It's 1972, and Johnny Wolfe (Charles Schlatter -- 18 AGAIN, BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY) borrows his mom's pink Cadillac and gets swept up in a series of outrageous events. After successfully kidnapping Elvis Presley (David Keith -- AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN), Johnny's family and sleepy hometown will never be the same! Another lively hit from the makers of ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, HEARTBREAK HOTEL delivers nonstop entertainment for everyone!

It's 1972, and Johnny Wolfe (Charles Schlatter -- 18 AGAIN, BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY) borrows his mom's pink Cadillac and gets swept up in a series of outrageous events. After successfully kidnapping Elvis Presley (David Keith -- AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN), Johnny's family and sleepy hometown will never be the same! Another lively hit from the makers of ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, HEART

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It's a strange spin on the Elvis myth, a story in which an Ohio teen (Charlie Schlatter) unites his troubled mother (Tuesday Weld) with Presley (David Keith) by kidnapping The King during a tour stop in Cleveland.

All three do fine work in the improbable tale, during which young rock'n'roller Schlatter ends up getting musical and romantic advice from Keith.

The Presley character sees a great deal of himself in the troubled teen played by Schlatter, who at first totally rejects Presley as an early-1970s caricature and Vegas performer who had lost touch with teens of that period.

The music is wonderful in this picture, including lots of obscure Elvis performances like "If I Can Dream" and "American Trilogy," and some things off THE MEMPHIS RECORD.

Keith played Presley in some TV specials as well, and is at his best when he duets with Schlatter onstage at a high school talent show near the end of the picture.

All in all, Heartbreak Hotel is a very imaginative story and an absolute must-see (out of curiosity if nothing else) for the ever-increasing number of Presley fans around the worldwide.

Feb. 25 2000

5 of 6 found the following review helpful:

One of the best Elvis impersonations ever!Oct 31, 2003
By andy8047
It's 1972 and Johnny Wolfe(Charlie Schlatter) and his band prepare for a performance for a talent show at their high school. His mom Marie(Tuesday Weld) is a die-hard Elvis Presley fan. So to "make her happy",Johnny and his buddies "kidnap" Elvis(David Keith) after a concert via an anesthetic,and drive him to the Wolfes' home. It was there when Elvis awoke. Johnny wanted Elvis to stay so his mom can meet him(Elvis). Elvis subtracts 16 years off his life. He shaved off his big heavy sideburns and wore an outfit that he regularly wore in 1956. Johnny told Elvis,"My mom says you looked the coolest in '56!) Marie had returned home from the hospital after being severely beaten up by her drunk and physically abusive boyfriend(Chris Mulkey). She finds "young" Elvis at the top of the Wolfes' staircase,playing guitar and singing one of Marie's favorites,"Love Me". A shocked Marie changes into a beautiful dress and invites Elvis to stay for dinner. Johnny's little sister(Angela Goethals) is so afraid to sleep in the dark until Elvis convinces her that doing that is not scary. Elvis even redecorates the Wolfes' home and in the process,discards Johnny's rock band posters. At the talent show,Elvis appears with Johnny and his band backing him up. Then Elvis' band of bodyguards fly to Elvis' whereabouts so he can go on with his touring elsewhere. Elvis was like a husband to divorced Marie and a father to Johnny and his sister. At one point in the film,Johnny beats up Steve,Marie's boyfriend,revengefully("You stay away from my mother!") At another point,while returning from a grocery store,Johnny is later beaten up by Steve and a couple of Steve's buddies in front of a bar where Steve and his buddies were shooting pool. I dedicate this film to the memory of Elvis Aaron Presley(January 8,1935-August 16,1977). HEARTBREAK HOTEL is strictly fictitious and is no way based on actual events that occurred during the real Elvis' life. The film was directed by Chris Columbus,who also wrote the story and screenplay. Columbus also directed ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING,a year before this film.

7 of 9 found the following review helpful:

E.T. PHONE HOMEAug 28, 2008
By Karen Shaub "Nickname: Queen B"
From the beginning HEARTBREAK HOTEL wants us to know that the story it is going to tell us has nothing whatsoever to do with the real life of Elvis Presley. In fact it proclaims;
"In the kingdom of rock and roll
There are many legends,
But only one King.
This is a fable about him.
The time is 1972."

The story that unfolds takes place in the small town of Taylor, Ohio, a depressed and depressing place where Marie Wolfe (Tuesday Weld) owns a small hotel called the Flaming Star, named in honor of an Elvis presley movie. Marie's life has always revolved around Elvis as did her husband's before he ran off with another woman and left her alone ages ago to raise their two kids, Johnny who's about 17(played by Charlie Schlatter)and Pammie who's considerably younger. Marie's life has degenerated into boozing it up every night with a series of boyfriends, her latest being Steve who isn't exactly popular with Johnny, but then none of her boyfriends have been big with him. After a fight over breakfast one morning Johnny stomps off. He's definitely the adult in their relationship and he's tired of having to shoulder all the responsibility. Besides, he has troubles of his own; his band The Wolfetones has been rejected 3 years in a row for the school talent show and, even, worse, he hasn't got a prayer with the girl of his dreams-- Beth,who auditions for the show by playing Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" as if it were a classical piece on the piano, and when asked who the composer was she replies "An obscure 20th century artist." Johnny adores her; she's got beauty and guts!

Wouldn't you know it? Just when things on the home-front seem to be improving, the plot sickens. After a night at the drive-in watching yet another old Elvis movie, Johnny and his mother bond in a way they never had before. They start to really talk, have a meaningful dialogue and all sorts of other stuff that would make Dr. Phil perk up hopefully. Then, alas, Steve shows up and Johnny is left waiting on the couch for Mom to come back "in 10 minutes". As it turns out she did have a good excuse for staying out all night though, they were in a car accident and she wound up in the hospital...after they had an argument and he slapped her around a little first of course. That does it for Johnny. He has to take some sort of action. He simply can't bear seeing his mother so unhappy anymore. He has to find some way to cheer her up and fix her up.

Then he sees the article in the newspaper; Elvis is appearing in Cleveland on Saturday! Talk about fortuitous, and really short notice! That's when the brilliant idea springs into his mind fully formed--he'll get Elvis to go on a date with his mother! THAT OUTTA DO IT! So with about a day and a half at most to concoct and carry out his diabolical scheme, Johnny and his friends swing into action with the help of Rosie at the pizza place, an enormous pink Cadillac, a bottle of ether, and a lifetime's worth of knowledge of Elvis his mother had imparted to him. How could he fail?

He doesn't. And the next morning he has a soon-to-be-pissed-off Elvis lying unconcious on a couch in one of the hotel's unused rooms. Pammie studies Elvis and asks Johnny what he's going to do with him. Johnny says, "Give him to Mom as a welcome home present." "I think she'll like him better than the earrings I got her," she replies.

If I've made this movie sound dreary or gloomy or dismal in anyway, please disregard whatever it was that I said that made you feel that way. This is not some boring fim about a disfunctional family, this is a comedy through and through--its just that its a comedy with a very big heart and a weird premise. All that stuff about Johnny's mother is simply a set up for the rest of film, and even THAT isn't totally devoid of humor. Once Elvis (played by David Keith) enters stage right, things turn into every fan's idea of what it would be like to kidnap their favorite singer/actor. He behaves exactly as Elvis should behave; he's arrogant and isolated and lonely but it turns out that what he's really needed all along was to get to be a regular person again (and eat copious amounts of really greasy cheeseburgers),if just for a little while. It just that Elvis' ideas of "a regular person" aren't quite the same as everyone else's.

Life lessons are learned, truths are exchanged, Charlie learns how to be cool and Elvis remembers what cool really is, and everyone emerges the better for their having met, including the audience. This is another entry in my JUST PLAIN FUN Movie Category, and You don't have to be an Elvis fan to enjoy it. You can take my word for that since I have NEVER been an Elvis fan and saw this film originally simply because it got some good reviews from both Siskel AND Ebert. It wasn't long after that I bought my first vhs copy and later my dvd.

All of the performances are first rate. David Keith and Charlie Schlatter have the most screen time with most of the weight falling on David Keith, 'cause if you ain't buying Elvis you ain't got a movie, right? Some critics thought that 1988 was too soon for a movie of this type, that Elvis was still too fresh in our minds and that David Keith bore little resemblance to him physically. That didn't bother me at the time and it bothers me even less now. Both Keith and Schlatter are very engaging actors who are more than capable of making us accept the film's somewhat looney premise, and in the process they also manage to bring an unexpected amount of depth to what could have been mere cardboard characters in the hands of lesser talents. They also both do their own singing in this film and I think they do a slam bang job of it. There may be better Elvis imitators than Keith, but I seriously doubt that they are as good an actor as he is, and you need both qualities to make this character work--the part calls for an actor not an aper. Schlatter is the teenager every mother would want as a son, and Weld is totally convincing as the lonely mother who barely looks older than her son. She has always been somewhat under-rated inspite of excellent performances in her youth in such films as PRETTY POISON and SOLDIER IN THE RAIN.

I just looked at this review--my God, no one is going to read all of this! However I would like to add one thing for posterity; THIS ISN'T A FABLE, its more like a fairy tale. The Elvis presented here is pure and clean and unreal. I don't think he even drinks a beer much less suffers from drug withdrawl which obviously would have been the case in real life. In a fable some moral is usually presented at the end, and there is none here. This is more like Spielberg's E.T. where the strange loveable creature has to return to his own planet at the end, never to return again.

4 of 5 found the following review helpful:

When you need to feel good.May 26, 2002
By kt
Truly a video gem. I watch this movie whenever I feel I need a positive, upbeat, pick-me-up. I have even purchased additional copies for friends that could use a break from the overwhelming dulldrums of reality and need a few moments of positive reinforcement; it always works. You can't miss with this one, especially if you are an Elvis fan.

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