Touches You

Powerful

Absolutely Fantastic

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

As a longtime Presley fan, I didn't remember liking this one even when I was a kid way back when and loved his pictures. I have all of his movies on DVD as part of my collection and stuck this one in last week along with the dreaded "Double Trouble", if only to confirm my memories. And I was pleasantly surprised with "...World's Fair". Once you get past that horrific opening sequence of Elvis singing while in the plane, this is actually not bad. The songs are typical; only the lovely ('Anything That's Part Of You'-rip) 'They Remind Me Too Much Of You' and the tame-but-likable 'One Broken Heart For Sale' stand out, but there are only a couple terrible ones. The film itself is silly, unbelievable fluff, but with a sweetness that's rarely irritating. As far as Elvis musicals go, "It Happened At The World's Fair" isn't one of the better ones, but not among his worst, either. Fans should have a look (as if they already haven't).

This is another enjoyable Elvis vehicle: it’s early yet, but I’m having a better time with these films than I had anticipated! Once again, the songs prove to be quite inconsequential – the only two I liked here were “One Broken Heart For Sale” and the would-be macabre children’s ditty “Cotton Candy Land” – and the leading lady is the rather unsympathetic and over-coiffeured Joan O’Brien. But, thankfully, Gary Lockwood is on hand to offer solid support as Elvis’ sidekick who has a gambling addiction; it’s ironic that the film ends with Elvis signing up for a NASA space program when Lockwood himself would go on to obtain screen immortality with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)!The subplot involving the abandoned Asian child often threatens to descend into bathos but she wins over the audience with her cute and amusing antics to get sick in order to bring Elvis and nurse O’Brien together again after a quarrel. Also notable is the scene featuring a very young Kurt Russell (who would eventually portray Presley in a 1979 TV biopic directed by, of all people, John Carpenter!) which involves yet another scam by which Elvis is able to ensnare O’Brien into falling for him.Unfortunately, at a running time of 105 minutes, the film does slightly outstay its welcome and some of the other subplots – those involving the child welfare board’s attempts to take the kid out of the jobless Elvis’ custody (leading to a chase inside the grounds of the Seattle Fair) and Lockwood falling in with crooks (climaxing in an admittedly energetic fistfight in a hangar) – could have been jettisoned without sacrificing the film’s entertainment value.

For me, this is one of Elvis' more enjoyable early-'60s "formula" films, partly because at this point it was still early enough that Presley still seemed to pretty much have his heart in it and is not yet bored by it all. He's an out-of-work pilot named Mike Edwards who finds himself saddled with babysitting a sweet little girl (Vicki Tui - very cute and a fine little actress) at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair when her dad drops her off and then disappears. While seeing the sights, Elvis makes the acquaintance of a lovely nurse whom he keeps trying to snare, and this necessitates a hilarious and oft-cited scene with a very young Kurt Russell as a kid at the fair who agrees to kick Elvis hard in the shin for a quarter; it's a short sequence but it's a lot of fun, and quite ironic since Russell would wind up playing Presely himself in a 1977 TV movie. This one's got laughs, romance, and also some of the best trademark Elvis fist-fighting (it's amazing to me that he would be allowed to do his own stunts in these movies where he could easily have gotten injured). Oh yeah -- and there are more songs -- quite a few of them, actually -- but only "One Broken Heart For Sale" was of moderate interest for me. *** out of ****

I watched this movie with my best friend, a HUGE Elvis fan. Truthfully, It Happened At The World's Fair, was my first Elvis flik, and I'm sure, just positively sure, that Elvis has movies in his repertoire that are actually entertaining. This was a real snoozer. It's unfortunate that the child actress used in this film didn't continue in a film career, because she stole every scene that she and Elvis were in. In fact, I wondered why Elvis was even cast in this role, because it doesn't appear that his heart was in it. By '63 the guy was probably tired of burning it at both ends, and it shows. My buddy and I actually laughed out loud at some of the very hokey scenes, which weren't necessarily written nor acted to be humorous. All in all, the movie's greatest contribution was its footage of the world's fair circa early 1960's and the on screen appearance of a couple of members of his real life entourage. I look forward to viewing other Elvis films, its all uphill from here (I'm sure!).