The Worst Film Ever

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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

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.

Elvis portrays a crop dusting pilot with a partner that has a a penchant for gambling. Their plane is on the verge of going to auction and the duo hitchhikes to the world's fair in Seattle in hopes of making enough money to get their plane back. What ensues leaves Elvis caring for a small Chinese girl that gets separated from her Uncle and attempting to woo a nurse from the fair's first aid station. Elvis uses every duplicitous trick in the book and then some to gain the nurse's attention. A funny film with heart.

It was late 1962 when Elvis Presley started filming at the World's Fair in Seattle, It Happened at the World's fair follows the exact same formula that producer Hal Wallis developed for Elvis on Paramount, beautiful scenery, beautiful girls, lots of songs and occasionally some children to showcase Elvis new found maturity.As with most Presley movies, this has an innocent plot, a few fights, lots of movie songs, and a pretty gal to win his heart. Enjoy the Seatle fair as it was in 1962 and Elvis being on the receiving end of two painful kicks by child actor Kurt Russell. And there's some very heart warming moments as well as a few chuckles here and there.This is a great light-hearted movie with a couple of well known Elvis songs, such as One Broken Heart For Sale. Elvis talks, sings, fights, loves, flies, fights again, and endearingly looks after a little girl.Get away from reality and escape into Seattle's fair with Elvis - just for those ninety minutes. Nice Feelgood Movie.

I discovered this movie during some research on the original release of A Hard Day's Night 50 years ago. It Happened at the World's Fair was the second feature of a drive-in double bill with A Hard Day's Night in Wayne, Michigan in September 1964. I thought how cool is that, and I've watched it about five or six times on the Warner Archive web site.It grabs you from the very beginning with Elvis flying across the beautiful blue widescreen sky, singing Around the Bend. The scene with Yvonne Craig leaves me in cold sweats every time, and then Joan O'Brien's mature, classy beauty helps carry the rest of the movie.It's a great snapshot of a moment in time, the early 1960s, when world's fairs showed us an exciting future and there was great enthusiasm about the space program.The songs are all fairly good, and mesh in well with the plot. And it's intriguing to see Gary Lockwood in such a light-hearted role a few years before his much more serious performance in 2001: A Space Odyssey.No it's not Grand Illusion or Tokyo Story or The Battleship Potemkin, but it's a great example of Hollywood Elvis at his peak in the early 1960s.

Just like MGM's classic Meet Me In St. Louis which has the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis as a backdrop for the story, It Happened At The World's Fair uses the 1963 Seattle World's Fair for the same purpose. No big song hits came out of this film as they did for Judy Garland in her film, but Elvis Presley does sing quite a few numbers here and some of them should have been better known.It Happens At The World's Fair casts the King and Gary Lockwood as a pair of crop duster fliers who can't seem to get out of debt no matter how hard they work. This is mostly due to Lockwood's irresponsibility which takes the form of a gambling habit. Lockwood never saw a poker table or a crap game he couldn't pass up. The sheriff's gone and padlocked their plane so these guys can't fly. It's off to Seattle for Presley and Lockwood to find a job or raise a stake somehow.And in Seattle Elvis gets involved with two women. Joan O'Brien who works in the World's Fair Infirmary and little Vicky Tsu who comes into his custody when her uncle Kam Tong goes missing. So the rest of the film Presley and Lockwood are trying to deal with their financial mess and in Elvis's case court Joan O'Brien and take care of the little girl he now has custody of.Elvis sang a goodly amount of songs here and two of them, Happy Ending and A World Of Our Own should have become bigger hits for him. I'm also surprised that Joan O'Brien didn't get to sing a bit more, she does join Elvis in the Happy Ending finale for a couple of bars. But Joan was a singer and hardly utilized in her brief film career.This film has also something of a cult status with fans of the King because young Kurt Russell who grew up to play Elvis Presley has a couple of scenes with him. Just like Tony Curtis whose idol was Cary Grant growing up to play in a film with him in Operation Petticoat.It Happened At The World's Fair probably resulted from Colonel Tom Parker making a deal with the Seattle World's Fair people to advertise the exhibition by shooting an Elvis film there. If that was the case than everybody made out fine.