''Easy Come, Easy Go'' is a 1967 American musical comedy film starring

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

Hal Wallis Harold Brent Wallis (born Aaron Blum Wolowicz; October 19, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is best known for producing ''Casablanca'' (1942), ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), and '' True Grit'' (1969), along wi ...

produced the film for

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, and it was Wallis' final production with Presley. The film co-starred Dodie Marshall,

Pat Harrington, Jr. Daniel Patrick Harrington Jr. (August 13, 1929 – January 6, 2016) was an American Emmy Award-winning stage and television actor, best known for his role as building superintendent Dwayne Schneider on the sitcom '' One Day at a Time'' (1975� ...

, Pat Priest,

Elsa Lanchester Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British-American actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.Obituary '' Variety'', 31 December 1986. Lanchester studied dance as a child and after the F ...

, and

Frank McHugh Francis Curry McHugh (May 23, 1898 – September 11, 1981) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor. Early years Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents, Edward A ...

. (It was McHugh's last feature film.) The movie reached #50 on the ''Variety'' magazine national box office list in 1967. ''Easy Come, Easy Go'', Presley's twenty-third film, was released on March 22, two weeks before his twenty-fourth, '' Double Trouble'', which was released on April 5. However, ''Double Trouble'' was filmed before ''Easy Come, Easy Go''.

Plot

United States Navy officer Lieutenant Junior Grade (j.g.) Ted Jackson (Elvis Presley) is a former U.S. Navy frogman who divides his time between twin careers as a deep-sea diver and

nightclub singer A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...

. Ted discovers what he believes could be a fortune in Spanish gold aboard a sunken ship and sets out to rescue it with the help of

go-go dancing Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

expert Jo Symington (Dodie Marshall) and friend Judd Whitman (Pat Harrington, Jr.). Gil Carey (Skip Ward), however, is also after the treasure and uses his girlfriend Dina Bishop (Pat Priest) to foil Ted's plans. Presley sings six songs in the movie: the title song, "I'll Take Love", "Sing You Children", "You Gotta Stop", "Yoga Is as Yoga Does" in a duet with

, and "The Love Machine". The film would be the first starring Presley that had a ballad-free soundtrack since his 1956 film debut, '' Love Me Tender''. Despite this, only 30,000 copies were sold, making it the worst selling record that Elvis ever released for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

Cast

as Ted Jackson * Dodie Marshall as Jo Symington * Pat Priest as Dina Bishop *

as Judd Whitman * Skip Ward as Gil Carey *

Sandy Kenyon Sandy Kenyon (born Sanford Klein; August 5, 1922 – February 20, 2010) was an American actor of film and television. He appeared as a guest actor on numerous television series, including a recurring role on ''The Americans''. He was also the orig ...

as Schwartz *

as Captain Jack * Ed Griffith as Cooper *

Read Morgan Read Lawrence Morgan (January 30, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing the role of Sergeant Hapgood Tasker in the American western television series ''The Deputy''. Life and career Morg ...

as Ensign Tompkins * Mickey Elley as Ensign Whitehead * Elaine Beckett as Vicki * Shari Nims as Mary * Diki Lerner as Zoltan * Robert Isenberg as Artist *

as Madame Neherina

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

as drunk man Russ Tamblyn as uncredited yoga student

Production

Paramount originally intended to make a movie called ''Easy Come Easy Go'' starring

Jan and Dean Jan and Dean was an American rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry (April 3, 1941 – March 26, 2004) and Dean Ormsby Torrence (born March 10, 1940). In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music style ...

with director Barry Shear but it was cancelled when the stars and several crew were injured in a train crash. The studio decided to use the same title, but a completely different plot. Principal photography began on October 3, 1966 and finished about a month later.

Soundtrack

Reception

Howard Thompson of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the film "a tired little clinker that must have been shot during lunch hour" and also criticized it for only including "three measly songs. A pittance!" ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' was more positive, writing: "Good balance of script and songs, plus generally amusing performances by a competent, well-directed cast, add up to diverting entertainment."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film one star out of four and wrote that it was "obviously produced with a minimum of care and with the sole purpose of contriving a plot, any plot, to fill in between when Elvis sings." Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' wrote that the film was "aptly summed up in its title: easy to take, easy to forget. Always pleasant, occasionally just plain hokey, it sticks to the familiar Presley formula of songs, pretty girls and a slight plot."Thomas, Kevin. "Elvis Stars in 'Easy Come, Easy Go'". ''

''. March 24, 1967. Part IV, p. 9.

References

External links

* * ;DVD Reviews
Review of the movie collection "Lights! Camera! Elvis! Collection (King Creole, Blue Hawaii, G.I. Blues, Fun in Acapulco, Roustabout, Girls! Girls! Girls!, Paradise, Hawaiian Style, Easy Come, Easy Go)
by Paul Mavis a
DVD Talk
August 6, 2007.
Review
by Jeff Rosado a
digitallyOBSESSED!
March 4, 2003. {{John Rich 1967 films 1967 musical films Films directed by John Rich Films produced by Hal B. Wallis Paramount Pictures films Treasure hunt films Films featuring underwater diving 1960s English-language films