Aura Lee

Another of the movies in the FXM rotation that I haven't blogged about before is Love Me Tender. It's going to be on twice this week: tomorrow at 10:00 AM and again Wednesday at 8:20 AM. Most people probably know the movie for the presence of Elvis Presley, but it's a movie that can stand on it own two feet.

In fact, Elvis is not the star here. That honor goes to Richard Egan, who plays Vance Reno, the eldest brother in the Reno family from east Texas. The movie starts on April 10, 1865, which as you may know from your American history is just after the end of the US Civil War. However, with a whole bunch of stragglers, especially among Confederate forces, news wouldn't have gotten to all of them. Among those is Vance Reno, who is the head of a small band of raiders, including younger brothers Brett (William Campblee) and Ray (James Drury).

The raiding party's job is to rob a Union payroll going through a town in western Louisiana which is famous for its idyllic mountain scenery. (Sorry, but the southern California shooting, as evidenced by those mountains, is obvious throughout the movie.) The holdup goes reasonably well, at least until the party gets to what is supposed to be the rendezvous with their commanding officer to give him the money the Confederacy desperately needs. Of course, there is no more Confederacy, as a couple of soldiers walking back to their homes somewhere in the South inform them.

What to do with the money they robbed? The South has been devastated, so Vance decides, and the others agree, that each of the seven men in the raiding party should get an equal share of the money, which clearly adds up to a substantial amount for each man. It'll come in handy when they get back home, as everybody at home is pretty much flat broke. Vance, for his part, can't wait to get back hom since he's got a sweetheart in Cathy (Debra Paget) he's been planning to marry after the war.

When the Reno brothers arrive home, the family is thrilled to meet them, but also very much surprised to see Vance. That's because news had reached the family farm that Vance had been killed in the war. As for Cathy, her family's farm had been raided and burnt to the ground with her parents killed, so she moved in with the Renos. Here, however, comes the kicker. Since everybody thought Vance was dead and the family farm was in such a parlous state, Cathy and Clint decided to marry at the beginning of 1865.

It's a devastating blow for Vance, who is still madly in love with Cathy. Cathy never really fell out of love with Vance, but with him dead as far as she knew, there was no logical point in continuing to carry that torch for him. Still, there's the question of what to tell Clint, who was apparently naïve enough at the start of the war not to realize that Vance was that in love with Cathy. Cathy, for her part, absolutely doesn't want to hurt Clint.

Other matters are going to get in the way however, like all that money Vance's raiders stole from the Union payroll. Army major Kincaid (Bruce Bennett) accompanies the local occupation governor Siringo (Robert Middleton) to ask about that money, as they had come in contact with another member of the raiding party who had returned the money. Siringo is willing to make the generous offer of an amnesty for the raiders (who, in their defense, thought they were committing an act of war and not a crime when they took the money) in exchange for the money. But that means all the money, not just what the three Ringo brothers have. And Vance doesn't want to give that money back. He'd just as soon flee to California, in order to leave Cathy and Clint to a happy life together, Clint none the wiser about Vance's relationship with Cathy.

There are more complications, however. Clint doesn't think his brothers can do any wrong, so when Kincaid wants the brothers arrested and taken to Tyler pending trial, he's willing to bust them off the train even though the other members of the raiding party not under arrest are opposed to getting Clint involved. He also starts to get extremely jealous as he begins to suspect there might have been something between Vance and Cathy.

Love Me Tender has a solid story that could easily have stood on its own as a 1950s western programmer. Egan and Paget are solid, helped by a good performance from Mildred Dunnock as Ma Reno and a nice supporting role from Neville Brand as one of the raiders. But of course there's the presence of Elvis....

As an actor, Elvis probably could have been quite competent had his manager, Col. Tom Parker, gotten him sold roles rather than the 1960s Elvis formula. Indeed, Love Me Tender is not part of the Elvis formula at all. But it was his first movie, and he wasn't yet a good enough actor to handle the anger and jealousy scenes he has to do here. I'm not certain who would have been the right age in 1956 and a god enough actor to take on the role however.

There's also Elvis' singing. His singing career had taken off at the beginning of 1956, and by the time filming started it was obvious just how popular a singer he was becoming. So a couple of songs had to be shoehorned into the movie. The title song is a reworking of a Civil War song (written in 1861) called Aura Lee. As such, it's quite suitable for this movie, and Elvis' rendition is quite good. (Being sung on the farmhouse porch after dinner is certainly a good way to use it, too.) The other three songs he gets, however, don't fit in at all, and certainly nobody in 1865 would have been swiveling their hips the way Elvis did, nor getting the audience reaction he does from the people on film. It's somewhat unfortunate since it breaks up an otherwise pretty good movie.

Love Me Tender does seem to be available on DVD, as well as via Amazon Prime streaming.