It was remarkably quick how Colonel Parker got Elvis in front of the Hollywood elite. On March 26, 1956, before “Heartbreak Hotel” had hit the number one spot, Elvis went to Hollywood to do a screen test for Paramount Pictures producer Hal Wallis. Elvis did a lip-synch version of “Blue Suede Shoes”, using a guitar with no strings. The footage was rediscovered in the early 1990’s, showing a young, bright man on the brink of superstardom and was presented in the video collection “Elvis: The Greatest Performances”. Elvis also did two scenes for an upcoming Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn movie named “The Rainmaker”.
Hal Wallis was sufficiently impressed, believing that Elvis had a natural acting ability. Elvis’s time as a cinema usher, watching endless movies and observing the likes of James Dean, Tony Curtis, and Marlon Brando, had influenced him in this respect. So, Wallis offered Elvis a seven-movie contract with the freedom to make movies with other studios. The deal was completed on April 25, 1956.
In 21 months, Elvis had completed the process of transferring from being a truck driver for Crown Electric, struggling to find the right song to record, to being a superstar signing a significant Hollywood contract. He did this by a combination of hard work, self-belief, unique talent, and sheer guts.
In the end, Wallis did not find a movie suitable for Elvis Presley’s debut, so, per his new contract, Elvis went to 21st Century Fox and took a supporting role in “The Reno Brothers,” a Civil War drama featuring Richard Egan and Debra Paget.
Four songs were included in the movie, to Elvis’ surprise. One of them, “Love Me Tender”, was a ballad based on an American Civil War song named “Aura Lea”, adapted by Ken Darby. Darby was present when Elvis recorded the song and commented, “He adjusted the music and the lyrics to his own particular presentation. Elvis has the most terrific ear of anyone I have ever met. He does not read music, but he does not need to. All I had to do was play the song for him once, and he made it his own! He has perfect judgment of what is right for him. He exercised that judgment when he chose ‘Love Me Tender’ as his theme song.”
The song achieved one million advance orders after Elvis introduced it on his second appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show”, on September 26, 1956. Before release, the movie title changed from “The Reno Brothers” to “Love Me Tender”. The single “Love Me Tender” was the fifth US number 1 single of 1956 for Elvis.
Elvis began work on the movie on August 22, 1956, famously turning up on set with his lines memorised and everyone else’s.
Elvis plays Clint Reno, the youngest of four brothers, the others being Vance, Brett, and Ray. Whilst the other brothers fight for the Confederate Army in the American Civil War, Clint stays home to tend to the family farm and look after his mother. The family is mistakenly told that Vance had been killed in battle. The movie opens at the end of the war, with the three elder brothers being part of a gang that robs a Union train carrying a federal payroll, unaware that the war had ended the day before. When the three return home after four years of fighting, they discover that Clint has married Cathy, Vance’s former girlfriend. Vance accepts this, but the atmosphere is tense, especially when Vance wants to return the money from the robbery against the wishes of other Confederates.
Clint initially does not know about the history between Vance and Cathy, and when he discovers the truth, he becomes jealous. He is then persuaded to ride with the Confederates, determined to stop Vance from returning the money.
A conflict of interest and loyalty develops, prompting Clint to shoot Vance in the shoulder at the gang’s encouragement. Realising his mistake, Clint rushes to Vance, triggering a gunfight in which Clint is fatally shot. Clint dies in the arms of Cathy and Vance, telling them, “Everything is going to be all right”.
When initial test screenings were shown to select audiences, there was an uproar over the fact that Elvis’s character was seen dying on screen. So, an extra scene was shot before the official release of the movie in which a ghostly Clint sings an additional verse of “Love Me Tender” as the movie ends with Clint’s funeral.
The movie premiered in New York City on November 15, 1956. In the first week, the movie took $540,000 at the box office, second only to James Dean’s “Giant”.
Elvis saw the completed movie with his family in Memphis. His mother, Gladys, was so upset on seeing Elvis die on screen that Elvis insisted that he was never to be seen to die again in any movie. The only other time Elvis’s character died was in “Flaming Star” in 1960. However, his character Pacer Burton does not die on screen; his fatally wounded character rides off to die alone in the land of the Kiowa.
