The documentary “Sammy By Sammy: my 60s”, available on OCS, reminds us of what classic cinema singer-actors Elvis Presley and Sammy Davis Jr almost shot together, before finally being replaced.
Star singers Elvis Presley and Sammy Davis Jr were very good friends. Perhaps partly thanks to their common point of having wanted both, at a stage of their career, to try the Hollywood adventure?
The two artists, eleven years apart, almost found themselves in the casting of a classic in the history of cinema, as Sammy Davis Jr tells in the documentary Sammy by Sammy: my 60s, available on OCS.
We are in 1958, Elvis is a singing star who has just shot three films: The Rider of Twilight, Frenzied Love and The Rock of the Bagne, whose successes catapult him to the rank of movie star. For his part, Sammy Davis Jr is above all a singer and his only role in the cinema in the adaptation of Anna Lucasta went relatively unnoticed due to the failure of the film.
However, the United Artists studio is thinking of bringing them together in a feature film that Stanley Kramer is preparing: The Defiant One, which will be known in France under the title La Chaine. Elvis is more than ready because he wants to leave behind him the films sung to become a recognized comedian. As for Sammy Davis, he has always dreamed of being an actor, so he is delighted that the studio offers him the role of Noah Cullen.
Twentieth Century Fox / United Artists Elvis in “The Twilight Rider” and Sammy Davis Jr with Eartha Kitt in Anna Lucasta
The story of La Chaine is that of two prisoners, one black (Noah Cullen), the other white (John “Joker” Jackson), who are taken to a detention center. Chained to each other, they are forced to collaborate despite their obvious disagreements in order to escape and escape their pursuers.
The project has the potential to end up at the Oscars and its strong subject can allow the two actors to be recognized by the profession.
Everything is in place for this to succeed, until Elvis’ manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker, dissuades his foal from shooting the film. According to Sammy Davis Jr, quoted in the documentary, Elvis finally answered him, with tears in his eyes:
People who buy my records don’t want to see me chained to a black guy and end up liking him.
La Chaine is therefore done without the two artists, replaced by Sidney Poitier and Marlon Brando at first but, because of the schedule of the star of Sur les quais, it is finally Tony Curtis who takes on the role of ” Joker”. He and Poitier were nominated for an Oscar for their role, Poitier becoming the first African-American cited for the Best Actor award.
Associated Artists
Excerpt from the poster of “La Chaine”
After this missed blow, Elvis will turn repetitive musical bluettes for ten years before returning to the stage and again triumphing there in 1968. As for Sammy Davis Jr, after beautiful appearances on TV, he will find his own roles in the cinema after his friend Frank Sinatra gradually imposed him on the casting of his films.
As for the film La Chaine, it will have a television remake in 1986 entitled The Impossible Escape, produced and starring Robert Urich and Carl Weathers.