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Spend Saturday Night with David Bowie at the Drive-In

Ever since Ziggy Stardust left Earth in January, 2016, there’s been a David Bowie-shaped hole in the world. Let’s face it: Things have been going downhill ever since. You can get a recharge of that Thin White Duke energy at the Malco Summer Drive-In Saturday night as the monthly Time Warp Drive-In celebrates Bowie’s film career.

From the beginning, Bowie’s music and persona were tied up with acting. He trained as a mime, which heavily influenced his stage presentation; “Cracked Actor” is a standout track on his 1973 record Aladdin Sane. When Bowie got in front of a camera, the results were spectacular. He’s almost always the most interesting thing on the screen. Watch him effortlessly dominate Tony Award winner Hugh Jackman in this scene from The Prestige.

Christopher Nolan’s best film is not on the Time Warp marquee this week, but you won’t be disappointed with the selections. First up is a cult masterpiece from 1986, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. I recently revisited the dark fairy tale with actor and Black Nerd Power podcaster Markus Seaberry as part of my Never Seen It series, and it’s a highly entertaining read. The best part is our back and forth about the prominent Bowie package, which is actually thematically relevant in this story about pubescent ennui. Here’s Jennifer Connelly facing her greatest fear: David Bowie’s sexuality.

Speaking of David Bowie’s sexuality, the next film is a steamy goth horror classic from the late director Tony Scott. Released three years prior to Labyrinth, the same year as Bowie’s epochal Let’s Dance album, The Hunger stars Bowie and Catherine Deneuve as incredibly sexy vampires who take a shine to a doctor, played by Susan Sarandon. Here’s the classic opening sequence featuring Bauhaus performing “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” that made a million black roses bloom.

The final movie in the Time Warp is another celebrated cult oddity. First gaining attention with the documentary about the rise of The Sex Pistols, The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle, Julien Temple was one of the hottest music video directors of the 1980s, creating classic clips for Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, The Rolling Stones, and, of course, Bowie. Absolute Beginners was his high ’80s musical about the birth of rock-and-roll in England. It’s a fascinating mixture of eye-popping visuals and extremely questionable decisions. It spawned one of Bowie’s biggest hits, the theme song “Absolute Beginners,” which he does not perform in the movie. Watch the money burn in this incredibly over-the-top musical number.

The Time Warp Drive-In starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 24, at the Malco Summer Drive-In.

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Sundance in Memphis: A Memorable Night Under the Stars

Niamh Algar as Enid in Censor.

I’ll have to admit, I didn’t expect to have my first Sundance screening at the Malco Summer Drive-In. But the pandemic makes for strange situations, and from my point of view, this is one of the better ones. As a filmmaker, none of my works have ever been accepted to Sundance, and as a journalist, no outlet has ever offered to pay my way to Park City, so I’ve never been to the mecca of American indie film in person.

When Indie Memphis adopted the hybrid online and in-person model last November, an unexpected thing happened: It turned into an opportunity to expand the reach of the festival. In the case of screenwriting award winner Executive Order, the Bluff City’s homegrown regional festival was suddenly attracting audiences from Brazil.
In the opening press conference on Thursday, Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam recognized the upside of Sundance’s move into the virtual world. “We think this will be the largest audience that we have ever had,” Putnam said.

Festival Director Tabitha Jackson was on the job less than a month when the novel coronavirus essentially shut down the film industry. She explained that the festival’s unofficial theme was the Japanese art of knitsugi, the practice of repairing broken pottery in a way that make the cracks visible and beautiful. “You see all those little fragments and shards, and that came from the sense that what the pandemic had done was to kind of explode our present reality, and we were left with the pieces. The festival actually is coming from a place of needing to completely reimagine and take the pieces that we know are part of our essence and build them into something different to meet the moment.”

While juggling other work assignments, I tried to get a full taste of the pandemic Sundance paradigm on the first day. I made a point of seeing Kentucker Audley’s new film Strawberry Mansion at the drive-in, then scooting home to watch Censor online. I’ve become quite the drive-in habituate during the pandemic, so I knew what to expect, but this experience was truly something special. Just as the opening credits were rolling on a hometown filmmaker’s Sundance opening night debut, a shooting star whizzed above Summer Drive-In screen 3. Crowding into a theater in Park City for the premiere would have been great, but it couldn’t beat being in Memphis in that moment.

Back at home, I nestled into a cozy robe for the world premiere of Censor. Welsh director Prano Bailey-Bond’s feature debut was an amazing revelation. Set in the dreary London of the Thatcher ’80s, it stars Niamh Algar as Enid, a censor who watches VHS-era violence all day long. Enid has a secret: Her sister disappeared under mysterious circumstances when they were young, but while Enid was the last person to see her, she has no memory of what happened. When she sees an actress in a particularly violent film who kind of maybe looks like a grown-up version of her sister, she becomes obsessed with making contact. Enid’s reality starts to implode around her, mixing up the gonzo images of slasher flicks with her lonely London existence.

Bailey-Bond is clearly a student of ’80s horror, and judging from the Videodrome influences, something of a Cronenberg cultist. In at least one way, she exceeded her influences. Where Videodrome’s characters are Ballardian blank slates, Censor is focused intently on Enid’s inner life. Algar gives the kind of remarkably subtle and finely observed performance rarely seen in the genre. Bailey-Bond’s arthouse meets meta-horror vision pushed all the right buttons for me.

Cryptozoo

Tonight, Sundance screenings continue at the Malco Summer Drive-In with I Was A Simple Man. Christopher Makoto Yogi’s August at Akkiko’s was a highlight of Indie Memphis 2018, and last year he had an experimental video installation at the festival. In his new film, he returns to his favorite subject, his native Hawaii, and the experience of the ignored people who have made the islands their home for thousands of years. The second screening couldn’t be more different. Cryptozoo is an animated feature by Virginia director Dash Shaw about a couple who stumble into a fantasy world where unicorns and yeti rule.

Sundance in Memphis: A Memorable Night Under the Stars

The Sundance Film Festival in Memphis begins at 6 p.m. at the Malco Summer Drive-In. You can buy tickets at the Indie Memphis website.  

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Indie Memphis Partnering with Sundance to Bring Prestigious Film Fest to Memphis

The global pandemic has upended the film world in many ways, and film festivals were among the first to feel the heat. Held in late January, Sundance, North America’s most prestigious festival, just barely escaped the fate of festivals like the local Oxford Film Festival, which had to cancel their March screenings and scramble to mount an online presence as the economy collapsed around them. But Sundance will have no such luck in January 2021, when the epidemiological conditions will be worse than they were in the spring.

Like Indie Memphis, which had a very successful “online and outdoors” festival in October, Sundance has had time to observe and adapt to the new pandemic normal. In response, the festival is moving beyond its traditional Park City, Utah, home and taking its cutting-edge film slate to where people live.

“Even under these impossible circumstances, artists are still finding paths to make bold and vital work in whatever ways they can,” says Sundance festival director Tabitha Jackson. “So Sundance, as a festival of discovery, will bring that work to its first audiences in whatever ways we can. The core of our festival in the form of an online platform and socially distanced cinematic experiences is responsive to the pandemic and gives us the opportunity to reach new audiences, safely, where they are. And thanks to a constellation of independent cinema communities across the U.S., we are not putting on our festival alone. At the heart of all this is a belief in the power of coming together, and the desire to preserve what makes a festival unique — a collaborative spirit, a collective energy, and a celebration of the art, artists, and ideas that leave us changed.”

Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson

Indie Memphis is partnering with Sundance to bring festival screenings to the Malco Summer Drive-In, where the homegrown film arts organization anchored its 2020 festival. It’s not the first collaboration between the two festivals. Jackson gave the closing remarks at Indie Memphis’ 2020 Black Creators Forum.

“We are thrilled to be selected as a satellite partner for the Sundance Film Festival!” says Indie Memphis executive director Ryan Watt. “This is a special opportunity for the city of Memphis to take part in the most significant filmmaker-launching platform in the country. Our audience loved the Summer Drive-In during our recent film festival, and we are so grateful to Malco for making it available again for this special occasion.”

Sundance screenings will take place at the drive-in January 28th to Feb 3rd, with the exact lineup to be announced in the coming weeks. The Malco Summer Drive-In will join the ranks of venues across the country, including the Pasadena Rose Bowl, the Sidewalk Film Festival cinema in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, that will host films. All 70 Sundance feature films will be streaming on their online platform, festival.sundance.org.

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Experience the Special Effects Genius of Ray Harryhausen at the Time Warp Drive-In

Monster on the rampage! Ymir, the star of 20 Million Miles to Earth, hits the town.

The special effects extravaganzas that have dominated big-budget moviemaking over the last few decades could never have existed without Ray Harryhausen. He was a pioneer of not only stop motion animation, in which models are manipulated one frame at a time to create the illusion of movement, but also the aesthetic of the monster movie. Along with Ray Bradbury and Forrest Ackerman, he helped define American science fiction and fantasy during its formative years.

There’s no better way to experience Harryhausen’s genius than in the arena where they debuted: the drive-in. The monthly Time Warp Drive-In, put on at the Malco Summer Drive-In by Black Lodge Video, Mike McCarthy, and Piano Man Pictures, will celebrate Harryhausen’s genius on Saturday with two classic films from the heyday of the drive-in, the 1950s.

The first film marked the debut of the color version of Dynamation, the system Harryhausen invented for integrating live action and special effects shots. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad takes inspiration from stories in Arabian Nights, but like all Harryhausen-related mythological films, plays fast and loose with the source material. It contains not only the incredible giant horned cyclops, but also the prototype for what became Harryhausen’s most famous sequence, the skeleton fight from Jason and the Argonauts. Take a look at this delightfully retro trailer.
 

Experience the Special Effects Genius of Ray Harryhausen at the Time Warp Drive-In

The second film of the night is 20 Million Miles to Earth from 1957. The first spaceship to visit Venus crash lands with a deadly cargo: a monster that can double in size every day. Naturally, it gets loose from the scientists trying to study it, and carnage ensues. Coming the same year as Godzilla hit American theaters, it’s the most seminal film in the kaiju genre not made in Japan. Like King Kong, which inspired Harryhausen to get into filmmaking, the monster turns out to be the story’s most sympathetic character. I’m just loving these 50s-era trailers:

Experience the Special Effects Genius of Ray Harryhausen at the Time Warp Drive-In (2)

Gates open for the Time Warp Drive-In at 6 PM, and the films start at 7 PM. Tickets available at the Malco website

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Time Warp: Zombies Take the Drive-In this Saturday

This dusk-till-dawn Halloween horrorthon movie event features four beloved flicks of undead insanity, including Zombieland, Re-Animator, Night of the Living Dead, and Return of the Living Dead.

Most of us are zombied-out after what seems like a decade of TWD. Oh, wait. It has been 10 years. Those jerks are no better off, and the series should have been canceled when (spoilers) Negan lost Lucille and became a wuss. But let’s stay on topic.

The films that will be showing at this edition of the Time Warp Drive-In are classics. You might have piled your friends in the trunk of your 1968 Dodge Charger to see cult classic gore at the drive-in for an original showing of Night of the Living Dead in the late ’60s. A quick internet search reveals that the Dodge Charger still has the roomiest trunk. Pile them in again for a night at the drive-in starting with Zombieland, the 2009 zom-com starring Woody Harrelson. These films are pure undead brain gold.

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Braaaaaaaains!

Shout-out to former Contemporary Media co-worker Celeste Dixon who is part of the art and film collective Piano Man Pictures, which is offering “vintage intermission insanity between all films.” It’s nonstop horror, y’all.

We’re all pretty happy that the Time Warp is back after a COVID intermission. Just a reminder to wear your mask when outside your car or going to the snack bar so we can continue to enjoy future warped events.

Night of the Living Time Warp: Zombies Take the Drive-In, Malco Summer 4 Drive-In, 5310 Summer, Saturday, Oct. 17, 7:15 p.m., $10.

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Long Live The New Flesh! Time Warp Drive-In Returns With a Salute to David Cronenberg

Videodrome

Among the many Memphis cultural institutions hit hard by the pandemic has been Black Lodge. Memphis’ independent video store reinvented itself as a mini-cinema and performance space for music and other countercultural performing arts by moving from its old home of 15 years in Cooper-Young to a big new space in the Crosstown neighborhood. Things were just getting rolling when the coronavirus hit early this year.

The Lodge has been back for a few months, renting films to members from its 30,000-strong collection of DVD and Blu-Ray titles. But like any place that depends on in-person gatherings right now, they are fighting for survival.

The Time Warp Drive-In, presented in partnership with Memphis’ favorite psychotronic filmmaker Mike McCarthy and Malco Theatres, kept the Black Lodge name alive while they were searching for a new home, and new business model. The monthly screenings of classic genre and cult films had been suspended since March’s shutdown. Tomorrow night, Saturday, September 19, it returns with a tribute to one of the most iconoclastic filmmakers of all time.

University of Memphis film professor Marina Levina likes to say that all horror is body horror, meaning that the terror of our own biological weirdness is at the heart of the genre. Nobody exemplifies that axiom better than David Cronenberg. The Canadian director’s movies have long questioned the line between our humanity and the artificial world we create. None of his films were more prescient than 1983’s Videodrome.

Cronenberg’s vision in Videodrome is strictly analog. He did not predict the internet and the rise of computers like his fellow Canadian William Gibson. But in the dream-like Videodrome, he did touch on the bizarre and dangerous side-effects of our information-saturated culture. James Woods stars as Max, the cynical operator of a low-power UHF TV station in Vancouver. When looking for more sensational programming to satisfy his prurient viewers, he stumbles across a secret show that depicts the graphic torture and murder of innocent victims. Rather than be repulsed and report the station to the authorities, he delves deeper into the mystery, and pays with his sanity and his humanity. Videodrome co-stars Debbie Harry, legendary frontwoman for OG punks Blondie, as Nicki, Max’s secret lover who may be either a victim or avatar of Videodrome. The film’s message, which has only become more clear in our current age, is that the power to control the collective hallucination is the power to control reality itself.

Long Live The New Flesh! Time Warp Drive-In Returns With a Salute to David Cronenberg

The evening’s second film is Scanners, the infamous 1981 horror hit which put Cronenberg on the map. The film stars British TV wildman Patrick McGoohan, of the cult sci fi series The Prisoner, as Dr. Paul Ruth, a conscience-free scientist working for ConSec, a shadowy corporate conglomerate investigating the existence of mutant psychics walking among us. These psychics can not only read minds, a skill which ConSec believes can be useful for corporate espionage, they have the ability to… well, just watch.

Long Live The New Flesh! Time Warp Drive-In Returns With a Salute to David Cronenberg (2)

That’s Michael Ironside, the heavy from Total Recall and Top Gun, in one of his first ever roles as the smug, head-banging telepath. The effect was achieved by filling a mask with gore and blasting it with a shotgun, a crew-endangering stunt that would get you instantly sued out of existence if you tried it today. They don’t make ’em like Scanners any more.

The third film of the triple features was Cronenberg’s second of 1983. The Dead Zone is a Dino De Laurentiis production based on a 1979 Stephen King novel. Christopher Walken stars in one of his iconic roles as the creatively named John Smith, a schoolteacher who awakens after a five-year coma to discover he has developed psychic powers and can see the future. When a chance meeting with politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen, deliciously sleazy) reveals that the would-be president will one day cause a nuclear war, Smith must decide whether or not to act on the information and try to change an apocalyptic future.

Long Live The New Flesh! Time Warp Drive-In Returns With a Salute to David Cronenberg (3)

Admission for the Time Warp Drive-In is $10 for the triple feature. Gates of the Malco Summer Drive-In open at 6:45, and the first film starts at 7:15. 

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Malco Summer Drive-In Expands Offerings With Streamed Live Concert By Blake Shelton

As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the closure of movie theaters, music venues, and live theater all across the world, drive-in movie theaters have emerged as the new center of the entertainment world.

After peaking at more than 4,000 drive-in theaters in 1951, the number steadily declined as the multiplex became the the theatrical business’ preferred venue. But Memphis’ homegrown theater company — Malco Theatres — was suited for the pandemic moment, thanks to Malco executive Jimmy Tashie’s nostalgic love for drive-ins.

Malco spent big refitting the Summer Quartet Drive-In for the digital age, and in the summer of 2020, that looks like remarkable foresight. Social distancing to control the spread of the atmospherically spread novel coronavirus is problematic at best in a conventional theater. But the drive-in, where everyone watches from the isolated comfort of their cars, was a social distancing mecca before most people had heard the term. The Malco Summer Drive-In has been offering $20 carload specials for double features of classics like Jurassic Park and Jaws, as well as the last of the fresh releases from before the pandemic started, like The Invisible Man.

As the spring turned into summer and the major studios were holding back their big releases in anticipation of a quick return to the multiplexes, independent filmmakers scrambled to fill the void by pushing out the kind of films that have been associated with the drive-in since the glory days of the 1950s: lot-budget horror. IFC’s grindhouse-inspired film The Wretched became an unlikely No.1 movie, despite grossing only $2.3 million. IFC followed it up with Relic, another grindhouse horror playing at the Malco Summer Drive-In, which currently sits at No. 1 in America.

Jeff Kaufman, senior vice president of film at Malco Theatres, says the embrace of the drive-in has been a bright spot in a bleak year. “We have been so happy to see people yearning for the theatrical experience and the attendance (and audience) response has been very strong.”

On Saturday, July 25th, the Summer Drive-In will play host to a different kind of program. Nashville country singer Blake Shelton will play a live concert beamed to drive-ins around the country, joined by Gwen Stefani and Trace Adkins. This comes on the heels of a pioneering drive-in show by Garth Brooks on June 27th.

“We had the opportunity to bring the Garth Brooks concert to Memphis and the response was terrific — the Summer Drive-In had one of the biggest crowds in the country!” said Kaufman. “The Blake Shelton concert comes from the same vendor. So, it was a natural to bring his show to the venue.

“Because the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the country is disrupting our normal flow of blockbuster movies from Hollywood, as well as keeping live music venues closed, live music shows just seemed like a great fit to bring audiences to the drive-in for a chance to experience the theatrical experience combined with a unique and one-of-a-kind music event. As other non-film events come up, we will continue looking to expand the offerings for this location.“

As the mainline Hollywood studios continue to push back scheduled releases for 2020, like Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated spy thriller Tenet and the live-action remake of Mulan from Disney, Kaufman says to expect more varied programming at the drive-in. On August 12th, the drive-in will play host to stand-up comedy from Bert Kreischer.

The film offerings at the drive-in will continue to expand. A temporary truce has been called in the long-running conflict between studios and theaters over the length of the “theatrical window,” the time between the release of films in theaters and its appearance on home video and streaming services. The excellent comedy Palm Springs, bought by Hulu at Sundance in January, is currently appearing both at the drive-in and on the streaming service. The infamously stingy Disney has also allowed some hits from their deep stable to reappear, such as Avengers.

“Over the next few weeks there will be a Bob Marley anniversary documentary, along with The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, a couple of new thrillers, The Big Ugly with The Amulet, and the new David Ayres film Tax Collector,” says Kaufman. “We might also have some surprises like a couple of Star Wars films and another Marvel title.”

But still, the theater business is suffering greatly from the extended shut down. Malco has responded by rolling out a new loyalty rewards program and signing on to the Save Your Cinema campaign, says Karen Melton, Malco vice president and director of marketing.

“#SaveYourCinema is a grassroots campaign urging legislators to support movie theaters until our industry can fully reopen,” Melton said. “Our theaters are the beating heart of the communities we serve. We are the venues where people come to laugh, cry, and applaud together. We drive local economies and neighborhood businesses.

“But without more help from Congress, we fear for the future of our industry. We closed for the sake of public health and are abiding by strict safety restrictions and guidelines as we plan our reopening. But even when we are able to reopen, it will be very difficult to sustain our business with limited capacity.

“We need more relief so that we can survive this crisis. Our theaters employ first-time jobholders, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable demographics often underrepresented in the workforce. If we are permanently shuttered, our employees will be deprived of their livelihood and all the stability that comes with it. After this crisis is over, we will need the unifying experience that movie theaters provide more than ever.”

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Time Warp Drive-In: Motorcycle Madness

Tonight’s August edition of the Time Warp Drive In, Summer avenue’s biggest summer event, kicks off with a wedding. Kim Stanford and Coley Smith from Tupelo, Mississippi will say their vows at 7 PM, with Mike McCarthy, the Time Warp Drive-In empresario, presiding.

After the nuptials, the evening of motorcycle movies begins with the genre’s biggest classic, Easy Rider. Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda’s transcontinental epic captured the zeitgeist of its era like few films have before or since. But often lost amidst the Baby Boomer nostalgia is the fact that Easy Rider is a fantastic, and hugely influential, movie. Not only did it make a movie star out of Jack Nicholson, but it also has the first, and still greatest, use of “The Weight” in a film.

Time Warp Drive-In: Motorcycle Madness

The second film of the evening is 1953’s The Wild One starring Marlon Brando. Another hugely influential film, The Wild One was made at a time when Brando was one of the hottest properties in Hollywood. The same year he was playing the sensitive juvenile delinquent Johnny Strabler opposite Lee Marvin, he also played Marc Antony in Julius Caesar opposite James Mason and Sir John Gielgud. The film is the iconic template for the motorcycle movie, and nobody ever wore a Perfecto leather jacket better than Brando.

Time Warp Drive-In: Motorcycle Madness (2)

Made three years before Easy Rider, The Wild Angels was Peter Fonda’s first foray into motorcycle movies. Directed by Roger Corman, the film’s high point is a confrontation between biker gang leader Fonda and a judge, which has become one of the most sampled moments in movie history.

Time Warp Drive-In: Motorcycle Madness (3)

The evening closes out with the psychotronic exploitation drive in classic She Devils On Wheels:

Time Warp Drive-In: Motorcycle Madness (4)

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Time Warp Drive-In Pays Tribute To Elvis

In a special edition of the Time Warp Drive-In, Memphis auteur Mike McCarthy and Black Lodge Video’s Matthew Martin celebrate Elvis Presely’s film career on the 37th anniversary of his death.

The program kicks off with Jailhouse Rock, Elvis’ third and greatest film appearance. By the time it premiered in 1957, Elvis had already changed popular music forever and cemented his place as the biggest music star in the world. But to Elvis, true immortality meant film. He idolized Marlon Brando, and his performance in Jailhouse Rock owes much to Brando’s sensitive biker warlord in The Wild One. The plot is a paper thin extrapolation of Elvis’ bad boy public image, but it hardly matters. Elvis is at the height of his musical power and raw sexual charisma. The film’s centerpiece is a Busby Berkley style musical number of the title song, but even its antiquated and stylized setting doesn’t take the edge off the song or Elvis’ performance. The sequence has been copied dozens of times and remains an ideal towards which all subsequent music videos aspire to.

Time Warp Drive-In Pays Tribute To Elvis

After a “headlight vigil” is Viva Las Vegas. As Elvis’ film career went on, the quality of his films slowly declined, as he pumped out quick, but profitable, product throughout the 60s. But 1964’s Viva Las Vegas is the exception, primarily for one reason: Ann Margaret. Many of Elvis’ endless parade of love interests were one-note bimbos (Mary Tyler Moore excepted), but Ann Margaret was an exceptionally talented dancer and, if not exactly a great actress, a natural movie star with a personality as big as her halo of fiery red hair. She and Elvis had a torrid affair during and after the shooting of the film, and it shows on the screen big time. Acting or no, it’s clear that these two beautiful people can barely keep their hands off of each other. Add in a classic title song better than most of Elvis’ 60s output and it equaled the biggest grossing film of Elvis’ career.

Next is King Creole. Directed by the legendary Michael Curtiz, whose filmography includes Casablanca. Said to be Elvis’ favorite role, his turn as Danny Fisher, New Orleans street urchin turned caberet singer is certainly his best film performance, rivaling James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.

Time Warp Drive-In Pays Tribute To Elvis (2)

The evening ends with The King’s 1972 swan song, Elvis On Tour. The concert documentary features performances filmed over four nights in 1972 interspersed with backstage footage and an interview. This is Elvis in full Las Vegas jumpsuit trim. His voice is strong, and his stage presence unmatched among mere humans, but it’s clear that he doesn’t have the same intensity as the man who was swinging from a pole in Jailhouse Rock. But after the extraordinary life he led, you’d be a little blasé about playing coliseums as well. 

The Time Warp Drive In begins at dusk on Saturday, August 16 at the Malco Summer 4 Drive-In.