Roustabout poster & wallpaper

Barbara Stanwyck, Beverly Adams, Billy Barty

The Elvis formula was well in place by the time of 1964's Roustabout: a passel of undistinguished songs (anyone remember "Poison Ivy League"?), pretty girls, tight pants, a colorful setting, an...( read more  read more... )d a little bit of karate to prove that Elvis really had been studying his martial arts. With that understood, Roustabout is a better-than-average workout for the King--not as peppy as Viva Las Vegas, but a good deal livelier than the sleepwalking It Happened at the World's Fair. Elvis plays a bad-boy singer roaming the highways on his Japanese motorcycle; laid up after an accident, he joins a carnival owned by the feisty Barbara Stanwyck. ("This is not a circus, it's a carnival. There's a big difference.") The cast goes from high to low: both giant-sized future James Bond villain Richard Kiel and tiny Billy Barty are carny regulars, and Raquel Welch has a small role in the opening scene. Teri Garr is one of the carnival dancers behind Elvis. The legendary costume designer Edith Head puts Elvis in a series of snappy windbreakers, but thank goodness he's also in black leather a lot. As if that weren't enough to recommend it, the movie has a sequence involving Elvis riding a cycle inside the "Wall of Death," a huge wooden cylinder with high walls. This bit actually inspired an entire Irish film in 1986, Eat the Peach, in which friends build a similar contraption after they watch Roustabout on tape. --Robert Horton

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67% liked it

6,006 ratings

PG, 101 min.

Directed by: John Rich

Release Date: November 11, 1964

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DVD Release Date: May 2, 2000

Stats: 145 reviews

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Roustabout Stanwyck and Elvis Presley Roustabout
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Flixster Reviews (145)

  • Collegekid
    January 3, 2007
    Collegekid
    Elvis was an average actor at best.
  • aznalhelmi
    November 15, 2009
    aznalhelmi
    classic classic...he he he
  • spacecasefukface
    November 7, 2009
    spacecasefukface
    :" I hope you're not a mind-reader because if you are, I?m about to get my face slapped! "
    elvis the carny !!!!!
    bad boy motorcycle punk with a heart of gold ends up helping a broken down carnival the only way he can ... by singing .
    memorable songs are "Poison Ivy League"
    "rou...( read more)stabout" "Little Egypt""wheels on my heels"
  • secretsindy
    February 14, 2009
    secretsindy
    The greatset Elvis movie where Barbara plays a Milf
  • Rikki89
    November 25, 2008
    Rikki89
    Pretty good- nice happy ending, good songs and the divine Barbara Stanwyck looking great as an older woman
  • NIGHTRIDER111
    September 8, 2008
    NIGHTRIDER111
    GOOD MOVIE WORTH WATCHING
  • beatlehead5
    July 1, 2008
    beatlehead5
    One of the better Elvis programmers, with a stronger than usual soundtrack featuring "Little Egypt" and the affecting "Big Love, Big Heartache."
  • FlyingSolo2009
    April 21, 2008
    FlyingSolo2009
    Eek! An Elvis Presley movie that I must never watch!!!

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Roustabout Trivia

  • Barbara Stanwick costarred in what Elvis Presley film?  Answer »
  • What was Elvis' character's name in "Roustabout?"  Answer »
  • Who became a "Roustabout"?   Answer »
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