Elvis Presley's 28th feature film, Live a Little, Love a Little is a 1968 Screwball Romantic Comedy directed by Norman Taurog, adapted from the 1965 novel Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips by humorist Dan Greenburg.note
Presley is Greg Nolan, a photographer who has a fateful beachside encounter with a whimsical woman named Bernice (Michele Carey). Greg spurns Bernice's advances, so she makes her Great Dane dog, Albert, chase Greg into the ocean. Bernice convinces Greg to dry himself at her house and drugs him into sleeping for days. Upon waking up, Greg discovers Bernice has turned his life upside down by getting him fired from his job and evicted. She buys him a larger house and Greg, as annoyed as he is at her, still feels compelled to repay her. To that end, he takes on two different jobs; one at a nude magazine run by Mike Lansdown (Don Porter) and one at a sophisticated advertising firm run by Mr. Penlow (Rudy Vallee). Greg has to juggle his two jobs, which are on the same building and have conflicting schedules, and tries to make sense of his relationship with Bernice.
Nowadays it's best known as the origin of "A Little Less Conversation".
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Bernice puts garlic in Albert's food, showing that she likes her beloved dog to have fancy meals. However, garlic in reality is toxic to dogs.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: In the "Edge of Reality" sequence, Bernice changes into three women; one is a blonde, one is a brunette and one is a redhead. They are metaphors for the different identities she gives to men.
- Bookends: At the beginning of the story, Greg and Bernice meet on the beach and kiss, with Bernice siccing Albert on Greg when he tells her he didn't feel anything from the kiss. At the end, they're back on the beach, declare their feelings for each other and kiss, and Bernice teases Greg by saying she didn't feel anything, so Greg sics Albert on her as revenge.
- Casting Gag: Elvis appearing alongside Rudy Vallee, who as a massively popular pop music idol was basically the Elvis of The Roaring '20s.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Greg has a dream in which he dons a shiny blue suit, is in a vague place filled with changing blue, pink and yellow lights and is warned by apparitions of the various characters he has met to get away from Bernice. Then he sings "Edge of Reality"
, where he dances with Bernice, who keeps changing into different women. - Genre Roulette: The soundtrack is very interesting, consisting of four songs performed in a variety of styles, none of which really fit into the usual Presley musical formula. "A Little Less Conversation" is uptempo Soul, "Wonderful World" is a vaguely European-sounding pop waltz (it in fact had originally been written as a possible Eurovision Song Contest entry), "Almost in Love" is a Bossa Nova-tinged ballad, and "Edge of Reality" is the only real attempt at Psychedelic Rock that Elvis ever tried (though it would be a stretch to call it "rock").
- Hotter and Sexier: Easily the raciest Elvis movie, with the sex-related themes and the Playboy Parody arguably making it a very mild Sex Comedy.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Bernice taste-tests some food she's making on Greg. Once he approves, Bernice calls for Albert saying that lunch is ready, revealing Greg just ate dog food. Cue Greg gagging and making a run for the sink.
- I Have Many Names: Bernice capriciously uses different names with different men. When she first meets Greg, she introduces herself as Alice. To the delivery boy, she is Susie, and to the milkman, she is Betty. Bernice is the one that Greg settles on because that's what her friendly ex, Harry, who recurs most frequently throughout the film, calls her.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Rare female version; the reason for Bernice's weird behavior, as explained by Harry, is that she is desperate for a guy she can have sex with; all previous attempts with other guys ended in her interrupting the process before going all the way. Greg at first resists her, but gradually grows more attracted to her and eventually they sleep together, with Bernice thanking him for making her a woman.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Bernice offers to scrub Greg's back while he's in the shower, which he declines. She suggests he's afraid of losing control and "attacking" her, to which Greg replies he never loses control and lets her scrub his back to prove it. He has enough of it when she messes with him by scrubbing his ass and tells her to get out.
- Playboy Parody: The magazine run by Mike Lansdown prides itself on its naughty pictures. His female employees dress up in Playboy Bunny-like outfits, except they're cat-themed.
- P.O.V. Cam: When Greg realizes Bernice got him fired and evicted, he drives to her house and the camera shifts to his perspective as he walks up to her door and barges through it to confront her.
- Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: The things Bernice does to keep Greg around (drugging him, making him lose his job and house while he sleeps for days, threatening to sic her dog on him if he displeases her) would be intensely creepy if the genders were reversed. As it is, they are only presented as the absurd antics of a desperate Cloudcuckoolander and Greg is, at worst, annoyed.
- There Is Only One Bed: After Bernice pretends to injure herself at Greg's house, she spends some time there sleeping in his bed as she "recovers", while he sleeps on the couch. She takes the couch apart so he is forced to sleep with her, but he puts a board between them so nothing happens. After he gets fired, Greg throws the board out the window in a rage and makes love to Bernice.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Bernice claims that she is a widow and was known as Mrs. Baby, and Greg reacts with disbelief at the name. As it turns out, her "husband" Harry Baby is very much real and alive, but he's just an ex that Bernice is still close to.
