A Stone for Danny Fisher

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King Creole' has Elvis, little Else ... But He's Quite Sufficient". The Florence Times. Vol.99, no.105. July 14, 1958. p.11 . Retrieved November 7, 2011. Disillusioned youth Danny Fisher (Presley) lives in New Orleans' French Quarter with his recently widowed father (Dean Jagger) and sister (Jan Shepard).His pharmacist father is finding it tough to cope without his wife and cannot find regular work,while Danny flunks his college studies to work in a nightclub owned by sleazy crook Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau), and begins to take romantic interest in a boozy if pitiable tramp,Ronnie,used by Fields as a mistress (Carolyn Jones).He toys with joining a gang of hoodlums led by Shark (Vic Morrow),and attracts the attentions of a sweet-natured shopgirl,Nellie (Dolores Hart).With his talent for singing,Danny decides not to work in Fields' venues,but of his rival Charlie LeGrand instead,the King Creole,where he is a great success.Fields resents Danny's behaviour and is determined fair ways or foul to force Danny to work for him,but Danny will make his own decisions who he works and falls in love with.

SPOILERS FOLLOW. Danny's first scrape in this movie comes in the morning before his last day of school, cleaning up at a night spot, two men are bothering Ronnie, so he breaks a bottle for defense, and gets her into a taxi and out of there. At school some guys tease him for kissing her and Danny punches him out. The school decides to fail him again, no graduation! Discouraged he vows to get a job, he's had enough of school. Wallis, Hal B.; Higham, Charles (1980). Starmaker: The Autobiography of Hal Wallis. Macmillan Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-02-623170-1.Although Robbins is more a writer of incident than image, he can be wonderfully effective at important turning points in the story by presenting a minor detail of life in a way that suggests the whole direction of the story. For example, when Danny's mother does learn that milk service will be discontinued, she sits down in front of the open icebox. "Whatever cold was left in it would escape," Robbins writes, "but somehow it didn't matter. She didn't have the strength to get up and close the door. . , . She stared into the almost empty icebox until it seemed to grow larger and larger and she was lost in its half-empty, half-cold world." A Stone For Danny Fisher is a brutal coming-of-age story covering both The Great Depression and WWII eras. Danny Fisher is a sensitive, likable Jewish boy who, when his family falls on hard times, discovers that he not only has a natural talent for fighting but also for the clever manipulation of everyone close to him. But Danny is too clever for his own good, and has a serious tragic flaw that always propels his happiness just out of his reach.

By this time Elvis Presley was a big movie box office name due in no small measure to the astute management of Colonel Tom Parker. I have no doubt that the Colonel got him Michael Curtiz as a director and a top flight supporting cast consisting of Oscar winners like Dean Jagger as the King's father and Walter Matthau as the villain of the piece. And other such outstanding players as Carolyn Jones, Vic Morrow, Paul Stewart, and Dolores Hart. After leaving the club, Danny meets up with the Shark gang for his share of the nightly take. He then makes his way to the five and dime at closing time to see Nellie. Danny invites Nellie to a fictitious party in a hotel room. Finding nobody else there, Nellie starts crying in fear and leaves after admitting that she still wants to see Danny again, but not under those conditions. Maybe 'King Creole' is a touch overlong, and the female characters are not as interestingly written as the male ones, somewhat lazy and it's the performances that stop them from being completely vapid. Otherwise there is very little to dislike. Have commented a couple of times on the writing and stories not being strong suits in Elvis' films, but 'King Creole' is a pleasant exception. The writing is surprisingly gritty and suspenseful, with few soap-operatic or corn elements, and the story is darker and meatier than the usual story for an Elvis film, thus one of the most absorbing.

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Elvis has had to go to work because his father has been unable to hold down a job ever since the death of his wife. So's Elvis's sister, Jan Shepard, also had to work. He gets a break in Walter Matthau's club with an impromptu audition, but it's rival owner Paul Stewart who hires Elvis. That sets the stage for a lot of the action to come. Playing a part— an underprivileged youth who, on and off, displays some dignity and honest aspirations — that requires some histrionic effort, Presley shows signs that he is getting the hang of acting. The picture itself, however, after a promising enough beginning turns into a lurid melodramatic hash composed in about equal part of juvenile delinquency, gangsterism and sex. These may be legitimate dramatic subjects but the script gives them an illegitimate viewpoint and leaves muddled moral issues dangling. [28] I love a good character-driven novel, but I just couldn't connect with any of them in this book! Author Harold Robbins introduces his main character, Danny Fisher, who stole my heart as a youngster, but as he grew into his later teenage years as well as into manhood, he really annoyed me with his disrespectful attitude, selfishness and arrogance. He lost any redeeming qualities he had as a boy for me; Mom wasn't privy to the audiobook, but I found that the narrator's enactment of a woman crying, especially Nellie, really grated on my nerves! It’s all about craft and engaging the reader–some writers can engage on more subliminal levels, others provide more obvious stimulations. God bless the writers who can do both.

The first part is a typical coming of age story about a kid in a new neighborhood, about a first kiss, about finding a stray dog, about watching the neighbor girl through the window. The story doesn't really get moving until the family has to move to the lower east side tenements and Danny becomes a neighborhood tough. From there, the story just explodes. The boxing sequences are terrific. You feel as if you are right there ringside watching the action. Some other reviewers have mentioned that Elvis should have done more dramatic stuff like King Creole. Maybe he should have, who knows. But I think the point should be made is that first and foremost Elvis was a singing icon, not an acting one. As were the idols of former generations Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. I don't think Elvis was willing to push himself as player in the same way they were. Neither Crosby or Sinatra also had a manager with as tight a control over them creatively as Colonel Tom Parker. Both Crosby and Sinatra got Oscars, but it was for parts that they knew they could handle and went after, especially Sinatra. Maybe Elvis in the words of another icon, knew his limitations or the Colonel did.This was one of the earliest film adaptations of Harold Robbins novels – the most notable of which would prove to be THE CARPETBAGGERS (1964), THE ADVENTURERS (1970) and THE BETSY (1978; which I have on VHS but have yet to watch) – but, Hollywood being Hollywood, it had its Chicago setting relocated to New Orleans; the screenplay was co-scripted by Michael V. Gazzo who was then still fresh from the Broadway success of A HATFUL OF RAIN (later filmed by Fred Zinnemann in 1957) but is nowadays perhaps best-known for his Oscar-nominated performance in THE GODFATHER PART II (1974).

During the May of 1959 Mexican premiere at Américas Cinema in Mexico City, a riot started when according to the local newspapers 600 teenagers broke into the theater without paying the admission fee. The crowd occupied the balcony area and destroyed the seats, while they threw lit papers and debris to the attendants. As some women tried to leave the premises, they were stripped by the rioters. The group was reported to be a mixture of university students and other locals that joined. The anti-riot police arrived to the scene where they scattered the crowd, while no arrests were made. [18] Writer Parménides García Saldaña later recounted the incident on his article "El Rey Criollo", in which he detailed the presence of gangs and their harassment of the women in attendance. [19] Critical reception [ edit ] In the mid-1920s, a young Danny Fisher and his family move into a new house in a Brooklyn suburb. Within a few years, however, the Great Depression begins and Danny must use his one talent, boxing, as a means of supporting his family.Danny Fisher's musings in the Epilogue were at times philosophical, but some felt cringeworthy corny; and, I cheated and read the ending first, and it is not as happy as in "King Creole", where Danny continues his success. Instead he gets a stone in a cemetery, so to speak. But a little before that, he also becomes a father, if I understand it correctly. Guess I have to start from the beginning. For those who are used to seeing Walter Matthau as the lovable grouch starting from The Odd Couple it would surprise many to learn most of his early roles were bad guys. He's an exceptionally nasty bad guy in King Creole.