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Just perfect...

Fantastic!

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The old Warner Brothers classic boxing story Kid Galahad was dusted off and rewritten to suit the Sixties and the talents of Elvis Presley. The man that's named Kid Galahad for the ring not only throws a mean punch, but he sings pretty good too.Elvis is a soldier fresh out of the army and broke and arrives at Gig Young's training camp looking for any kind of work. The only work that Young has available is for a sparring partner and Elvis does more than spar. He flattens a heavyweight contender and Young's found himself a new prospect.He needs one because he's into the bookies big time. And a couple of syndicate torpedoes working for gangster David Lewis have taken up residence at the camp. All this is dismaying girlfriend Lola Albright and sister Joan Blackman who Elvis takes a fancy to.As is usual with Elvis films, manager Colonel Tom Parker got the best talent he could to support the King. Besides those names Robert Emhardt plays the camp cook and up and coming movie legend Charles Bronson plays Elvis's trainer. And you'll see a lot of familiar Hollywood faces as you do in all his films.Not only the cast, but director Phil Karlson one of the best directors of noir ever, took charge. The scenes with the gangsters show Karlson's steady hand.Oddly enough Elvis had no real hit songs come out of Kid Galahad, but makes up for it with one of his best acting jobs on screen. For fans of the King.

Comparisons to the 1937 version of "Kid Galahad" are pointless, the only similarity between the two films is the nickname of the title character. It probably suits Elvis Presley a bit better than Wayne Morris, the knight in shining armor who at the film's opening touts his reputation in song as 'King of the Whole Wide World'. The movie's trailer calls it a 'honey of a picture', and for his fans back in the day, maybe so.Events in the story conspire to turn Presley's character Walter Gulick from an ex-GI mechanic into a successful local boxer, thereby earning him a paycheck and the heart of Rose Grogan (Joan Blackman), kid sis of Willy (Gig Young). Together they own the Grogan Gaelic Gardens, an upstate New York resort that can't turn a profit because Willy Grogan is a gambling lush in hock to local hoods.You'd be hard pressed to call this a boxing movie though, Elvis takes turns as a punching bag in virtually every ring scene until he finds the magnetic wonder punch to knock his opponent out. The dramatic set up for Cream Valley's Labor Day extravaganza includes Grogan's encounter with the bad boys who hope to make a killing with bets on the fight. Kid Galahad comes through, but you knew that, this is the King's movie.There are some interesting casting surprises here, highlighted by Charles Bronson's turn as Galahad's trainer, and a very early film appearance by the uncredited Ed Asner. Gig Young is generally competent as Grogan, while female leads Lola Albright and Joan Blackman don't have a lot to do except play off their respective boyfriends. Albright's Dolly Fletcher gets to fire off an effective one liner defending Elvis' character when she starts to lose patience for Grogan's marriage delays.Every now and then you'll catch an art deco tease with vivid reds, yellow and blues interspersed with Presley's songs. All are fairly mellow tunes; the "I Got Lucky" number brought a chuckle as I imagined it being performed in a corn field instead of by the side of a lake. You know, the slow twist accompaniment seemed a bit, well, corny.Hey, it's not a bad little flick and a better way to remember Elvis by than the bloated self destructive image he came to bear in the years before his death. A bit of escapist entertainment that in it's way echoes Dolly Fletcher's sentiment early in the film - "Thanks Galahad".

At the start, Walter is fresh from the army and hitchhiking on the back of a moving van (not something anyone should attempt in real life, but it looks good here). And he's singing! Walter arrives in the small scenic New York community of Cream Valley, where he was born. After his parents died he was raised by an aunt in Kentucky (which explains the accent). In the army he worked in the motor pool, and he loves restoring cars, so he hopes to get a job as a mechanic.Unfortunately, the only job available is sparring partner for one of several boxers training in the community. At least Walter boxed in the army. He isn't that good, until ...Willy runs Grogan's Gaelic Gardens, which is trying to compete with Lieberman's Shangri-La as a tourist attraction. But Willy has a gambling problem, and Otto and his goons constantly remind him he needs to pay up. Dolly, who used to sing at Lieberman's, is Willy's impatient fiancée, and she helps take care of the place. And Rose is Willy's younger sister and business partner. The minute Walter sees Rose, we all know what's going to happen with them. Of course, Willy turns out to be quite overprotective.Walter's boxing talent just may turn out to be the solution for Willy's problems. The usual formula for movies like this applies, though, and it won't be that easy.I haven't seen but a few Elvis Presley movies. But I didn't know what I was missing. Even Elvis admitted (as portrayed on TV by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) that his movies were fluff, but this one was just a little more.Elvis gives us his usual impeccably polite all-American boy, and shows his singing talent in a few scenes (though this is not what I would call a musical). He is also good at looking tough in the boxing ring, and he really seems to be able to take a punch or two or three. But in the scenes where he loses his temper (because women shouldn't be treated that way), it becomes clear Elvis was hired for his popularity, not his acting ability.What makes this film more than ordinary is the talent surrounding the King. Lola Albright as Dolly, Robert Emhardt as Maynard, and David Lewis as Otto in particular. I wasn't that impressed with Gig Young as Willy, but he was easy to like.And I have to single out Charles Bronson as boxing trainer Lew. When he was in pain in one scene, it was truly disturbing. And that's what put this movie over the top and made it more than just the usual.Ed Asner (from the Manhattan district attorney's office) had a bald spot even way back then! I've liked him for years. I didn't see much from him here to be impressed with, though.I did like the music, and the classic cars, which of course were brand new or only a few years old. Walter himself liked the vintage car he restored better than I did.I would call this good, clean family fun, but of course Elvis does get beat up a lot and he does bleed. And there is some violence even outside the boxing ring. But in the early 60s, violence wasn't as big a concern as it is today.If you like Elvis, this is certainly one to watch.

Presley's first movies were arguably the best he made.Some of them were eminently watchable:"love me tender" "jailhouse rock" "king creole" "flaming star" -probably his very best- and at a pinch "Wild in the country".In almost all these movies ,there's a mother's loss (or absence).This permanent feature comes back in "Kid Galahad":the hero lost his parents when he was an infant.Besides ,as it is a remake ,we have at least a script ,which will cruelly lack in films to come."Kid Galahad" is never exciting though.The songs always come at the most awkward moment ,and as only Elvis sings -his female partners contenting themselves with looking languorously at the star-,one can hardly call that (and all Presley's subsequent flicks)musicals.And the songs are not particularly memorable;only the peppy "I got lucky" and the romantic " Home is where the heart is" stand out.Whereas songs make sense in "jailhouse rock" or " king creole" ,where Elvis portrays singers ,they do not fit in a boxer's tale .Watchable because of the lovely pictures and the good -but wasted-supporting cast including Gig Young,Charles Bronson,Lola Allbright.Love interest consists of an affair between Elvis and Young's kid sister .Willy (what a naughty boy!) does not want Rose to marry Walter!