Elvis Presley - Clean Up Your Own Backyard - Movie version re-edited with Stereo audio

For a variety of reasons Elvis' 1969 movie "The Trouble with Girls (and How to Get into It)" could quite reasonably be described as the forgotten Elvis movie. As "Change of Habit" would be his final acting role and released just a couple of months later that movie would gain notoriety for that very fact alone and the two previous movies "Charro" and "Live A Little, Love A Little" would also probably become better known as "Charro" presented Elvis with his only role which did not have a plot which included singing not to mention that beard and the latter as the source of "A Little Less Conversation". In reality however, "The Trouble with Girls" is probably the better of the four movies although a reasoned argument could also be made for "Change Of Habit" in that regard. The movie does benefit from it's period setting and a strong cast, a limited musical soundtrack and interesting narrative although there are parts of the plot in which you could drive a double decker bus through but it is only in recent retrospect that the movie seems to have been reevaluated and many online critics have been far less critical than those at the time of the movie's release. The film sees wonderful on screen chemistry between Elvis and his co-star and Marlyn Mason and some of the comedic interactions between their characters Walter Hale and Charlene as boss and Union Rep are superb and the scene involving the song "Almost" towards the end of the movie is genuinely touching. Conversely the direction by Peter Tweksbury has the movie at an almost pedestrian pace at times and with virtually no character development within the plot the characters remain almost two dimensional. The highlight of the movie is when Walter Hale whilst trying to stall for time sings "Clean Up Your Own Backyard" on the stage of the main Chautauqua tent as his cohorts attempt to sober up Sheree North's character, Nita. For all the criticism that can be placed at the door of the director for the movies pacing this segment shows that he was at least trying to be innovative as the the camera work and editing in most parts for this song are wonderful and add to the atmosphere of the song. With all the angles used one wonders how many takes it actually took to film this particular scene although it is unlikely to rival that of "Rubberneckin'" in "Change of Habit" which took an entire day to shoot. Despite the innovative filming techniques this scene does contain a few continuity errors in editing in particular the girl appears to change sides behind Elvis. Although there is a slight change of camera angle when far away from Elvis then close up, her move from behind Elvis's left shoulder to behind his right shoulder looks wrong. In addition The musician behind him is playing a Yamaha 12 string guitar(Most likely, a Yamaha FG-220), which is a dreadnought. Elvis is playing a six string dreadnought. Both guitars in question are square shouldered dreadnoughts with a 14th fret neck/body join. Considering the movie itself being set in 1927, both the six string guitar and the twelve string instrument Elvis and his backup musician were playing didn't exist in 1927. The dreadnought guitar was invented in 1931 by CF Martin & Co. and had round shoulders with a neck/body join at the 12th fret. The square shouldered dreadnought with the 14th fret neck/body join wasn't introduced until 1934. (From IMdB) The song itself was recorded by Elvis in United Recorders, Hollywood on 23 October 1968 during the movies soundtrack session and in common with "Live A Little, Love a Little" was produced by Billy Strange on behalf of MGM. The sixth and final take was chosen as the master take and whilst vocal and brass overdubs were added for the record release it was the undubbed master which was used within the movie. The undubbed master seems to fit the song better as the brass and vocal overdubs, the "Hallelujah's" in particular, seem to smother the song and make the arrangement seem too busy. With it's clever lyrics and Elvis' "Memphis 69" voice the song is one of his best recordings of the period. As a personal observation whilst watching this particular scene - did Elvis ever look and sound better on the silver screen?