"LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE". THE MOVIE.

“LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE”. THE MOVIE.

The shooting of the movie “Live a Little, Love a Little” took place during the months of March and April 1968.

This year was very important in Elvis’s life both personally and artistically.

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On a personal level, Elvis was already married, he just had a daughter and his goals were already others. And artistically, he was about to make a complete turn in his career with the project for the NBC TV show “Elvis”, now free from the shackles of Hollywood, although he still had to make some films before finishing his career. contract.

The film was released in October 1968 and continued the trend that had been started with “Stay Away Joe“, which had already marked a shift away from the typical format of his films. This would be director Norman Taurog‘s ninth project with Elvis and it would be this director’s last film, as he went blind shortly after production ended. Elvis shares the screen with legendary songstress and actor Rudy Vallee, and his female co-stars Michele Carey and Celeste Yarnall.

Elvis plays a photographer, with two complicated jobs to combine.

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Michele Carey is an eccentric woman who assumes different names and personalities depending on her mood, and lives with her dog, Great Dane, Albert, who is believed to have served as inspiration for the figure of the famous Scooby doo.

Celeste Yarnall, who appeared briefly, plays Ellen, the girl at the party, to whom Elvis sings “A Little Less Conversation“.

During filming, on April 4, the tragic assassination of Martin Luther King took place, and Celeste tells that day, after learning about the tragedy, she went with Elvis to his dressing room for lunch and Elvis sang ”Amazing Grace” and he broke down in sobs in her arms like a child, because he was absolutely devastated by the murder. Elvis’ sensibility never had limits, neither in his personal life, nor in the prodigious projection of his feelings in his music and in his art. Celeste says that Elvis felt he was such an integral part of the black community, that he felt like a brother.

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He told him that he had always felt embraced by the black community, because his struggle had been so, so great… And they felt him and recognized him as one of the few white singers who “could sing with his soul“.

The co-star of the film was Rudy Vallee, the renowned actor and singer of the glorious Hollywood years, that during the filming of the movie he was 67 years old and still a very famous and beloved artist. One day Rudy and Elvis were on the set, when suddenly two women pounced on Elvis, who was perplexed lying on the floor, but his perplexity was greater when he saw that the women were not going towards him, but towards Rudy to ask for an autograph. !… Without getting out of his astonishment, Elvis got up and asked: “Geez Rudy, what’s your secret? To which Rudy replied: “Sex-appeal son, sex-appeal…” As you can imagine, It was such a nice moment that Elvis couldn’t stop laughing.

The Soundtrack, as was going to be usual, included only four songs, which, in my opinion, are excellent:

,,- “Wonderful World” (Doug Flett, Guy Fletcher)

– “Edge of Reality” (Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye)

– “A Little Less Conversation” (Billy Strange, Mac Davis)

– “Almost in Love” (Luiz Bonfa, Randy Starr)

In 2002 the song “A Little Less Conversation” was remixed by Junkie XL on the instrumental basis of the 1968 song, for a Nike advertising campaign for the World Cup of Soccer, and would reach the first place in the popularity charts of more than 20 countries.