Change of Habit (1969)

Elvis tried something different in his final narrative movie… but the results are oddly similar to his usual '60s formula. Here the King plays a doctor working in an inner-city free clinic, playing host to three Catholic nurses (who are really nuns incognito). Elvis gets hung up on one of the nuns, played by Mary Tyler Moore; she seems a lot closer to The Dick Van Dyke Show than the Vatican. The songs are sparse--"Rubberneckin'" gets a workout in one of those awful stilted hootenannies so prevalent in Elvis pictures. The flower-power ambience is more interesting than the story; the film features Mod Squad-style attempts at racial politics, a sit-down protest, and a weird sequence involving "rage reduction" to cure an autistic child. Elvis has good scenes and indifferent ones, but he looks fantastic (this is just after the great "comeback"), and he dresses like no other doctor before or since. --Robert Horton Amazon.com

Elvis movie

This a pretty good movie not my favorite but got it to complete my collection!!!!! February 25, 2008

Anything Elvis did is great

This is another great film classic starring Elvis Presley. It has more drama than his other movies, closer to the modern problems we face today than most of his movies, but truly a good movie. Family feature. January 25, 2008

Slight Change of Pace for the King.

This movie came at the end of Elvis' fim contract and as a result suffered from the public's boredom with his previous formulaic musicals. I am a fan and I liked all his films and love movies like 'Follow that Dream', 'Girl Happy', 'Kid Galahad' and others but eventually the general public became fed up. This is unfortunate as had this movie been made near the start of his film career (say after'Blue Hawaii') I think it would have become one of his fans most liked films. The story has a slight edge to it - set in an inner city, tough neighbourhood where a group of nuns has been sent to work with the local doctor, Elvis. Presley looks terrific, lean and mean. No outstanding songs but at the end as he sings a mock gospel the camera pans across a statue of Christ on the cross then moves to Elvis, blasphemous or simple coincidence? Barbara McNair provides the most dramatic performance as a nun battling with her doubts and Mary Tyler Moore is a pleasant foil to Elvis. Not a great film but for Elvis fans definitely one to see. October 26, 2007

Cinema's True Odd Couple - Elvis and Mary - in a Most Contrived Social Drama

Rarely has there been as odd a coupling in the history of cinema as the one on exhibit here - Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore - two more polar opposite personas could not have shared the screen in 1969 when this movie was released. In what turned out to be his last dramatic role, Presley looks fit as he was then riding the momentum from his legendary '68 Comeback Special, while Moore - looking very Mary Richards-like, at least in Season One - was floundering in cheap Universal movies (like this one) after her salad days as Laura Petrie on Dick Van Dyke's classic sitcom and still a year away from her own epochal TV series. Yet, Presley obviously felt the seasoned Moore (versus his standard gallery of vacuous starlets) would give him credibility as a more serious actor in a film that dealt with social issues albeit in a most unbelievable manner.

Directed in journeyman TV-movie fashion by William A. Graham, the contrived story concerns three nuns, undercover as nurses in civilian clothing, who are sent on a mission to an inner city neighborhood to help the groovy Dr. John Carpenter, who runs a free clinic there when he's not singing and playing his guitar. Complications ensue as each sister finds it difficult to assimilate themselves into the community no thanks to a belligerent local pastor against their mission from the outset. The giggly Sister Barbara attempts to confront the local grocer to change his price-gouging ways, while the sullen Sister Irene feels conflicted about being a black woman amid the racial inequity of the real world. Sister Michelle, however, has the most palpable dilemma - should she remain faithful to the church or succumb to the charms of the doctor? If any of this could be taken seriously, there might have been a chance toward a grittier examination of social services to the marginalized. In an effort to stay topical, there is a discomfiting rape scene and an oversimplified treatment for autism called Rage Reduction.

But all this effort is secondary since this is Elvis after all, and he has no facility as an actor to play anyone but himself. With his aggressive sideburns and skintight white jeans with matching shoes, he does not slip into any character that would be credibly living in the ghetto. However, he does sing four songs, of which only "Rubberneckin'" is worthy of a second listen. As Sister Michelle, Moore is overly earnest without her trademark irony - the Mary we love only shows up briefly during a touch football scene in the park. Singer Barbara McNair, deglamorized and barely cracking her famous smile, plays Sister Irene, while future soap opera villainess Jane Elliot plays Sister Barbara. Look for Ed Asner playing a progressive cop but sadly no scenes with Moore are offered. The only noteworthy extra on the 2002 DVD is the original theatrical trailer. This is a true curio. August 28, 2007

The King and Laura Petrie? Don't waste your time.!

Whoever came up with this lame contrivance and thought it would be good?

Enter Elvis as inner-city free-clinic MD takin' care of business, gettin' All Shook Up over coy nurse-by-day, bride of Christ by night Mary Tyler Moore. The sexual tension is palpable, but goes nowhere. It's Kind of a Drag.

There aren't even any good songs in this Hound Dog of a movie.

Now I know where "Oh Robbbb!" got it's start.



August 18, 2007

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