JAILHOUSE ROCK (1957) ** Elvis gets sent to jail for defending himself in a barroom brawl. In jail they decide to have a talent show, which is then televised coast-to coast as is the general rule regarding such events. Released some time thereafter, the King realizes that he isn't really very good, but a girl takes him to a recording studio, where he becomes brilliant immediately upon hearing a tape and realizing how bad he is. He makes a record that sells 426 copies, leading him to declare that he has a "hit" on his hands. He ends up in Hollywood, bereft of close friends or ideals-which in this case means that success hasn't changed him at all. The best parts are natural Elvis poses, like when he starts dancing in the studio, looks at people with contempt, or tells the old jazz afficianado, "Lady I don't know what the hell you're talking about." Charismatic, arrogant, singularly touched by the cosmos...star-crossed, doomed, greedy, domineering...it's an interesting blueprint. If anyone was a success, it was Elvis. Yet somehow you can't help being left with the feeling that he should have been more. Elvis choreographed the dance that presaged everything wrong and right about MTV, and Dean Jones went on to play second fiddle to a Volkswagen after running off with Elvis' would-be girlfriend.