I never realized before tonight when I watch Frankie and Johnny again why I never liked this movie that much. It had all the great elements, Elvis Presley, Donna Douglas, sidekicks. The right jokes.
But frankly I think the direction was terrible.
The characters are flat, there's no depth to them. Donna Douglas doesn't have enough close-ups especially in the love scenes. In fact they made her the flattest character in the whole scene, despite her figure.
The timing was terrible, the characters did not jump out of the screen at you and be bigger than life. In fact Langdon was the only one who felt three dimensional. Everyone else just seemed like they were playing a part, a senseless part that went nowhere.
If a movie is made right the viewers can feel like they're right in the middle of the scene, middle of the movie, even farfetched plots. In the river boat scene of The secret Life of Walter Mitty with Danny Kaye seemed more real, more sentimental, more realistic characters in the extremely short segment than this whole Frankie and Johnny movie.
Frankie and Johnny seem flat and no tempo. Even the music was unenthusiastic.
Donna Douglas, as beautiful as she is in this, her character seems to be an afterthought. Although her singing was dubbed, which is not surprising, her voice seared unrealistic as well and very stilted.
Too bad they couldn't do a better job for these two exceptional handsome and beautiful actors.
Review of Frankie and Johnny
