PRISCILLA

PRISCILLA is an intimate biopic and coming-of-age drama about Priscilla Presley’s personal relationship with rock icon Elvis Presley, from the night they met in 1959 when she was only 14-years-old, but he was 24, to 1973 on the day she left Presley’s Graceland estate after they signed their divorce papers. Based on Priscilla’s book, ELVIS AND ME, PRISCILLA is a well-acted and impressionistic but realistic character study that presents Priscilla’s Romantic perspective of life, Elvis and their relationship, but the movie contains some strong foul language, lightly mentions the affairs Elvis had but doesn’t mention the two affairs Priscilla had, and contains scenes of drug use and intimate scenes in the Presley’s bedroom before Priscilla and Elvis married and consummated their marriage in 1967.

PRISCILLA begins in late summer of 1959 in Germany when one of Elvis Presley’s Army buddies invites 14-year-old Priscilla to a party Elvis is having in the apartment where he lives. Her mother and stepfather give permission for her to attend. At the party, Elvis actually shows an interested in the young teenager, even though he’s 24. They begin seeing each other regularly.

Elvis leaves the Army in March 1960, and Priscilla thinks the romance is over, even though she talks to Elvis on the phone. However, after an invite from Elvis, Priscilla’s parents agree to let her stay at Graceland, Presley’s home in Memphis, for two weeks in the summer of 1962. Elvis agrees to have Priscilla chaperoned by his grandmother as part of the deal.

During her visit, however, Elvis takes Priscilla to Las Vegas, where they’re seen at the gaming tables as celebrities. The atmosphere in Vegas is heady for Priscilla, and it’s there that Elvis introduces her to amphetamines to stay awake and sleeping pills to fall asleep.

After another visit at Christmas, Priscilla’s parents let her stay in Memphis for good. Part of the agreement, however, is that Priscilla finish high school at a local all-girls’ Catholic school. It’s hard for her to make friends at the school because of all the gossip about her and Elvis. Also, it’s very lonely at Graceland when Elvis goes away to Hollywood for weeks at a time to make more fluffy, critically derided musical movies. Also, Priscilla and Elvis begin sleeping together in the same bed (after she turns 18), but Elvis refuses to consummate their relationship, because they aren’t married. He also refuses to let her come with him to Hollywood when he’s making movies.

Elvis finally proposes in 1966, and they get married in 1967. Nine months later, Priscilla gives birth to their daughter, Lisa Marie. However, Elvis’ penchant for shooting his movies without Priscilla being there and, later, to go on tour without her, eventually leads to their separation and divorce in 1973. The movie shows how controlling Elvis was. He wouldn’t let her wear patterned dresses and insists she die her hair black.

PRISCILLA is a well-acted, well-produced and impressionistic, but realistic, character study. Since it concentrates so much on character rather than story, however, the movie plays rather slowly. Basically, the movie presents Priscilla’s Romantic perspective of life, Elvis and their relationship. It’s actually a coming-of-age story where Priscilla learns to cope within the stifling bubble of Graceland in which Elvis placed her, then decides to burst the bubble when it appears that Elvis will never give up his compulsion to separate his career from his family life.

PRISCILLA contains some strong foul language. Also, Elvis gets angry with Priscilla two or three times. In one scene, he barely misses her head when he throws a small chair at her in a recording studio. In addition, the movie shows Elvis and Priscilla abusing pills. In one sequence set in the late 1960s, Elvis becomes immersed in New Age philosophies spreading within the hippie culture, and he and Priscilla take LSD. Elvis’ manager, however, Col. Tom Parker, tells him to stop reading so many books, and Elvis stops cold turkey.

Finally, the movie contains intimate scenes in the Presley’s bedroom before Priscilla and Elvis married and consummated their marriage in 1967. It also alludes to affairs Elvis had with Nancy Sinatra after he got out of the Army, with Ann-Margret when Priscilla was staying at Graceland with him, and with women while he toured on the road between 1968 and 1973. The movie doesn’t really mention, however, a brief affair Priscilla had in 1968 and a more serious one she had in 1972. That said, it leaves viewers with the idea that Priscilla still loved Elvis after their divorce and always will love him.

The fact remains, however, that Priscilla has had numerous romances after divorcing Elvis. Her longest relationship has been 22 years with Brazilian screenwriter and computer programmer Marco Antonio Garcia. They never married, however. Priscilla starred in the popular TV series DALLAS in the 1980s and the NAKED GUN comedies with Leslie Nielsen in the late 1980s and early 90s.

To sum up, therefore, although the movie celebrates Priscilla finally breaking free of the claustrophobic atmosphere surrounding Elvis and Graceland, Priscilla never has settled down with only one man. She has four grandchildren through Lisa Marie, who died suddenly in 2023, but her only grandson committed suicide in 2020. Her granddaughter, Riley Keough, has one

daughter. Priscilla joined the Church of Scientology in 1977 when Elvis died, along with Lisa Marie, but distanced herself from the church in 2016.