Singer Elvis Presley made some real bad movies during the period of his life when he was appearing in movies, but those bad movies come across as great when compared to "80 Steps to Jonah", a failed attempt to make singer Wayne Newton a movie star. In fact, this movie often comes across as if it were a (bad) parody of a Presley movie. Though Newton did manage to show some acting chops years later with various small parts in movies, in his big screen debut he comes across as extremely underwhelming, with no flair or color to his performance. However, he isn't really to blame for the movie's failure. The script is pretty awful, extremely padded out and is filled with various clichés and plot turns you have seen many times before in other movies and television shows. And the songs are so sugary sweet that you'll be washing out your mouth with a strong drink. It's no wonder that its distributor, Warner Brothers, has pretty much buried this movie.
