{"id":38966,"date":"2017-07-24T14:15:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T21:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=38966"},"modified":"2022-05-18T23:33:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T06:33:18","slug":"love-me-tender-1956","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=38966","title":{"rendered":"Love Me Tender (1956)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Maybe the South is licked &#8212; but not us!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-38967\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWith help from their compatriots (including Neville Brand and L.Q. Jones), three Confederate brothers (Richard Egan, William Campbell, and James Drury) steal an army payroll from a train, unaware that the Civil War has just ended an hour earlier. Deciding to keep the cash as spoils of war, the brothers return home to their mother (Mildred Dunnock) and Egan&#8217;s sweetheart (Debra Paget), not knowing that Paget &#8212; believing Egan dead &#8212; has married their younger brother (Elvis Presley). When the feds catch up with Egan, he and his team must decide whether to surrender the money or stay on the run.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Debra Paget Films<\/li>\n<li>Elvis Presley Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Mildred Dunnock Films<\/li>\n<li>Neville Brand Films<\/li>\n<li>Siblings<\/li>\n<li>Veterans<\/li>\n<li>Westerns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong><br \/>\nElvis Presley&#8217;s debut film was rather uncharitably described by Bosley Crowther of the <em>New York Times<\/em> as <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.nytimes.com\/www.nytimes.com\/partners\/aol\/special\/elvis\/hollywood-elvis1.html\">&#8220;a slight case of horse opera with the heaves&#8221;<\/a>. While it doesn&#8217;t quite deserve that level of disparagement, it&#8217;s true that not much distinguishes this tale from standard B-level oaters, other than the presence of Presley (and stellar Cinemascope cinematography). <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley-1024x435.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"272\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-58431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley-1024x435.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley-300x128.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley-128x54.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley-768x326.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley-604x257.png 604w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Presley.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The storyline puts Presley in an unenviable position from the start: he&#8217;s clearly standing right in the way of Paget and Egan&#8217;s unrequited passion (their forlorn moon eyes are unmistakable), and his naive ignorance of their interest in one another posits him as an easily duped fool; meanwhile, his sudden transformation into jealous third wheel near the end of the film smacks of plot convenience. The songs Presley duly performs are noticeably patched into the script, and in one instance (when he gyrates his hips in front of an audience of bonnet-clad prairie gals) laughably anachronistic. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing-1024x435.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"272\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-58432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing-1024x435.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing-300x128.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing-128x54.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing-768x326.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing-604x257.png 604w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Performing.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Leo Tover&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Cinematography-1024x435.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"272\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-38968\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Cinematography-1024x435.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Cinematography-128x54.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Cinematography-300x128.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Cinematography-768x326.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Love-Me-Tender-Cinematography.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though of course it maintains historical curiosity as Presley&#8217;s film debut. Listed as a Cult Movie in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0049452\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.nytimes.com\/www.nytimes.com\/partners\/aol\/special\/elvis\/hollywood-elvis1.html\">NY Times Original Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=8644&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/reviews\/61403\/love-me-tender\/\">DVD Talk Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1916love.html\">DVD Savant Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/film\/love-me-tender\">Time Out Capsule Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Maybe the South is licked &#8212; but not us!&#8221; Synopsis: With help from their compatriots (including Neville Brand and L.Q. Jones), three Confederate brothers (Richard Egan, William Campbell, and James Drury) steal an army payroll from a train, unaware that the Civil War has just ended an hour earlier. Deciding to keep the cash as spoils of war, the brothers return home to their mother (Mildred Dunnock) and Egan&#8217;s sweetheart (Debra Paget), not knowing that Paget &#8212; believing Egan dead&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=38966\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38966"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84239,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38966\/revisions\/84239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}