Strong and Moving!

Sadly Over-hyped

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Viewing the relatively recent release on Blu-ray of Elvis Presley's Flaming Star has provided a certain opportunity for reappraisal of the 1960 western. Technically, the transfer is quite stunning. The HD format truly enriches the viewing experience. The sense of frontier terrain is indeed very strong, emphasizing the troubled period setting of this powerful drama.The film is so far removed from any work in Elvis Presley's film canon. This was not his only example of portraying an edgy, troubled character, and although he is clearly the star, he was performing with actors who had as much screen time as himself - a truly outstanding ensemble cast. What Flaming Star amounts to is Elvis Presley in a Don Siegel vehicle. His engagement with the material, and with Siegel as director, placed him in an entirely different category from his other screen work. Don Siegel's comments on Presley's performance serve to reinforce this departure: "Presley surprised me with his sensitivity as an actor. He could have become an acting star and not just a singing star. If you could hire Elvis Presley to play a straight part, without having to worry about his golden voice or gyrations of the hip, I think he could do the most wonderful parts".Clair Huffaker, author of the novel Flaming Lance on which the film was based, added his weight to the perception of Presley as a dramatic screen performer when he offered: "Elvis Presley has accomplished in this film what Frank Sinatra accomplished in From Here to Eternity - become recognized as a serious, capable actor".The film's thematic structure, concerning racial tension in the Old West, has certainly been addressed on many occasions, with this particular story highlighting the escalating aggression on both sides of the racial divide. Although the Native Americans, Kiowa Tribe, in this story commit acts of horrific violence, there is a sympathetic slant to their plight. In protecting their land and their people, there is simply no other choice but to use brute force against their aggressors.Elvis Presley's role as the half-breed subjected to intense hatred by both sides presented him with the chance to deliver a meaningful, brooding performance. He was just twenty-five years old at the time, had not long completed his two-year army service, and had just recently achieved the status of black belt in karate. Flaming Star was possibly his most physical role and he engaged in violent fight scenes very believably. Don Siegel was incredibly impressed by Presley's skills:"When it came to karate Elvis had few peers. I hired a black-belt stuntman,who was an instructor for the Marines, but when they had their scene, a roughtough fight, Elvis proved embarrassing: he was twice as fast and twice as goodas the Marine instructor".Presley's management insisted there should be songs, despite the seriousness of the subject matter. Incredibly, four songs were recorded for the film. At a test screening, the invited audience actually laughed at one of the obviously inappropriate choices. Elvis himself intervened over this issue, commenting some time later: "When Flaming Star was made, there were four songs in it. I considered they should all go out. This was a dramatic role and I wantedto keep it that way. For days and days I fought, and in the end they did cutout two of them. If I had had my way there would have been nothing".Tension in the story is almost immediate. At the opening party there is a very awkward moment in a statement made about the Indian mother, Dolores Del Rio, - the precursor to much conflict in the ensuing events. Presley's character, Pacer, is so protective of her as he has virtually no trust or feelings for anyone else - given the hatred shown towards them. In a scene where two unsavory characters attempt to assault his mother, Pacer dispenses an unbelievably brutal beating to them both. There is even a scene included where he effectively menaces a small child - an almost unthinkable moment in any Presley film, when you consider how protective of children he was in later film characterizations.The conflict builds and builds. There is palpable mistrust everywhere. Siegel ensures the pace never flags, as the story moves from one violent act to yet another. It reaches the heights to where Pacer is even distanced from his own brother and sees no future but to be part of the Indian uprising. Given the propensity for Hollywood westerns to show Indians taking souvenir scalps, the film has a great line from Presley, when he briefly pretends to be one of the warring Kiowa group, as his brother,Steve Forrest,comments that his hair is too short -Pacer: "If we're not out of here by sun-up, it'll be a lot shorter!".By the time of the film's incredibly downbeat finale, three members of the main family, the Burtons, have been violently killed, and the one remaining member is seriously injured. As a family attempting to live a decent life in an interracial environment, it clearly was not meant to be. Flaming Star may not have been totally ahead of its time, but it does make for very thought-provoking viewing in terms of racial intolerance and its sad consequences.Elvis Presley's performance in Flaming Star is a virtual tour-de-force. He commands the screen at all times with an explosive presence perfectly suited to the conflicted character he is portraying. Along with his earlier King Creole (1958) this is the type of performance that should have given him greater credibility within Hollywood. The sad reality is that, with his later film choices in, mostly, lightweight roles, these dramatic works became seriously overlooked. What a truly unfortunate view on a career that should have been so very different and so much more rewarding.

Don Siegel's "Flaming Star" isn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, cowboys and Indians horse opera. First, Elvis Presley sings only two tunes. The title tune is an atmospheric ballad, while the second song occurs a birthday party where our hero warbles and strums for his guests and family. Second, this oater doesn't boast a happy ending. Indeed, "Framing Star" serves up lots of anguish during its meager 96 running time. Happily, this oater isn't a routine Elvis songfest with him crooning in every other scene. Third, the sobering drama sets in nine minutes after the Twentieth Century Fox logo when a Kiowa Indian cleaves a man's skull with a war hatchet. In the aftermath, out of the three Howards who are slain only one hand is found, and the hand belonged to Dorothy Howard. The Indians aren't the woebegone bunch that showed up in "Broken Arrow." The Kiowas here are rather merciless with the settlers. As it turns out, Elvis is the half-breed son of a Kiowa woman that his father married after his first wife died. The melodrama grows out of the turmoil that Native Americans stir up when they go on a rampage. Everybody turns against Elvis and his family. Novelist Clair Huffaker adapted his own novel "Flaming Lance" with two-time, Oscar nominated scribe Nunnally Johnson of "Jesse James" and "The Grapes of Wrath" contributing to the plot. The supporting cast is sturdy enough, with John McIntire, L.Q. Jones, Rodolfo Acosta, Richard Jaeckel, and Roy Jenson.The action opens with Clint Burton (Steve Forrest of "North Dallas Forty") and Pacer Burton (Elvis Presley of "Love Me Tender") riding past the camera and down a ridge to the house where they live. Initially, Clint is suspicious because they cannot hear a solitary sound. They enter the house and the people waiting for them inside surprise them. Clint observes that his birthday has been past for a week. Clint's girlfriend Roslyn Pierce (Barbara Eden of "Harper Valley PTA) gives him something that hangs on a wall that he can use when he shaves his face. Tom Howard (L.Q. Jones of "The Wild Bunch") compliments Pacer's mother Neddy (Dolores Del Rio of "The Fugitive") on her culinary skills. Later, when the Howards arrive at their ranch, the Kiowas strike them. They wound Will and bury a hatchet in Tom's noggin. When their father comes out the front door during the attack, he is hit by a flaming arrow in the stomach. Will manages to escape but the next time we see him he is hopelessly delirious. He guns down Two Moons (Perry Lopez of "The Lone Ranger") and mortally wounds Neddy. Pacer has to fake kidnapping Doc Phillips' daughter Dottie so they can take him to see his mother. Pacer and Clint don't Neddy time and they bury on a hill in the shade of a tree. It makes for a very dramatic, emotionally fraught scene. Siegel stages the funeral with the same Spartan grace that he does the showdowns. He shows a comfortable familiarity with the Cinemascope frame. The fight between Clint and Pacer is quietly realistic. Actually, Clint is the most reasonable, heroic, and challenged character of the movie. He exercises commendable restraint when most men wouldn't dare. Elvis is cast as Clint's younger, half-brother Pacer, and he delivers a strong, charisma performance as one of the doomed in this stirring saga.

Flaming Star is a 1960 western film starring Elvis Presley, Barbara Eden and one of Hollywoods first Golden Age beauties, Dolores del Rio who was then about 50 years old. The film was directed by Don Siegel, and had a working title of Black Star. Elvis Presley plays Pacer Burton, the son of a Kiowa mother, played by Dolores del Rio, and a Texas rancher father. His family, including a half-brother, Clint, live a typical life on the Texas frontier. Life becomes anything but typical when a nearby tribe of Kiowa begin raiding neighboring homesteads. Pacer soon finds himself caught between the two worlds, part of both but belonging to neither. The film was released only one month after G.I. Blues but failed to ignite the charts, reaching number 12 on the Variety Box Office survey for the week. Presley's next film, Wild in the Country, also failed to impress fans or critics, and Colonel Tom Parker used this to persuade Presley that his audience didn't want to see him in straight acting roles. This led to musical-comedies such as Blue Hawaii and Kid Galahad, which set the precedent for many of his roles during the 1960s. I gave this movie 7 out of 10, mainly watched it because I wanted to see Dolores del Rio!

FLAMING STAR is generally regarded as the film which provided Elvis Presley the best performance of his disappointing film career.It is totally out of kilter in what you would expect from a typical Elvis "romp".With a top director (Don Siegel),a literate script and story (by western veteran Clair Huffaker) and a solid supporting cast (John McIntire,Dolores Del Rio,Steve Forrest,Barbara Eden) behind him,there is indeed a very good case for this being the King's best dramatic performance,along with his other two oft-quoted top big screen vehicles (JAILHOUSE ROCK,KING CREOLE).Elvis himself only sings two songs,over the titles and in a fairly light-hearted opening scene during a birthday party for his half-brother (Forrest) involving family and friends at his parents' ranch.After these jollities,things quickly turn very grim;in a surprisingly graphic (for it's time) sequence,the friends aforementioned are brutally massacred by a group of Kiowa Indians;it is revealed soon after that Elvis is half-white,half Kiowa,and finds himself on the receiving end of much racist abuse from the same family and local townspeople thereafter.After seeing his parents killed,he decides he's had enough of the hostility he receives for being a half-breed,and reluctantly returns to his mother's people.But after witnessing a Kiowa attack on his brother,he again changes sides and nurses his half-sibling,guiding him by horse into town for medical treatment.But being torn between two races becomes too much for him;he rides into town one more time to bid goodbye to his brother,and rides away,dying,into the valley to see the 'flaming star',like his mother before her passing.All this is very well done,with a convincing performance by Presley.He shows himself perfectly capable of delivering his lines persuasively and effectively,with the right kind of resonance and depth;the number of sad,terrible events that overtake his life are believably conveyed,and he more than holds his own with such reliables as McIntire and Ms Del Rio.If there is a problem with FLAMING STAR,it is so relentlessly solemn and downbeat,with so many tragic events and often brutal killings abound.Siegel does a fine job of the direction (particularly with the action,in which he was always something of a master),but the sheer gloominess of the plot does not make for great entertainment;escapism this definitely isn't.This was probably the reason it wasn't a particular box-office success when first released;Elvis' manager,Colonel Tom Parker (curiously credited as a consultant on the film) apparently got cold feet after FLAMING STAR,and decided to plop Elvis into the fluffy,trite,and later increasingly asinine musicals for which he became so familiar with the next film onwards,in which all virtually had the same plot.Presley himself tired of this,and stopped making films in 1970.This was a considerable shame as Elvis certainly proved he was a perfectly good movie actor in this and his two other best films (as mentioned previously); if the script,production team,supporting cast and story were up to scratch.Post-FLAMING STAR,he rarely at all got the chance to work with anything like this quality,and although the King of rock n'roll was never the King of movie acting,subjects like FLAMING STAR proved that he was by no means a peasant or commoner when decent material was at his disposal.It is something of a tragedy that the Colonel didn't present him with such after this film.RATING:6 and a half out of 10.