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The Last 24 Hours

July 02, 2004 | Video
The last 24 hours is a package with a DVD, CD and small booklet. Does it add anything new to what we know on these last 24 hours?

Design

The black is a fitting color for the last 24 hours of our man. But a picture from the sixties is not the image we would have chosen. The booklet contain an analyze of Elvis’ handwriting from the last letter he wrote. But the letter is printed so small you can’t make anything out yourself.

Content

The interviews are from the BBC documentary from two years back. You get interviews with several members of the Memphis Mafia individually and as a group in Las Vegas. Larry Geller, Joe Esposito and Jerry Schilling are interviewed separately from the other guys. Billy Smith really resembles Droopy’s sad look telling sad stories.

Most of the talking is about the girls around (available), the Colonel’s gambling addition and business view on Elvis, living in a group excluding the outside world, and Elvis’ medicine habit. In between these interviews there is some reconstruction footage of what must be the last 24 hours of Elvis life. Talk about Elvis’ condition and stressful performance schedule adding to his untimely death.

There are some nice photos in the documentary, nothing very new though and some footage; home movies with Anita Wood and some seventies footage on stage and footage from his last holiday in Hawaii.

There is no original Elvis music on this DVD. The music on the DVD can be played separately, 10 songs by Johnny Earl and The Jordanaires, the same as on the CD. He comes away with fifties rock and roll, but has no chance on the big show stoppers like “An American Trilogy”.

The DVD comes in Dolby 5.1 audio, but with interviews that doesn't really add anything.

In the extras menu we get some standard filmography, discography, his death certificate (scanned in two halves) and an audio documentary featuring Elvis himself (Hayride) and someone strangling a cat trying too much to imitate several Elvis' classics in Elvis' style. Not sure if this is the same documentary which is added to more DVD releases, but nothing new here.

Conclusion

The title of the DVD is not 100% fitting the content on the disc, but talk about drugs, abuse and the heavy touring schedule all lead to the death at the end. The BBC documentary from 2003, from which the interviews seem to originate, was received well. If you enjoyed that one, you can now buy most of the interviews on this DVD, but don’t expect to learn anything new on Elvis last 24 hours.

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Buy at Amazon.co.uk
pelvisb wrote on July 03, 2004
I know the reason why we can't learn anything new on Elvis' last 24 hours: We all knew that Elvis died on August 16th but the producer means August 17th (see backside of the case).
King Of Western Bop wrote on July 05, 2004
Correction. There are several clips of Elvis singing on the DVD, mainly live clips from the 1950's. Pity they weren't all by Elvis. This somewhat spoils it for me. I don't think it gives us any real insight into the last 24 hours. I've heard most of it in other interviews.
macuser wrote on July 05, 2004
I already own this DVD-interview from the BBC. Recorded it, and burned it later on a DVD and made a whole booklet myself so that i have my own "Last 24 Hours" DVD! Besides that, last year the BBC also broadcasted an Elvis documentary wich (in my view} was much much better for those who are Elvis fans and those who aren't. It is the documentary wich opened with the quote: "Long before Madonna, Cher, Britney, U2, Michael Jackson... there was a time when Elvis ruled the world" and featured Linda Thompson, Bob Geldof, Cliff Richard etc...