Review by Trevor Cajiao - Elvis: The Man And His Music
Change Of Habit was unlike any of Elvis’ other movies and dealt with sensitive issues of the day centred around ghetto life. It was not a great film, but so much of a departure from what had gone before that it’s always interesting to view. It does look like it was made for TV (which is how it premiered in the UK in August 1971) and was Elvis‘ final scripted movie, which is just as well as the Elvis Presley film had ran out of steam long before 1969.
Sadly, due to the crassness of Paradise, Hawaiian Style, Clambake or whatever, Change Of Habit gets tarred with the same brush, which is a shame as it‘s streets ahead of that codswallop and l’m glad someone’s eventually put a book together to document its making.
And - lord have mercy! - this is one helluva book! With literally hundreds of previously unseen photos and a ton of behind-the-scenes information, at 416 pages it's a phenomenal tome.
Most of the text has been adapted from Bill Bram’s superb book Elvis: Frame By Frame and offers background on the film’s production by way of quotes and interviews with cast and crew members. Co-star Mary Tyler Moore is the odd one out, so what she has to say comes from a contemporary magazine interview. (By all accounts she was very much a loner on the set and her relationship with Elvis is described as “cordial, but superficial at best".)
The photographic content is quite astounding and, all told, I'd only ever seen around thirty or so of the more than 400 images that are here. The rest were totally “new”, featuring shots taken during rehearsals, filming itself, between takes etc. - all laid out in the order of the productions shoot.
And there are heaps of surprises. For example, we've all seen the photos of Elvis meeting gospel legend Mahalia Jackson when she visited the set, but here we get ten of them!
There are several eye-opening images - be they wardrobe shots, relaxed candids, Elvis with visitors to the set (including some with a one-legged girl in a wheelchair), or moments captured during actual filming. My own favourite, and one that struck me when I first leafed through the book, is the one on page 333 - a full-page photo of Elvis standing with three of the production crew. One of them is holding a “wardrobe” sign up against him but Elvis has his hand up to his face (as if he's about to cough) and it really is one of the most natural photos we’ve ever seen of him. It was taken, incidentally, at Mayfield High School - a location used (as a chapel) towards the end of the film when Elvis’ character, Dr. John Carpenter, goes to talk to Sister Michelle (Mary Tyler Moore) about their future together. This was an outdoor scene initially, but due to technical problems it was re-shot inside.
Other highlights include page 35 - the Presley sneer; page 109 - sharing a cheeky laugh with Laura Figuera (Desiree); page 167 - Jane Elliott (Sister Barbara) holding his nose; and so much more - superb candids in Magnolia Park when he’s wearing the Memphis UT sweatshirt, the “rage education” scene. and so on.
Lord only knows where the bulk of these previously unseen images have been hiding since 1969. Very few of them were used to promote the film at the time - which, in truth, came and went like a ghost from his past once he'd returned to live performances that summer.
One thing that lots of fans disagree on regarding Change Of Habit is Elvis’ haircut. Considered very “mod” for the time, it looks okay in some shots but ridiculous in others. Make-up artist Jim McCoy tells us Elvis hated it, by the way.
Accompanying the book is a CD of the 1970 Camden release, Let’s Be Friends. This has two additional tracks (meaning that it contains all the masters from Change Of Habit) as well as a five-minute promo interview with Mary Tyler Moore. For detail hounds, the original LP master has been used for the Camden tracks, so ‘Mama’ and ‘Let's Forget About The Stars‘ are in mono and the latter also includes the piano parts missing on 1995’s Double Features release.
This is a terrific book that warrants the attention of any serious fan. So stop, look and read it, baby, that's my philosophy...
