It Happened At the World's Fair



You know what? It's time to embrace the future, that's why I'm reviewing  It Happened at the World's Fair. For fans of Elvis and the genre, this is yet another entry in Presley's Big Bland American series. This blockbuster has Elvis as Mike Edwards, a crop duster whose aspirations land him on route to Seattle and the World's Fair. Elvis and his goofy friend (this time Gary Lockwood) hitched a ride with an Asian man. This is where Elvis met his cutest co-star ever, Sue Ling, a 7 year old little girl.


         


For some reason, the girl's uncle lets his niece go off with a 27 year old man. That said, the two had crackling chemistry, leading Elvis to scale new heights of strategic eyebrow raising and befuddled looks.


As with most Elvis movies, there's a love interest. The main one here is a nurse, played by Joan O' Brien. With that child out of the way, it was nice to see those two falling in love with Seattle landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Alamo and the Space Needle as a backdrop. Guess what? A young Kurt Russell appears as a smart alack kid. Jeff Bridges went to see this movie and enjoyed himself immensely.


After the "getting to know you shenanigans", it was time to get back to this non-existent, silly ass.script. After a staying a spell with Uncle Elvis, the little girl eventually went back home. Mike put in his application to NASA. Got to tell you, that visual was a noggin rocker. The last scene has Elvis and his love interest singing "Happy Ending" joined by a marching band.

I Want to Play This On My Record Machine: While It Happened at the World's Fair is acknowledged as a pleasant if  pointless movie, the music here is quite good. The soundtrack finds Elvis in great voice and has "ok" songs like "I'm Falling In Love Tonight" and "One Broken Heart For Sale." They both make me cry!

Sometimes Letterbox Helps: Not to tale tales out of school but I think my letterbox version actually helped with how Elvis looked during this era.  I remember seeing this on TV and noticing how chunky Elvis was. He wasn't Haystacks Calhoun, he wasn't ready for the Biggest Loser or anything, but he seemed like he could stand to lose 5 or 30 pounds. Flash up to this WB (this was originally a MGM film) DVD release, everything is letterboxed up, the picture is seems stretched and Elvis is svelte.

Film: **

Soundtrack ***