Elvis Presleystarred in 31 feature films of increasingly negligible quality between 1956 and 1969, beginning with the 1956 musical Western filmLove Me Tenderand ending with the 1969 crime drama musical filmChange of Habit. Besides containing Presley’s final feature film performance,Change of Habitis the only film in which Presley plays a professional character, in this case, a doctor. At the end of 1968, Presley, who was 34 when the filming ofChange of Habitbegan in the spring of 1969, was at a crossroads in his career. While the now legendary 1968 concert television specialElvis: The 1968 Comeback Special, better known as the’68 Comeback Special, revitalized Presley’s musical career, Presley’s film career was in shambles.
Presley’s box-office drawing power as an actor had fallen sharply, largely due to the short-sightedness of Presley’s manager, the infamous and mercurial Colonel Tom Parker, who was solely focused on making Presley one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, regardless of the severe cost to Presley’s credibility and soul. Indeed, following the disappointing box-office performance of the 1967 musical filmClambake, Presley was no longer able to command his once customary salary of $1 million per film. The only way that Colonel Tom was able to secure a $1 million fee for Presley forChange of Habitwas to make a deal with NBC for them to produce the film and the comeback special.
Elvis Presley As An Inner-City Doctor With a Social Conscience
InChange of Habit,Elvis Presley playsDr. John Carpenter, a young doctor who runs a free clinic in an impoverished New York City neighborhood. As the film opens, Carpenter is visited by three nuns, who have been assigned to serve as nurses in Carpenter’s clinic. As the nuns travel to Carpenter’s clinic incognito, Carpenter is initially completely unaware that the women are nuns. Carpenter eventually falls in love with one of the nuns, Sister Michelle Gallagher, who is forced to reconcile her commitment to her faith with the genuine feelings that she has for Carpenter.
Presley’s Dr. Carpenter is an extremely caring and passionate doctor. In one scene, Carpenter treats an autistic girl with a combination of the then-common Rage Reduction therapy and sheer love and tenderness. Moreover, Carpenter and the nuns deal with a man who has been beaten by loan shark enforcers and help a boy with a severe speech impediment. Meanwhile, the nuns are forced to navigate a gauntlet of would-be muggers and rapists on a seemingly daily basis.
While the portrayal of inner-city life in New York inChange of Habit, which was filmed entirely in California, is decidedly idealistic compared to the stark realism of the Oscar-winning 1969 drama filmMidnight Cowboy, Presley, who appears startlingly fit and lithe in the film compared to his bloated appearance at the time of his death, is nonetheless very appealing in his role. Indeed,Change of Habitprovides heartbreaking glimpses of how effectively and interestingly Presley might have developed as a screen actor if Presley had been given better material throughout his career and possessed more ambition as an actor.
Elvis Hated Most of His Films More Than Critics Did
While Elvis Presley was doubtlessly limited as a screen actor, he wasn’t nearly as limited as his increasingly unimaginative starring vehicles make it seem. As Presley demonstrated in the promising early phase of his film career, in the solidly-constructed filmsFlaming Star,Jailhouse Rock, andKing Creole, Presley possessed inherent charm, likability, and a powerful screen presence.
As was the case with most of Presley’s films, Presley’s final feature film,Change of Habit, relies on Presley to carry the film through sheer charm and magnetism. In the unlikely role of a ghetto doctor, Presley, who expressed a heartfelt desire early in his career to follow in the dramatic footsteps ofidols Marlon Brandoand James Dean, combines empathy and tenderness with a wry sense of humor that clearly reflects Presley’s increasing cynicism and unhappiness regarding the decline of his film career under the dim management of Colonel Tom Parker.
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One Good Acting Role Could Have Changed Elvis’s Career and Legacy
While Elvis Presley never starred in another feature film afterChange of Habit, he nonetheless expressed an interest in reigniting his feature film career in the 1970s. In 1975, Presley met with Barbra Streisand and producer Jon Peters, who wanted Presley to star alongside Streisand in the 1976 musical drama filmA Star Is Born, aremake of the 1937 dramafilm of the same name. Peters and Streisand wanted Presley to play the role of John Norman Howard, a self-destructive, washed-up rock star who, early in the film, stumbles upon Streisand’s Esther Hoffman, a talented but undiscovered singer whom John falls in love with. As Esther’s career subsequently ascends rapidly, John continues to decline, personally and professionally.
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However, while Presley very much wanted to play the role, Presley’s attachment toA Star Is Born, which received mixed critical reviews but became one of the biggest box-office hits of its era, was scuttled by Colonel Tom Parker, who asked for a massive salary for Presley and insisted that Presley receive top billing above Streisand. After these demands were rejected, the role wasgiven to Kris Kristofferson. Presley, who was featured in two documentary films in 1970 and 1972, reportedly never got over the disappointment of losing the role inA Star Is Born, in which Presley would have been tested as an actor more extensively than he had in all of his previous films combined, especially since the role has so many eerie parallels to Presley’s own tragic end.
