Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

So much average

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Elvis turned in another fine non-musical performance. But apparently his manager Tom Parker didn't want his star singer to go down this road. Too bad because I think Elvis could have been a good serious actor. I doubt he would ever have been Oscar material, but that could be said for thousands of other actors who had successful acting careers. This movie had a good enough plot, with a good cast of known (and some future) talent to make it worth watching.

Elvis Presley was a hugely influential performer with one of the most distinctive singing voices of anybody. He embarked on a film career consisting of 33 films from 1956 to 1969, films that did well at the box-office but mostly panned critically (especially his later films) and while he was a highly charismatic performer he was never considered a great actor.'Wild in the Country' is not one of his best, his top 3 being 'King Creole', 'Flaming Star' and 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Loving You' also getting an honourable mention. It is also not one of his worst, despite its flaws this was during a period where he was still in his prime, his music was good and not only was there effort in his acting but the films seemed to know much better what to do with him.As said, 'Wild in the Country' is not perfect and could have been better. It does go on for too long, meaning that the pacing can suffer with some of it rather ponderous. Some of the writing is also on the contrived and over-melodramatic side.However, 'Wild in the Country' is a good-looking film, not as striking as 'King Creole' and 'Flaming Star' but still beautifully shot and with striking settings with some good effort at authenticity. The direction by Phillip Dunne is competent. The music fits well, and the few songs are good songs in their own right and don't feel thrown in our out of place. The hauntingly beautiful title song "Wild in the Country" is the standout.Many parts of the story are genuinely moving and involving, especially when Elvis' characters opens up to Hope Lange's about his dead mother. Elvis himself is natural and charismatic, again giving a performance of great emotional honesty.Supporting him well are Lange, Tuesday Weld and Millie Perkins. Perkins is effectively nuanced, and Weld brings a great deal of energy while knowing when to reign it in to stop her from being annoying. Lange isn't quite as good, she is emotive and sympathetic and shares great chemistry with Elvis but is a little too young for the part.Overall, a decent film with great elements. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This is Elvis's best movie! He play's his part so strong. It's a great and emotional story. Beautiful songs. and lots of them! All of them Classics! The story is about a young man. He has some issues of his own. A very nice woman decides to help him. The ending is very special. it sticks with you. They don't make them like this anymore. Elvis was a pure man. There was no mask. The only actor who makes pure movies like Elvis is Johnny Depp. I think that Elvis's early movie were his finest. before he started doing the girls girls girls movies. There never will be another movie like Wild in the Country.Hail to the King!

Funny thing. My local video store had this movie listed under "musicals". If there is one thing this picture is NOT, it is a musical. It is the one valid dramatic effort of Elvis' career, and easily the best picture he ever starred in. He sings exactly two musical numbers, both are fairly natural in sequences in the film. The first one early in the film while riding with sweetheart Millie Perkins (as Billie Lee) in a pickup truck. . . is a bit musical-ISH, if you will, in that it sort of comes out of a stylization contrivance of the film-makers. Yet it is very romantic and sweet. The other one is a serenade to Tuesday Weld (Noreen in the movie) that is very comfortably meshed in with this heartfelt story. Anyway, Elvis plays a young man, Glenn, who comes from a troubled past, evolving from country roots that were wild and unsettled between his father and mother. His father was a lazy good for nothing. His mother, who died in his childhood, is depicted as having been a good hearted woman. So Glenn gets in trouble with the law when he nearly kills his brother in a fight. His father wants him to go to jail, but a compassionate parole board, advised by psychiatrist Irene Sperry (Hope Lange) allows him one more chance with his uncle, where he helps with his uncle's distillery. His uncle has a daughter, Noreen, who has a child but no husband,(wonderfully played by Tuesday Weld) who is kind of wild like Glenn (but also tender hearted). In a complicated plot Glenn has both Noreen and Billie Lee to consider. Millie Perkins, as Billie Lee, is also quite inspiring and sweet. Eventually, as Glenn gets in more and more trouble, he ends up falling for the psychiatrist widow Sperry, and at that point he has more women troubles than any man SHOULD have. . . .BUT. . .it's all good. He gets discovered by the psychiatrist for his natural talent, WRITING! Believe me, the troubles this guy has. . . all of us guys would like to be burdened with. Some of the beautiful scenery from the Smokey mountains in Tennessee is quite stunning. Also, I really enjoyed the natural quality that can never be found nowadays in period pieces from the same era (1961). The cars are distinctly authentic, for instance, not all pristine conditioned masterpieces. I give this movie all 10 stars just from the sweet effort given by cast and film makers to NOT make just another money making Elvis vehicle, but a compassionate dramatic tale of moral strength and sweetness.