(CNN) -- Even as a boy, Elvis Presley wanted to be in movies. He realized his goal early in life and went on to star in 33 films. The movies made him lots of money but never satisfied his desire to be seen as a serious actor.

Trying to capitalize on Presley's career as a music sensation, Paramount Pictures invited the 21-year-old sensation to take a screen test. Presley, who had a knack for memorizing lyrics and scripts, studied diligently for the role and wound up acing the test. He signed a seven-year movie contract with Hal Wallis and Paramount Pictures. His first film, originally titled "The Reno Brothers," was re-named "Love Me Tender" before its release to capitalize on the single released in September 1956. Presley offered an appealing performance, set during the Civil War South, and his Hollywood debut opened in New York to huge crowds and generally favorable reviews.

Presley found movie-making to be a reprieve from the mayhem he encountered on the road, and he quickly took to the Hollywood party set. He spent many nights carousing with Natalie Wood, Dennis Hopper and others who considered themselves "rebels" in Hollywood. As for his acting, his technique was a bit raw, but Presley came across as sincere, and could cop a tough guy attitude when called. Directors generally appreciated his diligence and willingness to learn.

Presley's early films are among his best. He endeared himself to audiences with his performances in the semi-autobiographical "Jailhouse Rock" (1957) and "King Creole," a 1958 film-noir co-starring Walter Matthau in which the pop singer is dogged by his ties to organized crime.

After returning from a two-year stint in the Army in 1960, Presley concentrated on movies, urged on by his manager Col. Tom Parker. The cigar-chomping Dutchman figured that there was big money to be made in Hollywood and that Elvis' career in rock 'n' roll had run its course. Parker swiftly moved to cash in on Presley's celebrity and negotiated huge upfront payments to leverage his client's name to the hilt. He booked the star in a series of low-budget musical comedies with little artistic merit. The plan was to combine Presley's recording with his moviemaking. Produce a film, coordinate holiday appearances, record and release a soundtrack album. Despite the boilerplate formula, demand for Elvis was insatiable. And many of the early films, tailor-made for his personality and talent, fared well at the box office.

It's not as if Presley, a millionaire at age 21, needed the money. He had the talent and the opportunity to rise above the B-movie rut and become an actor of repute. Film producers were desperate to find another brooding and good-looking rebel in the mold of James Dean, who died in 1955. Presley was offered significant movie roles, for instance "Thunder Road" (1958), a highly-regarded film about moonshining that went on to star Robert Mitchum. But Parker, who maintained an iron clasp on Presley's business decisions, nixed that offer and others. The reason, as always: money.

After the Army, Presley burned to break out of the sing and dance routine and play a serious role. He got his chance with the western "Flaming Star" (1960), co-starring Barbara Eden. Elvis also had a dramatic role in "Wild in the Country" (1961), but neither film proved to be the breakthrough that the young actor anticipated.

Presley's most commercially successful film was "Blue Hawaii" (1960), in which he plays a solder returning to his Hawaiian home and sings "I Can't Help Falling in Love." Then, Presley shifted into beefcake formula comedy mode for a few years -- "Girls! Girls! Girls!" (1962) "Fun in Acapulco" (1963) "Girl Happy" (1964). By the mid 1960s, he was demanding a million dollars a picture and a sizeable chunk of profits, making him the richest person in Hollywood.

By 1967 or so, the formula had gone stale, and Presley's films flopped not only among critics, but at the box office. Moreover, the happy-go-lucky tone of Presley's films was decidedly out of synch with the increasingly angry tenor of youth culture during the Vietnam War. Top movie producers considered him an also-ran, and actors were reluctant to work with the increasingly temperamental star. Depressed by the rut he had dug for himself, Presley began to focus again on music, beginning with the Singer Special comeback televised in 1968 that launched the final stage of his career. Presley phased out of film during the 1970s as he reconnected with audiences and rediscovered his roots in rock 'n' roll.