Creaky Pelvis

Spinout. Elvis Presley at 31 is really changing his scene. Eleven years of living high on the hawg (his income from films and royalties averages about $6,000,000 a year) has emphatically porked up his appearance. His cheeks are now so plump that he looks like a kid blowing bubble gum--and his mouth is still so squiggly that it looks as if the bubble had burst. What's more, he now sports a glossy something on his summit that adds at least five inches to his altitude and looks like a swatch of hot buttered yak wool.

Age and affluence have also altered his style. His rhythm songs now have about as much rock as a rocking chair, and the most widely deplored Pelvis in human history has practically ground to a halt. The Presley phiz moves even ]ess--it just twitches now and then, maybe to scare off flies. For Presley, immobility may signify maturity. He is pitching his act at some sort of adult audience--possibly adult chimpanzees.

In his 22nd picture, at any rate, he plays what the script describes as "the perfect American male": a hot-rock singer who, as somebody remarks with a suggestive smirk, "does things." About all he does on the screen is waggle an aggressive guitar and, in an electronically reconstituted baritone, belt out a series of steamy lyrics ("I'll take the dish I please/ And please the dish I take").

Three dishes are set before him. One is a rich man hunter (Shelley Fabares) who offers him $5,000 to make beautiful music for her alone. Another is a lady sociologist (Diane McBain) who wants to interview him in depth, just to prove that her "analysis of the mating motive is right on the button." Still another (Deborah Walley) is a lady instrumentalist who offers him a mean rhythm section and something that in her wide Midwestern accent sounds like "goremay c'k'n."

Whatever it is, Elvis isn't having any. He prefers dogs to girls and cars to both. At the fade he is keeping company with a '29 Duesenberg. "I'll really travel," the feller bellers, "and hit the gravel. But I'll be back." Forewarned is forearmed.

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