REVIEW: ‘Loving Elvis’ 2023 documentary

On November 13, 2023, the “Loving Elvis” 3-part documentary, originally broadcast in May in the UK as “Elvis’ Women”, finally became available in the U.S. on the Peacock streaming channel. As someone who has always been fascinated by Presley’s love life, I was anxiously awaiting to watch this film. It comes at an opportune time on the heels of the popularity of the 2022 ELVIS movie, which shows very little of Elvis’ love life, as well as the 2023 PRISCILLA movie, which shows Presley from one woman’s perspective.

In the “Loving Elvis” 2023 documentary, we get a whole lot of women sharing their own perspectives and experiences dating The King of Rock and Roll. The film is divided into three parts which cover three time periods in his life: 1956 to 1958, 1958 to 1967, and 1968 to 1977. 

Two writers who get a lot of screen time in the film are Suzanne Finstad, author of Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, and Alanna Nash, author of multiple books on Elvis including Baby Let’s Play House, an exhaustive account of Presley’s love life. Finstad is also a producer of the documentary series. 

When the film first came out, many Elvis fans were upset complaining that the film makes Elvis look bad. However, most of this information has already been written about in various books, and should not come as a shock to anyone who knows Presley’s history. The difference is that with a film, we now can put faces to names.

For me, the highlight of the documentary are the interviews with a few girlfriends who are not as well known in Elvis history. For example, Sandy Ferra Martindale never wrote a book about Elvis, but she frequently would tell her stories about dating him on the Elvis radio channel on Sirius XM when she was interviewed by George Klein. Sandy dated Elvis in the early 1960s in Hollywood after Elvis returned from the army. 

“When we first started dating,” Sandy explained, “I knew about Priscilla — that he had met this little girl in Germany. She was kept in Tennessee. She didn’t know what was going on in LA, so she thought he was only going with her at that time.” 

Also, Barbara Hearn, Presley’s steady Memphis girlfriend in 1956, was interviewed. She has never written a book either. It was good to have her documented on film for her part in Presley’s life. However, overall, the interviews only cover a little about each woman’s relationship with Elvis, leaving fans to go seek out more info on the women they are curious about. 

On the other hand, I was disappointed that two of Presley’s most significant girlfriends in the 1950s were not included or even talked about — Dixie Locke, who dated Elvis from 1954 to 1955, and June Juanico, who dated Elvis from mid to late 1956. They have both written books about their relationships with Elvis. And while it is understandable that Priscilla would not do an interview for this film, the filmmakers did include audio clips from her offering her side of the story. 

Regarding Anita Wood, her daughter Jonnita Barrett, who wrote a book about her mother’s relationship with Elvis, was interviewed for the film. Jonnita said Anita did not want to be in the documentary “because she’s 84 and talking about Elvis really makes her sad.” Sadly, Anita passed away in June 2023 at the age of 85. But Jonnita was a very good spokesperson for her mother as she gave Anita’s perspective on the five years she dated Elvis.

It is worth noting that there is some misleading source material presented on screen when Anita Wood is being discussed. For example, there is audio of an argument that she had with Elvis, but that conversation where she asked Elvis if he was dating other women was made AFTER Elvis left the army and was in Hollywood, not when he was in the army in Germany like it is suggested. At another point, a photo of Elvis with Dottie Harmony was shown implying that it was Anita.

The film provides an in-depth look into the love triangle between Elvis, Anita and Priscilla, and how Elvis juggled those two relationships. As an author of a book that examined Presley’s time in the army, it has always been frustrating to me when Elvis biopics, including the 2022 ELVIS movie, leave out Anita Wood. Many books and movies skip over Anita and go straight to Priscilla, leaving out the part when Elvis returned home from Germany and dated Anita for two more years until he reunited with Priscilla. This is finally explained on film for Elvis fans to comprehend.

What really was frustrating is how multiple people interviewed about this kept saying that Elvis brought Priscilla to Graceland when she was 16. No, Priscilla did not move to Memphis until she was just two months away from turning 18 years old. When biographer Alanna Nash compares Elvis and Priscilla’s relationship to Jerry Lee Lewis who married his 13-year-old cousin, I thought that was a stretch, and the comparison with R. Kelly was even worse, adding a negative and dark tone to the film. 

I felt that the filmmakers focused on some of the negative parts of Presley’s relationships and dramatized them unnecessarily. In fact, in part 3, David Stanley claimed that he believed Elvis committed suicide. After fans got upset about that, Stanley retracted his statement and apologized for it in June 2023. 

“I am sorry for the derogatory comments I made in a documentary about Elvis that was filmed last year,” Stanley posted on his Instagram account in June 2023. “There is no excuse for my comments and I can fully understand why you would be angered.” (Note: the post seems to have been deleted from Stanley’s Instagram account since then) 

I was intrigued by part 2 when they interviewed Currie Grant, who introduced Priscilla to Elvis in Germany. Of course, this makes sense since author Suzanne Finstad was one of the producers. She interviewed Grant extensively for her book. This led to a “he said/she said” dispute between Currie and Priscilla which ended up in court. In 1998, Priscilla took Currie to court suing him for defamation. The court ruled in her favor. In the documentary, Grant maintains that Priscilla approached him wanting to meet Elvis, while Priscilla wrote in her book that Grant was the one who initially approached her with the idea. 

For those who make comments in the film that Elvis did not want to marry Priscilla implying he did not love her, I don’t believe that. Yes, I agree he did not want to get married, but judging how he felt about Priscilla after first meeting her, I believe he truly loved her. 

In research for my book, ELVIS The Army Years Uncovered, I was astonished to discover the fact that Elvis was the one who spilled the beans initially about Priscilla to the press (which I am not convinced that Priscilla ever realized). All the details are explained in this video: 

Regarding the fact that Elvis dated underage girls even after Priscilla, it is shocking to hear. For that reason, as an Elvis fan, part 3 was my least favorite part of the film. I was surprised and yet saddened to see the interview with Reeca Smith, who was 14 years old when she dated Elvis over six months from September 1974 to February 1975. No one can excuse that kind of behavior, especially when looking at it from today’s standards. However, Elvis was never accused of bad treatment by these women. In fact, Reeca said in the film that Elvis was a “gentleman.” 

Linda Thompson defended Elvis in the film when she said: “I never heard of Elvis abusing women or being inappropriate or being a pedophile, or whatever else you want to call it. By the way, that’s not to say that he did not have dalliances, but he was not an idiot. He knew about statutory laws.” 

Meanwhile, I was disappointed when the filmmakers took such a tacky turn when Linda was discussing something so heartfelt about Elvis. She had just told a story about a heartbreaking dream Elvis told her about, and afterwards, she was explaining how she decided to put that story in her book. They showed her saying that part about her book when she was putting on lipstick. It made her look like she did not really care about Elvis, which is not true. My guess is that Linda did not know they were going to use that footage in the film. Why any filmmaker feels comfortable using footage of people when they are “getting ready” to talk on camera is so unfair to the interviewee. 

It was great to see Elisabeth Mansfield be interviewed about her time with Elvis. She met Elvis in Germany in 1958 and moved in with him and his family to work as a fan mail secretary, but she was also one of his girlfriends at the time.

“I don’t think Elvis Presley should have ever gotten married,” said Elisabeth. “One woman just wasn’t enough for him, whether he loved her or not… You’re not gonna change him. He’s gonna do what he wants. He was Elvis Presley.” 

Also, to add drama, it seemed like the filmmakers would almost pit one girlfriend against the other by confronting them with a quote that another girlfriend said about them. Even though it may be uncomfortable, it is better for the person to have a chance to respond on the record to what someone else said about them and give their account. 

Other people interviewed include Kay Wheeler, the president of Presley’s first fan club, Presley’s nurse Letetia Kirk, Mindi Miller, Ginger Alden, Kathy Tatum, Nancy Czar, Frances Forbes, and Jackie Rowland,

With all the women Elvis dated during his 42 years on earth, this 3-hour film series could easily have been expanded to 10 parts or 10 hours. In truth, some parts are uncomfortable and upsetting for fans, and it is disappointing that some key women are missing from the story. Considering the limited amount of time on film compared with the unlimited amount of women Elvis dated, Loving Elvis gives a fairly balanced overview of Presley’s relationships with women. I would recommend this film to fans mainly for the recorded accounts of the various women who have never or rarely been interviewed before in a film.

***

This review was written by the Elvis News Examiner, Trina Young. She is the author of 4 Elvis books, including ELVIS The Army Years Uncovered. Read a free excerpt at ElvisBiography.net.

*

Follow the Elvis News Examiner on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram