Elvis, the King of Films

SIR: Besides Casablanca, Michael Curtiz (‘Here’s looking at you, kid’, May issue) in a long career made a number of memorable films; one that is often overlooked is King Creole, which was Elvis Presley’s fourth film. The story is based on a book by Harold Robbins and starred Walter Matthau, Carolyn Jones and Dean Jagger.

Elvis made over 30 films and most were lightweight – more like travelogues, with awful music and bikini-clad girls. King Creole was different, with strong songs and a director who knew what he was doing. After King Creole, Elvis did two years in the army, and when he came out he never again showed what he was able to do on screen.

Opportunities were lost, but thanks to Mr Curtiz we were able to see what Elvis could do, given the chance. Like many of Michael Curtiz’s films, King Creole is worth repeat viewings. Robin Wood, Kilmarnock struggle between two totalitarian states. Episodes take place in both Russian and German prisoner camps. Grossman criticises Stalinism, which led the KGB to do everything in its power to prevent publication, but a copy was eventually smuggled out to the west, with first English publication in 1985.

An earlier book, Stalingrad, a precursor to Life and Fate, professed loyalty to Stalinism and was published in Russia in 1952, though not published in English translation until 2019. I found it, too, an outstanding historical novel.

If you have a list of ‘things to do before I die’, make sure that you add reading Life and Fate to it! Best wishes, Graham Galer, Beckford, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire