Written by General Jabbo
In Double Trouble, Elvis Presley stars as Guy Lambert — an American singer on tour in England — something the real Presley wanted to do, but was unable to throughout his career thanks to legal issues with the Colonel. In fact, Presley only played a handful of shows outside the U.S. and they were all in Canada.
While performing at a club, Lambert meets Claire Dunham (Yvonne Romain) who is following him, saying she's been at every show since he opened. She knows of his apparent girlfriend, but throws herself at him regardless. Lambert manages to resist Dunham's advances, but not Dunham herself as she shows up throughout the film. He also meets Jill Conway (Annette Day), a pretty redhead who goes home with Lambert, but resists his advances because, unbeknownst to Lambert, she is still a few days away from 18. While there, she cooks for him and wants him to sing. He goes to her turntable and, naturally, she has an instrumental version of one of his records that he sings to, during which she falls asleep. During this time, one of the first of several suspicious acts occurs as a thug comes to the door by mistake and punches Lambert out.
Conway's uncle Gerald Waverly (John Williams) calls and when Jill mentions Lambert, Waverly wants to meet. Conway wants to marry Lambert, but Waverly is reluctant to allow her as he has been dipping into her inheritance. Conway had not only not told Lambert about the money, she had not told him she was for days away from 18. Not wanting to go to jail, Lambert distances himself from Conway. Her uncle then decides to send Conway to school in Belgium, which she readily agrees to after remembering Lambert had mentioned in passing he would be playing there.
Conway and Lambert end up on the same ship and it is there that Conway learns she only has to be 18 to get married in Sweden, where she tries to encourage Lambert to take her. During this time, a pair of thieves takes Lambert's suitcase so they can smuggle some diamonds into the country. Lambert notices that he’s had to save Conway twice and that someone tried to run him over and Conway explains everything. The pair goes on the run trying to save their lives and let Conway make it to age 18 to protect her inheritance.
Part of the Elvis: 75th Anniversary DVD Collection, Double Trouble shows just how far out of touch musically Presley's people had become as there is a scene where he sings "Old MacDonald" on the back of a truck. This was while the Beatles were releasing Sgt. Pepper and Jimi Hendrix had Are You Experienced? Presley clearly deserved better than this. That said, the movie itself isn't terrible, has some clever plot twists and amusing cameos from a talking parrot and the Wiere Brothers as bumbling cops.
Article first published as DVD Review: Double Trouble (1967) on Blogcritics.
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