAS (1964) and SPINOUT (1966).
The instances of crazy comedy – usually brought on by Elvis’ frustration with I.R.S. ”agent” Sinatra’s doggedness – are also present here and anticipate the next, and last, Presley/Taurog collaboration, LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE (1968); among the highlights are Elvis punching through a hotel-room door and knocking out a passerby and then punching his racing rival in the hotel lobby who consequently slides on his back all the way into an empty elevator! The racing-car scenes themselves are okay – a milieu with which Elvis was quite familiar, having already played similar roles (or so I hear) in both VIVA LAS VEGAS (1964) and SPINOUT (1966).