Heartbreak Hotel (film)

Last updated
Heartbreak Hotel
Heartbreakhotel1988poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Chris Columbus
Written byChris Columbus
Produced by Debra Hill
Lynda Obst
Starring
CinematographySteve Dobson
Edited by Raja Gosnell
Music by Georges Delerue
Production
companies
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date
  • September 30, 1988 (1988-09-30)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13 million
Box office$5.5 million (US/Canada) [1]

Heartbreak Hotel is a 1988 American comedy film written and directed by Chris Columbus, and stars David Keith and Tuesday Weld. Set in 1972, the story deals with one of the many "legends" involving Elvis Presley (Keith) about his fictional kidnapping, and his subsequent redemption from decadence.

Contents

The film was shot on location in Austin, Texas, at Green Pastures, the former residence of John Henry Faulk.

Plot

The film opens in 1972 with a single mother and her two children (a teenage son and nine-year-old daughter) running a boarding house. The mother is hurt in a car accident and hospitalized. As a birthday present, her son and his band drive her Pink Cadillac to Cleveland, Ohio, to kidnap her favorite singer, Elvis Presley. He gets the owner of a local pizzeria, who looks eerily like Elvis' mother, to pose as his mother's ghost as a distraction, and then drugs Elvis with chloroform. Elvis awakens in the boarding house. He and the boy do not get along at first. The boy disrespects Elvis, accusing him of selling out to Vegas. However, the boy and Elvis get to know each other, and they became friends. Elvis closes the film playing "Heartbreak Hotel" with the boy's band at the high school talent show.

Cast

Reception

The film received mixed-to-negative reviews. It currently holds a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews. [2]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times stated that "Mr. Columbus, who previously directed Adventures in Baby-Sitting and whose writing credits include Gremlins and The Goonies, sets up this idea well but has no idea where to stop. He pushes the film's slender premise much too far, trying to work miraculous feats of self-improvement upon Johnny, his mother, Marie, and even Elvis himself." [3] The Washington Post's Rita Kempley wrote, "With such fruity writing, what do overacting and miscasting (Jay Leno would have been perfect) matter? Playing Elvis is like playing a Kennedy, nearly impossible. And Keith, as we know, had mighty big pants to fill. Face it. The King has left the building, gone to that Caesars Palace in the sky. Columbus, say goodbye." [4]

A one-star review came from Roger Ebert who wrote, "Here it is, the goofiest movie of the year, a movie so bad in so many different and endearing ways that I’m damned if I don’t feel genuine affection for it. We all know it’s bad manners to talk during a movie, but every once in a while a film comes along that positively requires the audience to shout helpful suggestions and lewd one-liners at the screen. 'Heartbreak Hotel' is such a movie. All it needs to be perfect is a parallel soundtrack." [5] Ebert's onscreen review partner Gene Siskel also agreed and the pair included the film in their Worst of 1988 show.

It was also a box office failure, [6] opening with a disappointing $2,063,546 from 1,338 screens, finishing in second place behind Gorillas in the Mist , despite opening on more than double the number of screens. [7] [8] It went on to gross $5.5 million in the United States and Canada. [1]

Music

Most of the songs contained in the film are actual Elvis Presley recordings despite the film being fictional, with David Keith and Charlie Schlatter performing the title track in the style of the 1968 television special recording.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heartbreak Hotel</span> Song recorded by Elvis Presley

"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being given also to Presley. A newspaper article about the suicide of a lonely man who jumped from a hotel window inspired the song. Axton presented the song to Presley in November 1955 at a country music convention in Nashville. Presley recorded it on January 10, 1956, in a session with his band, the Blue Moon Boys, the guitarist Chet Atkins and the pianist Floyd Cramer. "Heartbreak Hotel" comprises an eight-bar blues progression, with heavy reverberation throughout the track, to imitate the character of Presley's Sun recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Columbus (filmmaker)</span> American filmmaker (born 1958)

Chris Joseph Columbus is an American filmmaker. Born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, Columbus studied film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he developed an interest in filmmaking. After writing screenplays for several teen comedies in the mid-1980s, including Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes, he made his directorial debut with a teen adventure, Adventures in Babysitting (1987). Columbus gained recognition soon after with the highly successful Christmas comedy Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

<i>Love Me Tender</i> (film) 1956 film directed by Robert D. Webb

Love Me Tender is a 1956 American musical Western film directed by Robert D. Webb, and released by 20th Century Fox on November 15, 1956. The film, named after the song, stars Richard Egan, Debra Paget, and Elvis Presley in his acting debut. It was the only time in his acting career that he did not receive top billing.

<i>Billy Madison</i> 1995 film by Tamra Davis

Billy Madison is a 1995 American comedy film directed by Tamra Davis. It stars Adam Sandler in the title role, Bradley Whitford, Bridgette Wilson, Norm Macdonald, Darren McGavin, Mark Beltzman, and Larry Hankin. The film was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy and produced by Robert Simonds, and was Macdonald's feature film debut. It made around $26.4 million worldwide and debuted at number one at the box office.

<i>Blue Hawaii</i> 1961 film

Blue Hawaii is a 1961 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written American Musical. The film opened at number two in box-office receipts for that week and, despite mixed reviews from critics, finished as the 10th top-grossing film of 1961 and 14th for 1962 in the Variety national box office survey, earning $5 million. The film won a fourth place prize Laurel Award in the category of Top Musical of 1961.

<i>The Man in the Moon</i> (1991 film) 1991 film by Robert Mulligan

The Man in the Moon is a 1991 American coming of age drama film. It was the final film directed by Robert Mulligan before his death in 2008, from a screenplay written by Jenny Wingfield. It stars Reese Witherspoon in her film debut, Sam Waterston, Tess Harper, Emily Warfield, and Jason London.

<i>King Creole</i> 1958 film by Michael V. Gazzo, Hal B. Wallis, Herbert Baker, Michael Curtiz

King Creole is a 1958 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. Produced by Hal B. Wallis, the film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger, Vic Morrow, Liliane Montevecchi and Paul Stewart, and it follows a nineteen-year-old (Presley) who gets mixed up with crooks and involved with two women.

<i>Fun in Acapulco</i> 1963 film by Richard Thorpe

Fun in Acapulco is a 1963 American musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley and Ursula Andress.

<i>Speedway</i> (1968 film) 1968 musical film directed by Norman Taurog

Speedway is a 1968 American musical action film starring Elvis Presley as a racecar driver and Nancy Sinatra as his romantic interest.

<i>Heart of Dixie</i> (film) 1989 film by Martin Davidson

Heart of Dixie is a 1989 drama film adaptation of the 1976 novel Heartbreak Hotel by Anne Rivers Siddons and directed by Martin Davidson. The film stars Ally Sheedy, Virginia Madsen, Phoebe Cates, and Treat Williams.

<i>Stealing Home</i> 1988 film by William Porter, Steven Kampmann

Stealing Home is a 1988 American coming of age romantic drama film written and directed by Steven Kampmann and William Porter. The film stars Mark Harmon, Blair Brown, Jonathan Silverman, Harold Ramis, William McNamara, and Jodie Foster. The movie focuses on a failed baseball player, Billy Wyatt, who discovers that his childhood sweetheart, Katie Chandler, has died by suicide. Billy must confront the past via reminiscence and nostalgia, while also dealing with grief, as he embarks on a journey to fulfill one of Katie's last wishes; that he spread her ashes.

<i>Distant Thunder</i> (1988 film) 1988 film by Rick Rosenthal

Distant Thunder is a 1988 American drama film directed by Rick Rosenthal and starring John Lithgow and Ralph Macchio.

<i>Hounddog</i> (film) 2007 American film

Hounddog is a 2007 American coming-of-age drama film written, directed, and produced by Deborah Kampmeier. The film stars Dakota Fanning, Piper Laurie, David Morse, Robin Wright Penn, and Isabelle Fuhrman in her film debut. Filmed near Wilmington, North Carolina and set in 1956 Alabama, the film follows a troubled girl who finds solace from an abusive life through the music of Elvis Presley.

<i>Gorillas in the Mist</i> 1988 film by Michael Apted

Gorillas in the Mist is a 1988 American biographical drama film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Anna Hamilton Phelan and a story by Phelan and Tab Murphy. The film is based on a book of the same name by Dian Fossey and the article by Harold T. P. Hayes. It stars Sigourney Weaver as naturalist Dian Fossey and Bryan Brown as photographer Bob Campbell. It tells the story of Fossey, who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Schlatter</span> American actor

Charlie Schlatter is an American actor who has appeared in several films and television series. He is best known for his role as Dr. Jesse Travis, the resident student of Dr. Mark Sloan on the CBS series Diagnosis: Murder. Since the 1990s, he has continued to work mainly as a voice actor, with roles such as the Flash in various media, the titular character on Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil and Wonder-Red in The Wonderful 101.

<i>Only You</i> (1994 film) 1994 American romantic comedy film

Only You is a 1994 American romantic comedy film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr., and Bonnie Hunt. Written by Diane Drake and Malia Scotch Marmo (uncredited), the film is about a young woman whose search for the man she believes to be her soulmate leads her to Italy where she meets her destiny. Upon its release the film received mixed reviews, but critics praised Tomei and Downey's performances.

<i>This Is Elvis</i> 1981 film by Andrew Solt

This Is Elvis is a 1981 American documentary film about the life of Elvis Presley, written and directed by Andrew Solt and Malcolm Leo. It combines archival footage with reenactments, and voice-over narration by pop singer Ral Donner, imitating Presley's speaking voice. It was screened out of competition at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. The film grossed $2 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada, ranking #92 for 1981.

<i>Stella</i> (1990 film) 1990 American drama film directed by John Erman

Stella is a 1990 American drama film produced by The Samuel Goldwyn Company and released by Touchstone Pictures. The screenplay by Robert Getchell is the third feature film adaptation of the 1923 novel Stella Dallas by Olive Higgins Prouty. Previous film versions were Stella Dallas (1937) and the silent film Stella Dallas (1925).

<i>Sweet Hearts Dance</i> 1988 film by Robert Greenwald

Sweet Hearts Dance is a 1988 American comedy drama film directed by Robert Greenwald. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson centers on two small town couples, one married for several years and the other at the beginning of their relationship.

<i>Track 29</i> 1988 British-American film by Nicolas Roeg

Track 29 is a 1988 psychological drama film directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring Theresa Russell, Gary Oldman, Colleen Camp, Sandra Bernhard, Seymour Cassel, and Christopher Lloyd. It was produced by George Harrison's HandMade Films with Rick McCallum. The film was nominated for and won a few awards at regional film festivals. The writer, Dennis Potter, adapted his earlier television play, Schmoedipus (1974), changing the setting from London to the United States. It was filmed in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.

References

  1. 1 2 Heartbreak Hotel at Box Office Mojo
  2. "Heartbreak Hotel". Rotten Tomatoes .
  3. Maslin, Janet (1988-09-30). "Movie Review - Heartbreak Hotel - Review/Film; Winning Elvis's Heart (And the Rest of Him) - NYTimes.com". Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-06-26.
  4. Kempley, Rita (1988-10-01). "'Heartbreak Hotel' (PG-13)". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2012-06-26.
  5. Ebert, Roger (1988-09-30). "Heartbreak Hotel - Reviews". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2012-06-26.[ permanent dead link ]Star full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg
  6. Klady, Leonard (1989-01-08). "Box Office Champs, Chumps : The hero of the bottom line was the 46-year-old 'Bambi' - Page 2 - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved 2012-06-26.
  7. McCarthy, Todd (October 5, 1988). "'Gorillas' Goes Ape; 'Delancey' Keen; 'Hotel' A Disney Heartbreaker". Variety . p. 3.
  8. "Weekend Domestic Chart for September 30, 1988". The Numbers . Retrieved May 15, 2020.