Made before he went into the army, this is probably Elvis' best movie - although Jailhouse Rock has better music and Flaming Star has a better story and acting - in that it features several qualities notably rare in the Presley filmography: a major director (Michael Curtiz, who made Casablanca and The Adventures Of Robin Hood), a top-flight supporting cast, a good script (based on Harold Robbins' novel A Stone For Danny Fisher, in which the hero was a boxer not a singer), an interesting and realistic setting (the New Orleans underworld), and a pretty fair LP's worth of songs (King Creole, Crawfish, New Orleans).
Elvis plays a James Dean-type role, a mixed-up kid angry with his weak sister Dad (Dean dagger) who falls in with a bunch of hoodlums - led by the superbly sneering Vic Morrow - and winds up in big trouble with brutal gangster Walter Matthau.