Heartbreak Hotel (film)

Heartbreak Hotel
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chris Columbus
Produced by	Debra Hill Lynda Obst
Written by	Chris Columbus
Starring	David Keith Tuesday Weld Charlie Schlatter
Music by	Georges Delerue
Cinematography	Steve Dobson
Edited by	Raja Gosnell
Production company	Touchstone Pictures
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date	September 30, 1988
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$5.5 million (USA)

Heartbreak Hotel is a 1988 American comedy film written and directed by Chris Columbus, and stars David Keith and Tuesday Weld. Set in 1972, the story deals with one of the many "legends" involving Elvis Presley (Keith) about his fictional kidnapping, and his subsequent redemption from decadence.

The film was shot on location in Austin, Texas at Green Pastures the former residence of John Henry Faulk.

The film opens with a single mother and her two children, and a teenage son and nine-year-old daughter, running a boarding house. The mother is hurt in a car accident, after her drunkard boyfriend crashed, and he kidnaps her favorite singer, Elvis Presley, for her birthday, getting the owner of a local pizzeria who looks eerily like Elvis' mother to pose as his mother's ghost as a distraction. Elvis awakens, after being drugged by the boy, in the boarding house. He and the boy do not get along at first. The boy disrespects for the 70's Elvis saying that he sold out to Vegas. However, the boy and Elvis get to know each other, and they became friends. Elvis even plays "Heartbreak Hotel" with the boy's band at a talent show.

The film received mixed reviews. It currently holds a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews.

The film was a box office failure.

Most of the songs contained in the film are actual Elvis Presley recordings despite the film being fictional, with David Keith and Charlie Schlatter performing the title track in the style of the 1968 television special recording.