It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)

Director:

Norman Taurog

Writers:

Si Rose (written by) and
Seaman Jacobs (written by)

Release Date:

3 April 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Musical

Tagline:

Swinging higher than the space needle with the gals and the songs at the famous Worlds Fair!

Plot:

Mike and Danny fly a cropduster, but because of Danny's gambling debts, a local sheriff takes custody of it...

Plot Keywords:

Trailer | Beautiful Woman | Trailer Park | Happy Ending | Trailer Court

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 13

10:00 PM

TCM

Cast

Elvis Presley	...	Mike Edwards
Joan O'Brien	...	Diane Warren
Gary Lockwood	...	Danny Burke
Vicky Tiu	...	Sue-Lin
H.M. Wynant	...	Vince Bradley
Edith Atwater	...	Miss Steuben
Guy Raymond	...	Barney Thatcher
Dorothy Green	...	Miss Ettinger
Kam Tong	...	Uncle Walter Ling
Yvonne Craig	...	Dorothy Johnson

Also Known As:

Mister, Will You Marry Me? (USA) (working title)
Take Me Out to the Fair (USA) (working title)
Take Me to the Fair (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:S (cut) (1963) | Iceland:L | Australia:G (DVD rating) | Australia:PG (original rating) | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Hallweg Monorail, Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Kurt Russell, in his screen debut, kicks Elvis Presley's shins.

Quotes:

Sue Lin: Ohhhh! Ohhhh! I don't feel good, Mr. Mike. I don't feel good!
Mike Edwards: I wonder why!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Elvis in the Movies (1990)

Soundtrack:

Relax

Someone set off a Stink Bomb at the World's Fair

Good Lord! There seems to be no concept of time in this film, everything happens instantly. A farmer picks up Elvis and his slimeball business partner hitchhiking to the fair, and they are instantly such good friends that he trusts Elvis to accompany his seven year old niece to the fair all day. At the fair, Elvis meets a nurse who is about as exciting as wet unsalted mashed potatoes with a side of lukewarm water, and instantly he falls in love with her. He comes on like a creep and she hates him (as if she had any better prospects), but when the little seven year old girl is (temporarily) orphaned the next day, she naturally seeks out Elvis whom she's only known two days now to come live with, and the ensuing nonsense from this most unbelievable of stories brings Elvis and Miss Yawnsville together. Meanwhile Elvis' business partner (they fly a crop-duster for cryin' out loud!) is the biggest douche in the whole world, who steals their money and gambles it away. No one knows they've gone to Seattle so why it is Elvis doesn't just beat this creep to death and dump his body in the Sound is the greatest mystery of the entire film.

The entire nuance of this unfortunate film can be summed up in the World's Worst closing number "Happy Ending", in which all of the film's potentially disastrous events are miraculously wrapped up in a mess of fairy dust, and Elvis and Miss Yawnsville march through the fair grounds singing Happy Ending accompanied by a marching band that appears out of nowhere and is apparently present to follow around tuneful fair-goers (???). Near the end, Elvis stops and buys all the balloons off of a balloon vendor and gives them to his stupid twit girl, at which point the now empty-handed balloon vendor does what anyone would do, he just gets down and boogies in the street to that far out marching band music. I nearly vomited on myself.