The Elvis Movie Guide: Where to Start With His 31 Films

October 9, 2026

Elvis Presley movie poster collage 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle

Between 1956 and 1969, Elvis Presley made 31 feature films, then two concert documentaries in the early 1970s. The received wisdom is that they are all terrible. That is not true. Roughly six of them are genuinely good films, about a dozen are enjoyable on their own terms, and the rest were made in three weeks on a soundstage with a script nobody had finished reading.

Here is how to work through them without giving up.

Start here: the five that hold up

King Creole (1958)

Directed by Michael Curtiz, who had made Casablanca 16 years earlier. Elvis plays a New Orleans busboy pulled into a criminal racket, and it is the only film where a serious director gave him serious material. Most people who know the filmography call this his best performance. Start here.

Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Elvis as a bitter ex-convict turned singer, which is darker than you expect. The title number, with its cell-block choreography, is the best thing he ever filmed and the template for about forty years of music video.

Flaming Star (1960)

A Don Siegel western in which Elvis plays a man of mixed Kiowa and white parentage caught between both sides. He sings twice and acts for the rest of it. Genuinely sober filmmaking.

Viva Las Vegas (1964)

The one with Ann-Margret, who is the only co-star who ever matched him on screen. The chemistry is obvious enough that it reportedly alarmed Colonel Parker. Pure entertainment.

Blue Hawaii (1961)

Not his best film but his most successful, and its soundtrack spent 20 weeks at number one. This is the picture that set the formula the rest of the decade copied: sun, songs, girls, no stakes. Watch it to understand what came next.

The pleasant middle

Once you have the five, the next tier is comfort viewing: Loving You (1957), Follow That Dream (1962), Kid Galahad (1962), Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) and Fun in Acapulco (1963). None will change your life. All are good company on a wet Sunday.

Both Loving You and Follow That Dream are available on DVD in our Movies collection.

The two concert films, which are the real prize

If you only watch two Elvis films, make them these. Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970) documents the rehearsals and the Las Vegas residency, and the rehearsal footage is extraordinary. Elvis on Tour (1972) followed him across 15 cities and won the Golden Globe for Best Documentary.

They are also the lineage behind the 2026 concert film EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, built from rediscovered footage of the 1970 Vegas shows and the 1972 tour. We cover it in full in our EPiC guide, and the soundtrack is in stock.

The last one

Change of Habit (1969), opposite Mary Tyler Moore as a nun, was his final narrative film. It is odd, earnest and much better than its reputation. After it he never acted again, because the '68 Comeback Special had just reminded everyone what he was actually for.

A suggested watch order

Love Me Tender (1956) for the historical starting point
Jailhouse Rock (1957)
King Creole (1958)
Flaming Star (1960)
Blue Hawaii (1961)
Viva Las Vegas (1964)
Change of Habit (1969)
Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970)
Elvis on Tour (1972)

That is nine films and it gives you the whole arc.

For the shelf

The Blue Hawaii soundtrack is the best-selling record of his film career.
Elvis #1 Hit Performances collects the TV and film clips in one place.
The Movie Poster Collage 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle puts the artwork from the whole run on one table.
Elvis: The Official Graphic Novel tells the life story in comic form.

Elvis movie FAQs

How many films did Elvis make?

31 feature films between 1956 and 1969, plus two concert documentaries, That's the Way It Is (1970) and Elvis on Tour (1972).

What is considered Elvis's best film?

King Creole is the usual answer among critics and biographers, with Flaming Star close behind for his acting and Jailhouse Rock for the musical numbers.