Elvis plays Toby Kwimper,* the best Elvis movie name ever. He and his pa, Pa Kwimper are driving along in their Beverly Hillbilly-esque convertible jalopy one day when they decide to take a drive down a closed road. Also in the car with them are 19 year old Holly Jones, 8-ish year old twin boys (fourth cousins or something, per Toby) and a 3-ish year old girl, not related but orphaned. Over the years Pa Kwimper has unofficially adopted them all.

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After about 10 miles or so on the closed road they run out of gas. It turns out the road wasn’t “closed” so much as never actually opened. There are no towns or gas stations or, well, anything. So they do what pretty much anyone would do, they pull over and decide it’s time to homestead.

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The Kwimper gang are simple folk and really sweet and naive, but not super bright. They have no money, and just a bit of dumb luck, but they seem to know how to make the most of it. The governor drives up on the way to the grand opening of the road. They charm him and get him to allow them to stay. A guy pulls over seeing Toby fishing and says he’d give $20 to land a fish like Toby has on the line. So, Toby hands him the line. Holly realizes that, now that the road is open, they can get people to stop and fish, sell them food, drinks, and bait, and rent them fishing gear. Toby goes to the bank to get a loan, scares the bank loan officer (Howard “Floyd the Barber” McNear again, two days in a row!) and the guards think he is trying to rob the bank. He cluelessly disarms two guards (you’re going to hurt someone with that gun…) before the bank manager recognizes him. He was the first fishing guy. 

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The whole time Elvis is playing this lovable galoot who doesn’t know his own strength, and if you’re thinking “Hey, that’s Jethro Bodine!” well, that’s what I thought too. So I stopped and looked up the name of the writer of Follow That Dream. It was Charles Lederer, and he had nothing to do with the creation of the Beverly Hillbillies. He did write His Girl Friday, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Spirit of St Louis, Oceans 11, and Mutiny on the Bounty. 

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Anyway, so it goes until a welfare agent, Alicia, shows up to see what’s going on, to ask Toby some word association questions, and to try to make out with him. It’s a mistake, because as he had sung earlier, Toby’s “Not The Marrying Kind.” It’s my favorite song from the soundtrack, although “Follow That Dream” is also great, and I can’t believe “Sound Advice” has never become my anthem.

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There’s a subplot involving some mob guys setting up a trailer with gambling in their new little out-of-police-jurisdiction town. They make several attempts to do Toby in, but it never even occurs to him that they would be trying to hurt him, so he assumes they are drunk and just overpowers them and sends them on their way. 

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I really can’t say enough about how much I like Elvis in this role. He often plays guys that are uneducated or just plain dumb, but they always have a mean streak or anger management problems. This is the first time I’ve seen him be sweet and harmless, and it’s totally endearing. 

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Follow That Dream totally caught me off guard. It lives somewhere in the gray area between comedy, musical, and drama. It’s all of them, but not really any of them. It’s just, you know, charming.

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ACTING: 10 Elvises 

MUSICAL PERFORMANCES: 9 Elvises

BEST SONG: I’m Not The Marrying Kind

STUNTS: Disarming bank guard, disarming mobsters, disarming jaded reviewers

CRINGE FACTOR: 0 

KISSIN’: Two

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*I regret not knowing about this name when I was picking my Little Elvis name.