Year: 1963
Director: Gene Nelson
Country: US
Language: English
Although at this period in time I have not reviewed every Elvis Aaron Presley Hollywood venture, I must say that Kissin' Cousins is the last of his 30+ films I had seen. Why? Well it doesn't seem to be as available on home video or streaming as his other pictures. In addition the title of the film made me want to steer away. Is this something George Michael of Arrested Development would be into? Is this an incest picture? Lets find out!
An Army officer (Elvis Presley) returns to the Smoky Mountains tries to convince his kinfolk to allow the Army to build a missile site on their land. Once he gets there, he discovers he has a lookalike cousin.
Kissin' Cousins represents the halfway point of Elvis' Hollywood career. It also represents a turning point in how his films would be made. In terms of budget, production time and promotion, all of Presley’s first 14 movies were fairly standard for Hollywood film. However Kissin' Cousins was made in a mere 3 weeks with a very small budget and featured a "WHO?" of actors. This was due to his manager's insistence that Elvis’s next film be shot much faster and with strict budget controls.
The basic Elvis formula was used for this film; a hot love interest, a few songs, very little plot and some light comedy. It was clear that MGM and director Katzman had given up entirely on drawing a general audience and aimed this production solely at Elvis’s core crowd. Overall it feels like an amateur-ish production that didn't try to reshoot poorly acted scenes at that would have cost time and money.
Thank GOD this film isn't about incest, but it's not exactly the cream of the crop either. Much could have been done to make this picture better and it seems nobody really gave a damn. Too bad, as the music itself was decent even though they were clearly randomly inserted into the film.
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