Watch It Happened at the World's Fair For Free

You won't be disappointed!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

It Happened at the World's Fair (1963): Dir: Norman Taurog / Cast: Elvis Presley, Joan O'Brien, Gary Lockwood, Vicky Tiu, Yvonne Craig: Boring drivel about life experiences such as making a film this stupid. Elvis Presley and Gary Lockwood play a couple of morons who owe a large dept and must get their plane back after the police take it. Before "never talk to strangers" became the norm, a man who will never win Father of the Year allows his Asian daughter to go to the fair with two strangers. They turn out to be Elvis Presley and Gary Lockwood but who cares. It is creepy as hell. Elvis Bonds with this girl who doesn't know any better. Joan O'Brien plays a nurse who ends up the victim of Presley's antics particularly when he pays a kid to kick him in the knee to fake an injury. She is the standard airhead who is subdued into believing his crap because the screenplay is predictable tripe. Vicky Tiu as the Asian kid is about as bad as a child actor can get. She cannot even convincingly whine. Norman Taurog seems to have a knack for making horrible Elvis films because he has made many and this is about as bad as they get. Even the sets look about as fake as the average episode of Mr. Dressup. Fans are advised to celebrate the music of Presley because it is obvious that the one thing that didn't happen at the world's fair is doing a film that is any better than horse sh*t. Score: 1 / 10

I really don't get tired of this film! It contains four terrific elements that make for a good show: 1) a good soundtrack (several fine bouncy numbers, and I'm even getting used to "Relax" which visually looks stunning ---- Yvonne Craig and Elvis!), 2)an interesting story, 3) somewhat fascinating characters, and 4) good scenery. I can even add a number five, action! Elvis clobbers some gamblers near the beginning of the film, then a gangster near the end of the movie! The little Asian girl really makes the film! I find her cute, not annoying as one of my fellow writers here stated. She and Elvis had a pretty good chemistry together. Gary Lockwood was admirable as the gambling, lying friend! Joan O'Brien was okay for the role given. Kurt Russell was terrific to see.....good kicks! I was so glad to see it on TCM a while ago. Letterboxed and beautiful. My copy from VHS was awful!

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).

Even at this fairly early stage in The King's film career, he was beginning the embalming process, mired down as he was in predictable, substandard, cookie-cutter musical romps with banal songs and curvy female co-stars. The spin here was that his chief co-star is an Asian ankle-biter who adores him in a different way than most. Crop-dusting pilot Presley and his ne'er-do-well partner Lockwood find themselves without two dimes to rub together and hitchhike, for no real reason, to Seattle where the World's Fair of 1962 is taking place. Their ride, apple farmer Tong, entrusts Presley with his little niece Tiu so that she can enjoy the fair. However, by the end of the day, Tong is gone and Presley has little choice but to keep the little girl as he waits for her uncle (and only relative) to return for her. Meanwhile, Presley falls for prim nurse O'Brien and Tiu does her best to encourage and enable it. However, Lockwood, who suffers from bad judgment in practically every department, allows Presley to become involved in a shady business proposition which threatens even more trouble for everyone. Presley looks pretty good and sings a plethora of songs nicely, though few of them are memorable or add anything much to the film. He does have a moderately amusing number as he's trying to canoodle with local girl Craig. O'Brien, all bouffant hair and teeth, is pretty, but rather stiff and inanimate (projecting an image that is at odds with her reportedly sultry private life!) and she shares precious little chemistry with Presley. Lockwood isn't given a lot to do except occasionally mess things up, but he's attractive and reasonably effective. Tiu, an automatic scene-stealer in her little braids and dragging along an over-sized, red, plush dog, is charming, though she comes close to overstaying her welcome after a while. In a startling development, she would grown up in real life to become First Lady of Hawaii and an active advocate for teen alcohol awareness. Russell, who would later play Elvis in a much-lauded TV-movie, has a small role as a child who comes across Presley twice at the fair. Fans of Presley enjoy watching him in practically all of his films, but the chief attraction here for most people is the chance to see some stunning footage of the 1962 World's Fair. It's hard to believe how pristine, spotless and gleaming the structures are here and how equally spiffy the people attending are. Though some sequences were recreated or otherwise augmented back at the studio, a large portion of filming took place amid the buildings and attractions in Seattle and it's a rare treat to see them as they were at the time.