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Stay Away, Joe was the most fun I had making a movie,” said Elvis Presley. “I was part Alfie, part Hud, a wheeler-dealer who was always promoting something. And there’s not one damned guitar in the whole movie.”

Indeed, after the title song over beautiful aerial shots of the Sedona, Arizona cliffs, Elvis has only three quick songs that fit organically into the movie.

Joe’s sister asks him, “Why do you keep coming back here? Never staying away and making something of yourself?”

“I want to help dad. And I just want to know that my home is here when I need it.” (Go back to Tara to gain strength.)

Anyone who produces anything in life can relate to the idea of ‘The Joe Lightcloud Syndrome’: When the party, money and beer continue, everyone comes around. But when it stops and problems start, Joe is left alone to fix the mess with people telling him to ‘Stay Away'.

However, Joe is proactive: “When I goof up, I’m not gonna lie around, lick my wounds and feel sorry for myself. I’m gonna go out and do something about it, and FAST.”

After the last seven Elvis movies that were shot in studios, fans were treated to a movie shot entirely in the striking red canyons of Sedona by veteran cameraman Fred Koenkamp (Towering Inferno).

And something very new; exterior nighttime scenes which are tough on both cast and crew. But not on Elvis as those were his normal hours. Indeed, recently Jamie Lee Curtis said, “When I get a new script, the first thing I do is to see how many night exterior scenes there are.”

This is the only Elvis movie to have filmic montages; excitement created not by dialogue, but my clever film editing and scene transitions. A few scenes were totally montage backed up by music.

Much is written about how Col. Tom Parker complained about Elvis 'singing to a bull named Dominic'. This was at the recording session only. In the movie, Joe is ‘singing a complaint to the bull’ about not mating with the family heifers. He needs Dominic to build a heard and make his father prosperous.

The bull is not in the scene at all. Joe sings this while he’s chasing two nude girls around the red rock mountains, giving double meaning to ‘love ‘em all right to the end.’ Yes, a much different Elvis movie.

Playing Joe, Elvis hadn’t been that slim and handsome since Girl Happy seven movies before. Stay Away, Joe has Elvis’ best supporting cast: Burgess Meredith (Rocky), Thomas Gomez (Trapeze), Henry Jones (Vertigo).

For Joe’s sidekick, L.Q. Jones (The Wild Bunch) has more screen time and has his most engaging character in this movie than in all his 162 movie and TV appearances.

To play Joe’s stepmother, Katy Jurado (High Noon) was brought in from Mexico. Katy joked, “When I was young, they never gave me a bathtub scene. Now that I’m old, I get a bathtub scene.”

Writer / assistant producer Michael Hoey said, “Before driving Katy from Mexico to our Arizona location, she made me drive her by several relatives’ homes to tell them she was making a movie with Elvis. Making the rounds and driving to the location she continuously tried to seduce me. When we arrived on location, I assigned a young production assistant to be Katy's personal aid. He ended up giving his all for the movie, even though he was gay.”

Joan Blondell plays Elvis’ ex-lover at age 55. Joe was 20 when he left, so that makes Joan 42 when the affair was going on. But she’s still interested in Joe and points a shotgun at his groin to keep him away from her 19-year-old daughter. 

So, Elvis looks great, rides bulls, fights with his buddies, chases girls, tries to help his father and gets into a lot of trouble. Is that a movie?

One thing is for sure, to quote one reviewer:

“Every frame of the movie has the lust for life in it.”