Double Trouble Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Double Trouble Blu-ray Movie Review

London loves.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III November 7, 2023

Sitting firmly in the lowest tier of Elvis movies is Norman Taurog's Double Trouble, an attempted return to form after the lackluster Spinout and Easy Come, Easy Go (which was actually filmed later) but right before Clambake and the career-low Stay Away, Joe. It's actually pretty low-reaching as far as his "themed" material goes but still fairly goofy, featuring admittedly solid production design and steady direction that are both weighed down by dated styles and a central romance that, like Spinout and several others, just feels icky in hindsight. If you're a die-hard Elvis fan you'll love it regardless, but this was clearly just another attempted cash-in on his slowly fading image.

Sadly, the "double trouble" in Double Trouble isn't Elvis playing two separate characters -- that would have actually been pretty fun. Instead, it refers to the two very different women chasing singer Guy Lambert (Presley): sexy socialite Claire Dunham (Yvonne Romain) and pretty young heiress Jill Conway (Annette Day), both of whom have been eagerly watching him perform at the same London club before the next stop on his tour. There's just one problem, though: Jill has been lying about her age and won't be 18 for another few days, a fact pointed out by her ever-watchful guardian and uncle, Gerald Waverly (John Williams, and not that one). Guy does the right thing and tries to avoid Jill entirely -- unlike Presley himself, who first met future wife Priscilla when she was 14 -- and uncle Gerald sends her away to school in Brussels, unaware that it's Guy's next musical stop. Along the way, a series of "accidents" leads Guy to believe that someone's trying to kill young Jill, a suspicion that's likely connected to stolen jewels, a pair of bumbling thieves who have been secretly smuggling them in Guy's luggage, and not one but two secret accomplices.

So yeah, Double Trouble is ridiculous... but at least it's not "Elvis as a nightclub singer who moonlights as a deep-sea diver" or "Elvis as a Native American" ridiculous. Yet it's still just as formulaic as most other Presley-starring films that decade with a plot and script that both reek of "actor first, story second", so it was absolutely no surprise to learn that Double Trouble was originally intended to be a more straightforward film starring Julie Christie ( Doctor Zhivago) before being hastily rewritten to accommodate the singer's particular brand of big-screen entertainment. (There's a little more on that story in this interview with Irwin Winkler, who began his producing career with this film.)

Double Trouble's sugary blend of lightweight plot twists and hit-or-miss musical numbers ("Old McDonald" is both) still goes down easy enough, but there's an unpleasant aftertaste left by its central romance that justifies "spunky teenage girl seduces thirty year-old man" by making someone else a straight-up attempted murderer. That, and the extremely dated visual motifs, slang, and other in-the-moment stuff that makes Double Trouble 100% disposable entertainment. At most it's passable enough for a once-over or maybe interesting from a time-capsule perspective, but ultimately is only for the most devoted Elvis disciples. Of course, that won't stop Warner Archive from awarding Double Trouble the royal treatment on Blu-ray; they've steadily churned out their fair share of Elvis-at-MGM titles in the last few years, all with terrific 4K-sourced restorations and even a few era-specific extras as pre-show entertainment.

Double Trouble Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Easily meeting if not exceeding the sky-high expectations met by previous Elvis-at-MGM releases handled by Warner Archive like It Happened at the World's Fair and the previously mentioned Spinout, the reliable boutique label's pristine new restoration of Double Trouble is another absolute beauty sourced from the original camera negative. As usual, it's been given a round of careful manual cleanup that erases all remaining traces of wear-and-tear while preserving the film's original texture and bold, era-specific color palette, serving as another purist-friendly presentation that'll delight fans and first-timers alike. As usual, the encoding on this dual-layered disc is flat-out flawless and avoids the usual pitfalls of banding, macro blocking, and posterization, with nothing but a picture-perfect image in its wake.

Double Trouble Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The same goes for Warner Archive's faithful DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix, which fittingly doubles its one-channel source into a split mono presentation that features crisp dialogue and a relatively dynamic song-driven sound stage. No glaring age-related damage remains, allowing fans and first- timers to enjoy every campy conversation and musical number to the fullest. In short, it's more or less right on par with the boutique label's other Elvis-starring releases: a five-star effort that preserves the film's original intent with no objective room for sonic improvement.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature, but none of the extras listed below.

Double Trouble Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with vintage poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts. Bonus features are limited to a pair of era- specific and nicely restored Tom and Jerry shorts (always a welcome inclusion, even second-tier Chuck Jones ones) as well as the film's original theatrical trailer.

• Rock 'N Rodent (6:37) - This 1967 short features Jerry in a hip all-mouse band that prevents poor Tom from getting a good night's sleep. It's kinda like a role-reversed version of Solid Serenade, except not as good.

• Surf-Bored Cat (6:29) - Another good-not-great installment produced by Jones and directed by Abe Levitow (if not slightly better than the last), this one finds Tom battling aquatic pests while on a surfing excursion.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:38) - This appropriately goofy promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Song Selection - Instant access to all of the film's dozen or so music breaks.

Double Trouble Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Good Elvis movie" isn't a particularly high bar to clear, and Norman Taurog's Double Trouble still falls well short of that goal: though admittedly kind of interesting from a time-capsule perspective and armed with a few fun moments, this is a mostly forgettable affair that stands alongside the entertainer's least impressive big-screen outings from that decade. Nonetheless, Warner Archive delivers another rock-solid Blu-ray with outstanding technical merits and a few goodies as pre-show entertainment. It's still a curiosity for most and recommended only to die-hard Presley fans.