Blu ray review: Change of Habit (1969)

By time he performed in his triumphant 1968 Christmas special on television, Elvis Presley had become weary of making movies that offered no creative challenge. He wanted to finish out his contract and start doing live performances. So it is odd that this is when Hollywod started giving him decent roles. One of these is Change of Habit, newly released to blu ray by Kino Lorber.

Elvis had innate skill as an actor, which he revealed by his second film, Jailhouse Rock (1957). When given a good script and a strong director like Richard Thorpe, Michael Curtiz, or Don Siegel, Presley would rise to the occasion. If this talent had been cultivated, Elvis would be at least as good an actor as Frank Sinatra, who won an Oscar. However, when the lightweight musical Blue Hawaii was Presley’s biggest box office hit, and the drama Wild in the Country was the only Elvis movie to lose money, the singer rarely got the opportunity to be creatively challenged. And while it can be argued that musicals like Viva Las Vegas and It Happened at the World’s Fair were amusing and enjoyable, films like Harum Scarum, Clambake, and Stay Away Joe made Elvis feel creatively boxed in. Furthermore, his last strong chart hit was in 1965, and that was the re-release of an old one, Crying in the Chapel. When the 1968 special reminded everyone that Elvis was still the King, he was ready to move on from lackluster movies and start performing for live audiences.

Change of Habit is, significantly, one of the best Elvis Presley movies and features one of his best performances. He plays a doctor in an inner-city clinic who is met with a myriad of serious challenges. Three social workers come to help out, and a romance nearly develops with one of them (Mary Tyler Moore) before the doctor discovers these women are nuns.

There are songs, including the title tune and Rubberneckin’, but Change of Habit is really a serious drama that deals with social issues, is not afraid to show the seamy side of the inner city, and, most of all, allows Elvis Presley to once more tap into the innate acting talent he always had. And, interestingly enough, Edward Asner has a role in this film that also features Mary Tyler Moore, a year before the 60s became the 70s and the two embarked on a TV show that has become an enduring classic. Change of Habit is also sometimes noted as the first movie to depict autism on screen, via a little girl who is one of the doctor’s patients.

Elvis Presley is one of the most important figures in popular music during the second half of the 20th century. He was eager to enjoy the same sort of triumphs as an actor. And while his movies were huge box office hits, he only seldom had the opportunity to act in a role and not simply be another variation of the Elvis persona. Change of Habit is something of a culmination of Presley’s opportunities to not only show his audience he could act, but also to satisfy his own creative needs. This same year, Elvis recoded his legendary Memphis sessions, putting him back on the charts with songs like In The Ghetto and Suspicious Minds. The sixties ended well for him. The seventies looked promising. But, sadly, Elvis Presley did not live through the next decade, dying at the young age of 42 in 1977. Change of Habit was his final movie triumph.

Kino Lorber’s blu ray includes new audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson, and can be ordered at this link: CHANGE OF HABIT