Love Me Tender (1956)

 Love Me Tender (1956)

I always disliked this film because (SPOILER) “it’s the one where Elvis dies.” And while my kid kept pressuring us old fogeys to watch Baz Luhrmann‘s biopic I kept insisting, “If I wanted to watch an Elvis film, I’d just watch an Elvis film,” which I admit is a bit unfair since John Carpenter’s TV movie was pretty good and because most Elvis movies are pretty bad.

There are few exceptions which are undeniably worth watching, Elvis’ debut being arguably one of them: a Western set at the precise moment the end of the Civil War is announced when a group of Confederate rebels robs a train carrying the Union payroll and when hearing the news figure they are better off calling it the spoils of war rather than the crime it now technically is, while the federal government figures things a bit differently. They split the loot between them, and all go their own way.

A trio of brothers go back their farm to find not only their father already dead but also that fake news of their own death had reached their family farm which resulted in the marriage of their ‘baby’ brother and the eldest’s fiancée.

Not only do we now have an awkward love triangle, but a situation where the U.S. Government is after them for robbery.

Elvis is there only as a supporting character and is generally fine as the rather naïve younger brother who’s much too clueless about the ongoing affair between his now wife and his eldest brother.

He's a little better when he reveals himself to be a hotheaded and jealous husband. He also sings a few songs, all of which, except Love Me Tender, are performed with anachronistic levels of rock & roll energy.

Presley would later express his disappointment that the addition of songs typecast him and shaped his mediocre movie career. He was probably correct about that.

Richard Egan makes for a rather stiff leading man and his character Vance Reno is a rather unlikely hero. We are supposed to root for him because he is the one principled character among the train robbers who aims to take the full amount (with no cuts) to the Confederate army despite being tempted by his fellow rebels. In addition, he is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for that of his baby brother’s (except that this would mostly be out of his hands already, anyway.)

Things being what they are, current times are probably not ones for presenting seditionists as heroes, but I suppose the political climate was a bit different at the time of the film’s release.

Wikipedia posts the comment “No explanation is given why a healthy young man was exempted from military service,” and Elvis’ character is established as 22 years old at the time of his death. Four years should not have made a difference, so, a valid comment.

The film itself is nothing special, but the addition of Elvis to the cast is contradictorily what makes it a bit clumsy but also a curiosity worthier of being sought out.

With Debra Paget, Robert Middleton, William Campbell, and Neville Brand.