A few caps and a video clip of
Debra Paget from the movie Das indische Grabmal.
Was listening to radio and I Remember Elvis Presley song came up. Found it strange why Elvis would sing a tribute song to himself. Turned out the song
I remember Elvis Presley is by a Dutch singer Danny Mirror. The video edit of the song on YouTube shows how immensely popular Elvis was, so I decided to look up what contributed to his early fame. Started with his movie roles, but quickly got more interested in the female co-stars he was paired with in his movies.
His first movie role was in Love Me Tender in 1956. The title song, credited to Vera Matson, is an adaptation of the Civil War song
Aura Lea and was #1 hit on the Billboard charts a couple of weeks before the movie’s theatrical release. Also turned out most of Elvis’ were written by other people, he was just a performer, a damn good one.
Anyway, Debra Paget was his first co-star. Checked my usual sources for any interesting movie scenes involving Debra and her attire in Das indische Grabmal from 1959 caught my interest. The movie is a part of a trilogy directed by Austrian-American director Fritz Lang whose best known work is 1927 movie Metropolis.
Naturally, given his origin, the next search term should include Nazis. Turned out Lang had a meeting with Joseph Goebbels in 1933 after his film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, was banned by the regime. I assume the consequence of this action contributed to the -American part of Austrian-American director label in wikipedia.
Enough history lessons for today. Well, almost. The audio commentary on Das indische Grabmal was done by historian David Kalat who does a mini biography lesson on Debra Page during her dance routine where he mentions a couple of nude photos of Debra circulating around in the 50s and that she was also almost nude, but covered with a veil, in her movie Prince Valiant.
Well, I can’t do much about those nude photos, but at least I can check out that movie. Glad I did. Not for the nude scene, though. Have had a childhood memory of a film in which a knight was wounded/killed during a jousting tournament. Turns out that was the movie.
Here are some clips of Debra Paget from Das indische Grabmal and Love Me Tender.
Debra Paget dance from Das indische Grabmal [
mir.cr]
Debra Paget from Love Me Tender [
mir.cr]
Love Me Tender performed by Elvis in the movie [
mir.cr]