Orion: The Man
Who Would Be King
Dir: Jeanie Finlay
2015
****
They say that truth is often stranger than fiction. The story
of Orion adds a lot of weight to that particular way of thinking. Jeanie
Finlay has a nose for a good story, her films seeming to involve music and the
most fascinating of characters. She certainly hit the jackpot with Orion, aka Jimmy Ellis. Jimmy Ellis was an
amazing singer and a great performer, the only problem was that he looked and
sounded just like Elvis. He didn't want to work as an impersonator, so
struggled to have success as an artist in his own right. He toyed with many
different images but only found success once Elvis had passed away. Ellis'
manager, Colonel Mac Weiman, had taken an idea from a novel written by Gail
Brewer-Giorgo that was about a huge rock star who had faked his own death and
applied it to his singer. The star in the book was called Orion and he wore a
mask. From then on and well into the 80's, Ellis, or Orion, was suspected of
being the real Elvis who had faked his own death and had reinvented
himself. Finlay's documentary talks to his friends
and loved ones and discovers the truth about the man and also raises a few
interesting ideas on who he really was as well as who his father may have been.
A fascinating and somewhat quirky documentary with a shocking
climax, Jeanie Finlay is definitely a documentary film
maker to keep an eye on.
