A Stone for Danny Fisher

Product Information

I've read A Stone for Danny Fisher several times over decades. When I was a kid growing up in Danny's Brooklyn I enjoyed the references to places and things and people I knew. I also enjoyed the sexy parts, though they were done more by inference and euphemism than the explicit language we're used to today. Still, any adult and most teenagers knew what was being described. Disillusioned youth Danny Fisher (Presley) lives in New Orleans' French Quarter with his recently widowed father (Dean Jagger) and sister (Jan Shepard).His pharmacist father is finding it tough to cope without his wife and cannot find regular work,while Danny flunks his college studies to work in a nightclub owned by sleazy crook Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau), and begins to take romantic interest in a boozy if pitiable tramp,Ronnie,used by Fields as a mistress (Carolyn Jones).He toys with joining a gang of hoodlums led by Shark (Vic Morrow),and attracts the attentions of a sweet-natured shopgirl,Nellie (Dolores Hart).With his talent for singing,Danny decides not to work in Fields' venues,but of his rival Charlie LeGrand instead,the King Creole,where he is a great success.Fields resents Danny's behaviour and is determined fair ways or foul to force Danny to work for him,but Danny will make his own decisions who he works and falls in love with. Before filming began, Curtiz was convinced that Presley would be a "conceited boy", but after a few weeks of working together, he described Presley as a "lovely boy" who would go on to be a "wonderful actor". [9] Presley, after seeing an early copy of the finished film, thanked Curtiz for giving him the opportunity to show his potential as an actor; he would later cite Danny Fisher as his favorite role of his acting career. Fourteen days after the completion of King Creole, Presley was officially inducted into the U.S. Army. [5] Reception [ edit ] Advertisement in Modern Screen (Aug 1958) Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.

I cheated and read the ending first, and it is not as happy as in "King Creole", where Danny continues his success. Instead he gets a stone in a cemetery, so to speak. But a little before that, he also becomes a father, if I understand it correctly. Guess I have to start from the beginning. King Creole DVD (2000)". Allrovie. Rovi. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012 . Retrieved June 20, 2011.

See also

I enjoyed some of the Yiddish and period slang. I also liked getting the perspective of a boy repeatedly adjusting to new life situations. I only wish he had learned more from them. Landers, Steve (2000). The Life Of Elvis Aaron Presley Elvis Facts For Elvis Fans. Lulu Press. ISBN 978-1-4357-3905-5. In the mid-1920s, a young Danny Fisher and his family move into a new house in a Brooklyn suburb. Within a few years, however, the Great Depression begins and Danny must use his one talent, boxing, as a means of supporting his family. This was Elvis' 4th movie, and made right before he was drafted into the Army at age 22. Although much of the movie has a "staged" feel to it, Elvis does a credible job, and his singing is featured when he gets a job in a New Orleans FrenchQuarter night spot. A somewhat young Walter Matthau, doing a decent Bogart impression, plays the heavy, Maxie Fields, who always bends the rules, often breaking them, to get his way. Carolyn Jones, who later was popular on the TV series "The Addams Family" is good as Ronnie, who belongs to Maxie but longs for Danny. Dolores Hart, who left the movies and became a nun just a few years later, was 19 here playing Nellie, the good girl that falls for Danny too.

Jeansonne, Glenn; Luhrssen, David; Sokolovic, Dan (2011). Elvis Presley, Reluctant Rebel: His Life and Our Times. ABC-Clio. ISBN 978-0-313-35904-0. I confess that I had trouble relating to or caring about Danny much. Perhaps 20-something men would have an easier time of it. A Stone For Danny Fisher is a brutal coming-of-age story covering both The Great Depression and WWII eras. Danny Fisher is a sensitive, likable Jewish boy who, when his family falls on hard times, discovers that he not only has a natural talent for fighting but also for the clever manipulation of everyone close to him. But Danny is too clever for his own good, and has a serious tragic flaw that always propels his happiness just out of his reach. Jorgenson, Ernst (1998). Elvis Presley: A Life In Music. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-18572-5.The film was first shown at Loew's State Theater in New York City [1] on July 2, 1958. [16] During the opening week, it ranked number five in box office earnings on the Variety national survey. [17] The film received critical acclaim. The film was released on VHS by Paramount Pictures in 1986. [32] In 2000, it was re-released on DVD with remastered sound and image, featuring the original theatrical trailer. [33] On April 21, 2020, it was released on Blu-ray for the first time as part of the Paramount Presents label. Kirchberg (January 1999), Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, and the American dream, p.59, ISBN 9780786407163

Maybe 'King Creole' is a touch overlong, and the female characters are not as interestingly written as the male ones, somewhat lazy and it's the performances that stop them from being completely vapid. Otherwise there is very little to dislike. Have commented a couple of times on the writing and stories not being strong suits in Elvis' films, but 'King Creole' is a pleasant exception. The writing is surprisingly gritty and suspenseful, with few soap-operatic or corn elements, and the story is darker and meatier than the usual story for an Elvis film, thus one of the most absorbing. During the May of 1959 Mexican premiere at Américas Cinema in Mexico City, a riot started when according to the local newspapers 600 teenagers broke into the theater without paying the admission fee. The crowd occupied the balcony area and destroyed the seats, while they threw lit papers and debris to the attendants. As some women tried to leave the premises, they were stripped by the rioters. The group was reported to be a mixture of university students and other locals that joined. The anti-riot police arrived to the scene where they scattered the crowd, while no arrests were made. [18] Writer Parménides García Saldaña later recounted the incident on his article "El Rey Criollo", in which he detailed the presence of gangs and their harassment of the women in attendance. [19] Critical reception [ edit ] I'm now the proud owner of a Harold Robbins book. Never heard of him? Me neither. But the title is well known to me, and I immediately recognized it in the second-hand bookshop. Elvis fourth movie "King Creole" is based on it and it's called "A Stone For Danny Fisher". By this time Elvis Presley was a big movie box office name due in no small measure to the astute management of Colonel Tom Parker. I have no doubt that the Colonel got him Michael Curtiz as a director and a top flight supporting cast consisting of Oscar winners like Dean Jagger as the King's father and Walter Matthau as the villain of the piece. And other such outstanding players as Carolyn Jones, Vic Morrow, Paul Stewart, and Dolores Hart.Later on, a trained nurse who is looking at blood samples on glass plates in a medical surrounding will be pushed aside by a condescending, emotionally distant male doctor, who must know better. Nonetheless, the world, which is not run well at all in this story, is controlled by these barely subsisting men. A Stone For Danny Fisher is a serious early novel by Harold Robbins that looks at the effect of the Great Depression on a lower-middle class Jewish family. Written in 1952, it is set in the period up to 1944. The novel was adapted (albeit loosely) by screenwriters Herbert Baker and Michael V. Gazzo as the 1958 movie King Creole for Elvis Presley, co-starring Walter Matthau and Carolyn Jones and directed by Michael Curtiz. As for Presley, his role here shows a dark and vulnerable side and he does it with intensity, charisma, swagger, charm and emotional honesty and no stiffness. Of his performances, which largely varied dependent on his material, it is agreed that this is his best. He has one of his best supporting casts, particularly a terrifyingly reptilian (while also remarkably complex for a mobster heavy) Walther Matthau, a touching Carolyn Jones and perfectly weasel-like Vic Morrow. Variety declared that the film "Shows the young star [Presley] as a better than fair actor". [21] Howard Thompson of The New York Times also gave a favorable review: