Elvis is coming to New Orleans this week—no, not the guy with the glasses, but the original. The Prytania Theater continues its Classic Movie Series, which runs Sundays and Thursdays through the fall, with one of the movies every New Orleans resident needs to see once, Elvis Presley’s 1958 King Creole.

Elvis signing autographs on location in New Orleans filming "King Creole."

King Creole is Elvis’s greatest film—arguably the one really great one—and proof that all his movies weren’t about scoring babes and punching out bad guys in Hawaii. No, in this one he scores babes and punches out bad guys in New Orleans—but instead of his later squeaky-clean roles, here he plays a young singer with a chip on his shoulder, a few underworld connections, and a thing for dangerous ladies. Shot in blank and white, the film shows what the seedier Bourbon dives might have looked like circa 1960.

This famous clip below should give you a hint of the movie’s atmosphere; you’ve never seen the Quarter look quite so gorgeous. And the song may be a classic, but you have to wonder about those lyrics—like, who told Elvis that you were supposed to catch a crawfish with a fishing pole and throw it into a frying pan? You’d think that a Tupelo, Mississippi boy would know better!

 

 

King Creole shows Sunday (September 22) and Wednesday (September 25) at 10 a.m. (no, that’s not a typo – the Classics series screens twice weekly at 10 a.m. in the morning) the Prytania Theatre (5339 Prytania St.) Admission is $5.75. Coming later this fall are The Wrong Man (September 29 & October 2),the film debut of James Bond in Dr. No (October 6 & 9) and two Jack Nicholson classics, Chinatown (October 13 & 16) and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (October 20 & 23).