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CNN Live Today

Interview with Rick Schmidlin

Aired August 16, 2002 - 11:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: From documentaries to feature films, the King of rock'n'roll was also a star on the big screen. Turner Classic Movies is airing the documentary, "Elvis: That's the Way It Is" along with a 24-hour Elvis film festival.
Joining us from Los Angeles is the producer of the Elvis documentary, Rick Schmidlin -- thank you very much for joining us this morning.

RICK SCHMIDLIN, PRODUCER, "ELVIS: THAT'S THE WAY IT IS": I'm happy to be here this morning.

SAVIDGE: Let me ask you why you were drawn to this particular topic. You have such a wide background, a variety of other projects you have done. Why Elvis?

SCHMIDLIN: Well, I was a big Elvis fan. It was years ago in Hackensack, New Jersey, I went with my friend Bruce Manning (ph) to see "Roustabout" at a theater in Hackensack, New Jersey, and I saw "Roustabout." I was blown away. It was the same time the Beatles and the Stones were around, but when I saw "Roustabout," man, it was cool. And then that was Elvis for me, and always stayed with over the years.

SAVIDGE: Now, as I understand, the documentary is a rework -- or it involves material that actually was done in the '70s?

SCHMIDLIN: Yes. This was shot in 1970. Basically "Elvis: That's the Way It Is," shot by Denis Sanders, was shot with Lucian Ballard (ph) who was Sam Pekinpaw's (ph) cameraman for many years, and they shot this wonderful footage, and we found many, many hours buried -- miles under the ground in Kansas in a safe vault.

SAVIDGE: Wow. And what do you bring out new in this particular version?

SCHMIDLIN: Well, what we do here is we get to see now the rehearsals with the famous guitar player James Burton and Elvis and Ronnie Scheff (ph) and those people -- Jerry Scheff and Ronnie Tutt, and we get to see them all together, and we get see to see the Imperials and the Inspirations, and see really how Elvis worked musically as a producer, not seen before, without any narrative, but we concentrate on Elvis as a musician.

SAVIDGE: Well, we have Elvis, obviously, in real life in the documentary, and then we have Elvis in the movie. I want to take a break here to show you just some of the magic he had in "Girls, Girls, Girls." So this is just one of the movies that can be seen on Turner Classic Movies in this marathon. Let me ask you, was this -- is this considered to be classic film making or is it -- it's just got Elvis, and that makes it fine by everyone?

SCHMIDLIN: It's classic film making, because basically, in the days before music videos, these were really hot. I remember going to drive-ins and seeing these films growing up, and what you get to see is Elvis as a great performer, and over this whole series that's going to run for 24 hours from 10 to 10, you get to see just wonderful footage, like the footage you are seeing now, Elvis playing that beautiful guitar, and I believe it is a Martin guitar, it showing classic-ness to it.

SAVIDGE: Now, were these actually sung in the movies -- how were these conducted since so much music, so much singing was done on set? How did they actually bring it all together?

SCHMIDLIN: Well, basically, the colonel chose a lot of the songs, and basically what they did was made sound tracks that were big records that sold, and when you see the music performed -- we get to see at least so many classic performances of Elvis, you know, and the way he was, and the way he went over the years, and we get to grow with him in this music format.

SAVIDGE: What's your favorite movie? Do you have one of Elvis?

SCHMIDLIN: Well, right now we are watching him with Ann, and "Viva Las Vegas" is good, and "Jailhouse Rock."

SAVIDGE: "Viva Las Vegas..."

SCHMIDLIN: This scene here that you are showing now is my favorite scene possible ever in Elvis films.

SAVIDGE: And why is that?

SCHMIDLIN: This is it here. And I love that you are showing this here.

SAVIDGE: But what is it that makes it so compelling to you? What makes it your favorite?

SCHMIDLIN: Well, it makes it compelling because when you see him with Ann-Margaret, and you see the duet, and the whole thing is odd, people don't realize it, they were very close at that time, and you see the wonderful performance with them. And it is just -- it is just chilling.

SAVIDGE: Well, we know he was a great musician. Was he a great actor?

SCHMIDLIN: He wanted to be an actor more than anything else, and in his early films, like "King Creole" and stuff, you see that he wanted to be a great actor, and that's why he got into film. When he did "Love Me Tender," we were told he memorized the entire script before he even went on the set.

SAVIDGE: Really?

SCHMIDLIN: Yes. So basically, he wanted to be an actor, but what happened was as they made him in the exploitive films over the years, things changed, and that's why, when he did "Elvis: That's the Way -- " you know, he basically wanted it that way. That is the way Elvis wanted it.

SAVIDGE: An actor, but we all remember him most as a singer. Rick Schmidlin, thank you very much. The name of the documentary is "Elvis: The way It Is" and then, of course, we have got the movie marathon on Turner Classic Movies. Thanks for being with us this morning.

SCHMIDLIN: My pleasure.

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