Elvis' first movie is often dismissed as an undistinguished Western enlivened only by the star, but its fine, and the script (by Errol Flynn’s old writer, Bob Buckner) is actually stronger than many of his later movies. Elvis is, for the first and last time in his career, not top-billed, being third on the list after Richard Egan (whom Fox were having high hopes for in the wake of The View from Pompey's Head) and Deborah Paget (looking very fetching with big eyes and chest and blue jeans but who perhaps lacks a little spark).
But Elvis really steals the film - with his soulful eyes and "aw, gee" performance, he gets all the sympathy, despite having married Paget (he didn't know that Egan loved her, or she him), not having gone to the war (he would have if ma had let him), shaking Paget around (he thought she was cheating on him).
He sings a few songs, including the title tune and one number at a picnic where he has a guitar and swivels his hips in front of screaming girls, which is a little too contemporary. But fair's fair this was a pretty good, sensible way to launch Elvis - don't put the pressure all on him, have a script with a decent situation (a group of Confederate soldiers steal Union money just after the Civil War has ended... but elect to keep the money), throw him a couple of songs, a bit of action so the boys will take the girls who will moon over Elvis. They kill him off but he goes down like a hero - or at least a boy who just needs to be loved, trying to save the life of his brother and dying in his arms (though it’s a bit yuck to think Egan and Paget will go "right... how long until we can hook up then?").
Two main story irritants: you can't really blame the half of Egan's gang who want to keep the money to get angry at Egan when he changes his mind (it was Egan's idea to keep it in the first place); also Egan and Elvis are given two extra brothers (one of whom is played by Roger Corman favourite Bill Campbell), neither of whom have a character or do much dramatically (perhaps one of these should have been evil a la the Neville Brand character - or ultra good). This set a tone for future Elvis movies to have sidekicks who just stood around not doing much.
No comments:
Post a Comment