Scroll down to the TWO BOLD sections for Elvis Snubbed Story.  

Right This Way Folks was changed to Roustabout, Mae West was changed to Barbara Stanwyck, Elvis, fresh off Viva Las Vegas, was given $200,000 to star in number 16 of 33 total movies.

Elvis got frustrated pre-recording the 10 songs for the movie. He wanted his usual group, The Jourdanaires, to do the vocal backups. The studio producer said, “You’ll be riding on a motorcycle for this song. Where are the background vocals coming from?”  Elvis snarled, “The same damn place as the band.”

Roustabout began filming on March 20, 1964 in Thousand Oaks, CA where a carnival was set up for realism. On that day, an article that was reprinted in newspapers around the country, would angry Elvis for the rest of his life. It was titled: ‘Would you believe that Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole owed part of their success to Elvis Presley?’ It read in part:

 ‘These two brilliant Shakespearean-trained actors, winning worldwide acclaim for their performances in Becket might not have had the opportunity to star in the picture, were it not for Sir Swivel Hips'.

It went on to quote producer Hal Wallis as tactlessly saying how the ‘light-hearted Elvis movies made it possible to finance the more artistic pictures’. And then Wallis added, “But that doesn’t mean a Presley picture can’t have quality, too.”

However, the damage was done to Elvis, even though Wallis added that final thought. It was then that Elvis realized that he would never be taken seriously as an actor. His bodyguards maintain that Elvis asked Wallis, “When am I going to get my Becket?”

But Elvis got Girl Happy. And even though a cut above his other movies with the M.G.M gloss, it was another song and romance movie. Elvis’ revenge would be to sign a contract for $400,000 per future picture and 50% of the profits. An unheard-of deal. Wallis signed it because, as he himself said, “The only sure thing in Hollywood is an Elvis Presley picture.”

Elvis was excited to work with Barbara Stanwyck who had 95 movies to her credit. This would be her last feature film before going into television’s The Big Valley.  

In 1944 the government listed Stanwyck as the nation's highest-paid woman, earning $400,000. She received four Academy Award nominations and in 1982 was awarded an Honorary Academy Award.

Kerwin Mathews (7^th Voyage of Sinbad) told me, “Once Stanwycks stardom declined, everyone in Hollywood knew her price per picture. It was $50,000 and she always worked.”

The cast of Roustabout was rounded out by other Hollywood veteran actors with short appearances by future stars Teri Garr and Raquel Welch. Terri danced, Raquel delivered a line in the coffee shop scene.

For the first few days, Stanwyck, other than doing scenes with Elvis, wouldn’t talk to him. Elvis greatly admired Stanwyck, saying her acting brought his level up, so he wondered why she was snubbing him. He found out a few days later.

Director John Rich was rescued from Gilligan’s Island to do his first feature film directing with Roustabout, so he wanted to do good. For the song, Wonderful World that Elvis would sing on a Ferris Wheel, he devised a boom shot that would go up and down following Elvis and his leading lady, Joan Freeman, all in one take for the 1:42 minute song. Producer Wallis insisted that Rich film a cut-away of the ride operator.

“Okay, it you insist,” Rich told him. “But please don’t use it and break up my shot.” When Rich saw the completed film, he said, “Can you believe that S.O.B. put in the cutaway?” Filmmakers can understand his anger.

For the karate fight Elvis has with three guys, John Rich wanted a stuntman to do it, so his star wouldn’t risk getting hurt. Elvis, being a blackbelt wouldn’t hear of it and did the fight himself receiving a bloody gash on his forehead. Rich figured he’s be fired for injuring his star, then figured out to have Elvis wear a band-aid for some scenes because of a scripted motorcycle crash that starts his adventures with the carnival people.

The crash was done by a stuntman that looks like Elvis and fooled audiences, but Elvis did the rest of the riding which was dangerous in itself because he had to ride next to a jeep with the camera car in front of him and the driver trying to run him off the road.

For the movie, producer Wallis insisted Elvis ride a Honda motorcycle. This bothered Elvis and his entourage.

“What’s with this Honda? Everyone knows Elvis rides a Harley.”

One can only guess, that Wallis had a side deal with Honda, or he wanted to keep in the lines after Elvis knocks down two of his opponents.

“Come on,” Elvis says, to the remaining man.

“No, that’s karate. ”

It comes with the cycle,” Elvis says, referring to his Japanese-made bike.

Some of the carnival midway scenes were shot by putting three Paramount sound stages together. The doors were opened up to make one huge set. The first time Paramount had done that.

Days into the production, director Rich got tired of Elvis’ entourage throwing water balloons and playing practical jokes and complained to Elvis, who famously said, “When these damn movies cease to be fun, I'll stop doing them. And if my guys go, then damn it, so do I.” Another director, solved the water balloon problem by coming to the set wearing a raincoat.

Finally, Stanwyck came up to Elvis and said, “I’m sorry for avoiding you, but it’s just that you look so much like Robert Taylor, the love of my life, that I wasn’t comfortable.”

She had been married to Taylor for 12 years. Elvis and Stanwyck became good friends as behind the scenes photos show them holding hands and going on rides together.

The movie grossed 3 million dollars at the box office with the soundtrack album hitting #1 on the charts.

The movie ends with an Elvis singing an energizing song, Brand New Day on the Horizon. Director Rich shot it in a 1:40 minute, single tracking shot, following Elvis down the midway. Not as complicated as Martin Scorsese’ famous 3:04 tracking scene in Goodfellas, but it’s impressive and done 26 years earlier. This time Wallis didn't mess up the shot with a cut-a-way.

As Wallis said, “Elvis movies can have quality, too.” 

************************************************************************************

Forbidden Power wins 39 International awards, including:

2018 - Best Picture out of 1,000 entries at the Hollywood BITB Film Festival. 

2019 - Best Science Fiction Feature Film - Oklahoma BB Film Festival. 

2019 - Best Thriller - London Flicks Film Festival.

2019 - Best Original Screenplay - Florence Film Awards Italy.

2019 - Best Feature Film - New York Film Festival.

2021 - Best Feature Film - City of Angels WOMEN'S Film Festival

After a one-night affair with a mysterious woman, a young man wakes up alone with sexually transmitted powers and enhanced sexual power.

He searches for the woman to find out the source of her power and why he was chosen.