Elvis and Tarantino

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If you've seen Jackie Brown, you know Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of Barry Shear's Across 110th Street (1972) -- a tough, violent, above-average blaxpoitation flick that costarred Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Quinn and Anthony Francioca -- because he used the "Across 110th Street" title song, written by Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson and performed by Womack, over Brown's opening credits.

And now it turns out Elvis Presley was right on the same page. In an excerpt from Jerry Schilling's "Me and a Guy Named Elvis" that appeared on "Page Six ", it says that Presley "celebrated his 41st birthday by telling friends about Across 110th Street, which apparently was his "favorite blaxploitation flick." The King "began to act out the whole movie, setting up each scene and then presenting just about every line of dialogue in the script. He brought each character to life with walks, vocal mannerisms and the subtlest of gestures. [He] didn't stop until he got to the final scene of the film."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 3, 2006 at 4:56 PM

comment #1

NYCBusybody says ...

Haha, that Elvis.

Presley was also a HUGE Peter Sellers fan; he used to rent out a theater in Memphis just to show Peter Sellers films to his friends, particularly Dr. Strangelove, and he'd watch it up to three times in a row. If his friends weren't as jazzed as he was, he'd tell them they just couldn't "get" Sellers because he was doing so many things at once.

And he was such a Monty Python fan that he had all their sketches memorized before many Americans had ever even seen them (because he had one of the first VCR prototypes, and was able to view tapes of them).

Posted by NYCBusybody at July 3, 2006 6:02 PM

comment #2

Fielding says ...

Not only did Elvis watch Dr Strangelove 3 times in a row, he had several scenes repeated so he could figure out exactly what was going on.

Posted by Fielding at July 3, 2006 7:17 PM

comment #3

Patrick says ...

Now, we know what happened to the King! Poor guy.
I thought Nixon was the low point.

Posted by Patrick at July 3, 2006 8:17 PM

comment #4

Anonymous says ...

My opinion of Elvis has just skyrocketed.

Posted by Anonymous at July 3, 2006 8:44 PM

comment #5

NYCBusybody says ...

Yeah, I'm an Elvis freak, and the whole Nixon stuff was ridiculous. He was crazed out on drugs by that point, though.

Posted by NYCBusybody at July 3, 2006 8:45 PM

comment #6

gh says ...

it's a shame Elvis didn't get to work with more great directors. I love his screen presence.

Posted by gh at July 3, 2006 10:55 PM

comment #7

Fielding says ...

The irony of Elvis wanting to be a narc is exquisite.

Posted by Fielding at July 4, 2006 1:20 AM

comment #8

Reint says ...

"My opinion of Elvis has just skyrocketed."

Ditto. Wow.

Posted by Reint at July 4, 2006 1:30 AM

comment #9

krambell says ...

Let's not mince words. 'Across' is above average compared to any movie of any genre. This is one of the best and most overlooked films of the 1970s, and that's saying something given how many great films came out then. Greil Marcus summed it up best when he said the title should be 'No Way Out.' I never liked Elvis much, but clearly he had some taste...

Posted by krambell at July 4, 2006 3:32 AM

comment #10

Movie Irv says ...

"Across 110th Street" is a cool meshing of blaxploitation films and mafia movies of the period. It offers one of Quinn's great blustery perofrmances and awho's who of seventies character actors. Extremely entertaining,
volatile and quite violent! Highly recommended.

Posted by Movie Irv at July 4, 2006 7:34 PM

comment #11

Daniel Zelter says ...

So they're both white "artists" who took credit from black artists by "covering" (i.e. stealing) their work. Why should they be honored for that?

Posted by Daniel Zelter at July 4, 2006 8:17 PM

comment #12

Rich says ...

Can you imagine, knowing this, what Tarantino could have done with Elvis in a movie? With the Karate Elvis angle, he could have been "Bill." The mind boggles.

Posted by Rich at July 5, 2006 2:16 PM

comment #13

christian says ...

terry southern met elvis because of the king's love for strangelove. if only we had that bizzaro meeting on film...

Posted by christian at July 6, 2006 8:43 AM

comment #14

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