Movie: Viva Las Vegas was tentatively about Elvis as a race car driver turned singer, using the name "Lucky" Jackson earned as a result of his daring exploits on and off the track. Having survived some otherwise deadly crashes, he wants to rev up his racing career once more, lacking the money to buy an engine powerful enough to compete against scores of better equipped, though less daring, drivers. Jackson's good hearted nature doesn't allow him to see the others as enemies though because he's too focused on his own exploits, the man even befriending his biggest rival on the circuit; a rich Italian that races for fun by the name of Count Elmo Mancini (well played by seasoned actor Cesare Denova). Elmo offers Jackson a job driving for him but is told that he works for no one; a strange coincidence given that fate reverses his luck and causes our hero to lose his roll of gambling winnings that were going to finance a new engine. As Lucky is forced to work for the hotel he was staying at, he woes lovely Rusty Martin (the beautiful Ann Margaret) in a series of song & dance numbers that might have been fluff but were Elvis fluff at its best; the ending a forgone conclusion.

What makes any Elvis movie work is not the acting or story, these typically being throwaway factors in his works on the big screen, but the man himself. Elvis projected a sense of charisma few others at the time could muster, in this case sticking to what he knew best as the hapless wannabe driver down on his luck. Director George Sidney wisely ignored the demands of Elvis' manager by elevating Ann Margaret's character above the usual disposable love interest too; having worked with her in the past and knowing she had better acting chops than the King and at least as much appeal sonically. While certainly not his deepest song, the duet with the lady on The Lady Loves Me was reminiscent of many comedy bits of the past, also continuing the tradition that carried through the ages (in movies such as Grease), but showing a playful dynamic between the two that was endearing to say the least. Ann could clearly hold her own against Elvis and resulted in some of the other numbers being changed as the movie was shot, still showing these two in a very positive light.

The movie having a bigger budget and more time than most of Elvis' other movies (this was in the middle of his career) worked for him as well. The musical numbers always being the top reason to see an Elvis flick, he belted out the title song in a single take with the screen crackling with the energy he could bring forth. Yet there were the expected tender moments too with What'd I Say showing fans what they wanted to see as he wooed the lass, the flat out silly moments with Elvis' tribute to Texas with a melody mixing The Yellow Rose of Texas with UT's The Eyes of Texas needed to get a bunch of rowdy Texan's out of a small casino so he could find Rusty, Rusty's own nod to male/female social interaction in Appreciation that seemed to channel the spirit of Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, and perky dance numbers that combine the best of both leads as she danced to his perky vocals.

Compared to some of his better soundtracks, this one seemed slightly inconsistent in terms of generating top hits but by this point in his career, the Beatles were belting out chart toppers left & right and the fickle tastes of the public had changed; the movie missing the boat by about a year from the sounds of it. It was still one of his best box office successes but a lot of that was thanks to the passion brought forth by his interactions with Ann Margaret, the press having a field day suggesting the two were married or carrying on in wild parties, much to the chagrin of Elvis and his girlfriend back home. The movie might have been another piece of fluff but it was exactly what fans expected from Elvis and served up the formula he used for most of his later movies too; albeit those having smaller budgets and never regaining the chemistry displayed by his pairing with Ann Margaret (who was seen as a threat by Colonel Parker for stealing the limelight). In all then, Elvis fans should consider this quadruple dip release a must have thanks to the technical matters mentioned below but even a fair-weather friend of Elvis' music like me thinks it's worthy of being Recommended, albeit thanks in large part to Ann Margaret's role in not only bringing out the best in Elvis but also reminding me of how perfect she was back at the ripe old age of 22.

Picture: Viva Las Vegas HD-DVD was presented in the same 2.40:1 ratio widescreen it was shot in almost 45 years ago by Director George Sidney using the Panavision process on 35mm. Unlike so many films of the day, this one was always intended on being bright, cheerful, and happy so I was pleased to note this remastered version restored it to its full glory, using the enhanced resolution of the HD medium using a 1080p presentation to squeeze the most detail out of the film stock. I haven't seen the full movie since it used to regularly air on WLVI in Boston and this was so much clearer and better looking that I would not have recognized it but for the leads in their now classic roles (Ann Margaret inspiring future generations to the point where Belinda Carlyle patterned her entire career after this performance alone). Serving as a brilliant visual time capsule of Las Vegas from when this was shot (the city currently looking so different with all the changes in ownership, demolition, and new construction that they are worlds apart), Viva Las Vegas perfectly captured the spirit of the Vegas "look" better than any movie from the day with none of the visual quirks so common with movies of this era brought into the enhanced resolution of modern day media. The blacks were solid, there was no noticed aliasing, and for all the use of pastel colors, none of them were showing the problems of earlier versions.

Sound: As expected, there were a number of audio choices provided here, including the usual original monaural English, French, and Spanish versions that many folks are familiar with subtitles in each language provided as an option for those who care but it was the new tracks that caught my ear more readily. Unlike some people, I'm not a purist when it comes to scrubbing the soundtracks and enhancing them with surround sound (as long as it's done properly and the original tracks are provided as an option). This time, there were two 5.1 tracks provided; a Dolby TrueHD track and a Dolby Digital+ set of tracks, each offering a surround experience that might not have been nearly as aggressive as modern day films but certainly an interesting enhancement of the aural elements this time. The bass was deeper (though still on the weak side) and the separation seemed to take advantage of the enhancements on the music numbers only, but each did this without distorting the audio and without sounding "fake" as weaker attempts have done in the recent past. I certainly wasn't expecting as big a boost as these tracks provided on such an older release and while neither qualify as reference grade compared to some of the newest titles coming out, it did set the bar mighty high for older musicals to reach for.

Extras: One of the pitfalls about releasing movies from this long ago and on new formats such as HD or BR is the usual lack of quality extras provided. If you get a trailer, you are considered lucky in most cases, the wealth of possibilities hardly explored at this writing. Thankfully, there was indeed a trailer to the movie (the re-release trailer) but also some other fine material that fans of Elvis will appreciate. There was a short documentary on Elvis' love of Las Vegas in Kingdom: Elvis in Las Vegas that used clips, newsreel footage, and interviews with friends and coworkers, to describe his fascination with the town. It lasted over 20 minutes and while it was a lightweight fluff piece (perfectly suited for this movie mind you), it did explore some of Elvis' mindset about the lights and action Las Vegas provided him. There was also an audio commentary by film historian and acknowledged Elvis Presley expert, Steve Pond, the author of Elvis in Hollywood. He provided a lot of detail to the movie and what went on behind the scenes of making it, including how some of Ann Margaret's numbers were cut or truncated at the insistence of Colonel Parker, what happened when Elvis met the Beatles, and a variety of technical facts about the cast & crew. He wasn't just winging it from the sounds of things; he had spent some time preparing himself for the task at hand and it showed. Unlike directors and actors that give modern day commentaries who arrive unprepared and already focusing on their next project, he projects a sense of devotion to the subject; serving as a template for future commentaries on older films (if this were a perfect world).

Final Thoughts: Viva Las Vegas HD-DVD is exactly what any Elvis Presley fan could hope for; a great looking representation of one of the best movies starring their idol with plenty of catchy musical numbers and the mythic city of Las Vegas as the backdrop. Ann Margaret is more than just the icing on the cake too; the hotty becoming an essential part of the mix that pushed Elvis harder than he had ever been in a movie and doing so in such a way as to share the spotlight rather than compete against one another-the two sharing such chemistry that I almost wonder why they didn't get together back then (which is also explained in the commentary track by the way). The extras rounded out the package nicely and this is another reason for people to upgrade to the high definition world. Oh, and for a look at the Blue-Ray version of this upgrade, check out the review by John Sinnott who makes it sound like a winner for those who selected that format to enjoy the movie in. In short, Viva Las Vegas HD-DVD was not the perfect Elvis movie but it was darned close in many ways so give it a look.