Before there was El Vez! There Was ELVIS in "Mexico" | FUN IN ACAPULCO 1963

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The year is 1963 and Elvis is on a roll. As his star rises on the American music scene, Hollywood lifts its head and takes notice: he gets signed for a fun Mexican adventure romp entitled Fun in Acapulco. While gorgeous exterior shots are completed on location in Mexico, Elvis shoots his scenes in "Mexico," a Hollywood backlot commissioned by Hal Wallis Productions and through the magic of less-than-spectacular editing and rear-projection shots seems to dance and sing his sad way (he's mourning the accidental death of his brother he may have caused) through this somewhat harmless farce.  Of course (as I've written here many times before), you've got to be a fool to turn to Hollywood for accurate portrayals of "foreign spaces"--still, Fun in Acapulco is not half bad as the scenes below confirm. The first clip with the kid on the motorcycle is classic, with the King of Rock crooning for Latina femme fatales; the exchange with the same kid in the 2nd clip below gives new meaning to the word irony, as Elvis, "American" conspires to work as an "illegal alien" in Mexico.

Here's a scene from FUN IN ACAPULCO:

"To work in Mexico, you have to be an immigrante"