Viva turning the tables

Ann-Margret from Viva Las Vegas (1964), made when she was 23 and the hottest property around. It’s no surprise they paired her with The King. Her handlers had already been packaging her as a “female Elvis” — on her earliest LP, they had her record a version of “Heartbreak Hotel,” using Elvis’s own backup band and with a selection of songs stylistically similar to Elvis’s hits. It’s an old story, I know, that publicity people find the least possible imaginative ways to push one young blonde thing into the spotlight ahead of her competition. But take another look at the expression on her face here: it looks to me as if she might have had a lot more than the usual. Unlike most of the women who handled guns in 1960s movies, Ann-Margret looks to me as if she’s going to enjoy clipping him in the ass.