Elvis in a Western


Elvis did a fine job in this film. He looked amazing and even though I am not fond of a beard, hiding his beautiful face, it works in the film. Elvis Presley was a wonderful actor. He just never had the courage to fire the 'Colonel' and do what he wanted to do. More's the pity. I often like to imagine what his life and career would have been like had Elvis taken the 'bull by the horns'. All of the gorgeous actors in this film (no offense to the others) died too young. Victor French was a fabulous actor and I also loved, Tony Young. I love this movie and love the music just as much. "Charro" is one of my all-time favorite Elvis songs.

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I agree with you. I live in Japan now and this movie was just shown on our educational channel. I think it is by far Elvis' best movie. I'm old enough that I watched Elvis get popular and even met him when he was first getting famous and lived in a typical neighborhood in Memphis. I often wondered too what would have happened had he been able to lead his own life.

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I agree. This is a great movie and Elvis was great in it. I think he should have got an oscar nomination for best actor even though no way he could have beat out John Wayne in True Grit but still an excellent performance.

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I like Elvis in this movie, but I don't think there's any way he gets nominated for a Best Actor award. It's good, but not that good.

"Congratulations, Major. It appears that at last you have found yourself a real war." Ben Tyreen

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Elvis was in plenty of westerns. In fact, the first movie he was in was a western.

"What's truth got to do with it?"
"What's truth got to do with anything?"

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I think that this was his best film.

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Great performance and he was quite handsome with that beard.

Why ain't you at the garden party you heathen?

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I also believe "Charro" was the best film Elvis made. But, really, he never received a role in an actually good movie. There were a few halfway decent ones, but sadly he never got the opportunity to demonstrate what he was capable of.
One of the great tragedies of the Presley story.

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King Creole and Jailhouse Rock were excellent movies. Elvis’s role in King Creole was meant for James Dean, an A-lister.

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The director, writer, and producer of Charro! was Charles Marquis Warren who had written, produced, and directed Gunsmoke when it debuted in 1955. He also worked on Rawhide starring Clint Eastwood in 1959 and produced The Virginian Western TV series. Gunsmoke is the longest running Western TV series in US television history. Hugo Montenegro wrote the musical score and conducted the recording sessions. He is famous for his recording of the theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) starring Clint Eastwood, which became an international pop hit. Victor French had appeared in Gunsmoke and Bonanza.

The movie uses the pacing and techniques of a television episode or made-for-TV movie because of Warren's background in television. The screenplay is well-written and the plot development is effective in presenting the story or narrative. Elvis Presley, Ina Balin, and Victor French give good dramatic performances. The 2007 Warner Bros. release on DVD presented the movie in a widescreen format and with a restored and remastered picture quality. The movie had been shown on television but suffered due to the full screen format which reduced the size of the image on the screen. Charro! is a good Western movie that deserves greater recognition and wider exposure.

The story on which Charro! was based was written by Frederick Louis Fox, who had written stories for episodes for Western television series such as Bonanza, The Legend of Jesse James, Branded, Death Valley Days, The Rebel, Johnny Ringo, Black Saddle, The Rough Riders, Lawman, and the Zane Grey Theater. Fox also wrote the story upon which the Twilight Zone episode "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" (1962) was based upon and provided the story idea for another episode of the series, "Showdown with Rance McGrew" (1962).

The title Charro! is derived from the Spanish word for "horseman" and is the traditional term for a cowboy used in Mexico. The working title of the movie had been Come Sundown, Come Hell.

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I like the film, too. I am very disappointed that the fans did not do their best to see this film, promote it as a good film. I'm seriously beginning to think many of his fans did not care about what Elvis thought or wanted to do. They only wanted him to do what they liked. This was a good film and any true fan should have gotten behind it and showed support instead of complaining that it did not have Elvis singing in it.

"Do All Things For God's Glory"-1 Corinthians 10:31
I try doing this with my posts

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