WILD IN THE COUNTRY
– Elvis Presley’s Last Dramatic Role –
(Part 1)
By Mariusz Ogieglo
“What are you thinking about? ” “I’m thinking about dreams I used to have ,” Glenn Tyler, a troubled young writer, tells his therapist, Irene Sperry. The main character in Elvis Presley’s seventh film (and the third in 1960 alone), which began filming less than a month after he wrapped work on the western “Flaming Star.”
Hailed in the second half of the fifties as the king of rock’n’roll, Presley dreamed from an early age of following in the footsteps of his great screen idols – Marlon Brando, James Dean and Tony Curtis. To appear in films, to create on screen – just like them – great unforgettable creations and to be a serious dramatic actor whose performance would be admired not only by the whole of Hollywood but also by viewers all over the world and the most important domestic and foreign reviewers.
Unfortunately. Despite the ambitions and efforts of the young singer, many of the above people treated him rather as a passing screen attraction. A singing attraction, moreover, whose appearances on the big screen brought innumerable crowds of viewers to the cinemas every time and, at least initially, provided huge box office revenues for both the film studios and the record company that produced one soundtrack album after another.
Even his fans seemed to fill the cinemas (often coming several or a dozen times in a row to see the same film) mainly just to see him and hear him singing.
And Elvis wanted more from the start. “His real goal was to make movies in which he didn’t have to sing ,” his ex-wife, Priscilla, wrote in Elvis By The Presleys. “He felt that singing distracted the audience from his acting. He said that when he was singing, he didn’t have to act. According to Elvis, singing only served to enhance his image as a singer. Unfortunately, after he got out of the army, it seemed he had no choice. The colonel put him in one movie after another, each with just the right amount of songs. But the bigger problem was that Elvis simply didn’t like the songs. They didn’t speak to his soul or come from the depths of his heart. They were just superficial songs to advance the plot. ‘I feel like a fool out there,’ he told me. He felt that no one in Hollywood took him seriously. “He got paid back by ignoring Hollywood .”
The only exceptions to this rule were two 20th Century Fox productions, in which Elvis appeared shortly after completing his military service (allegedly, the singer did not like the Fox-made “Love Me Tender” and called it “a rushed job “). Filmed in the summer of 1960, “Flaming Star” and “Wild In The Country” released right after it. The last in which the singer got a chance to play such a complex and expressive character.
The Lost Country
The film’s script, like in the case of “Flaming Star”, was based on prose popular in the late fifties. This time, however, it was the literary debut of Jack Richard Salamanca (publishing as JR Salamanca), “The Lost Country”.
The book, published in January 1958 by the New York publishing house Simon & Schuster, told the story of Jim Blackstarr. A young boy growing up on a farm in Virginia who, as the publisher wrote, “as a child, is enchanted by the beauty of the rivers, hills and trees around him, the changing seasons and all the shapes, patterns and textures of the world. But as he grows up, he makes other discoveries. He experiences brutality, passion and shame. These experiences destroy the simplicity of his earlier relationships. Ultimately, they lead him, like all people, to abandon and distance himself from the land of his youth .”
Salamanca, born in December 1922 in St. Petersburg, Florida – a World War II veteran, writer and professor (graduate of the British Royal Academy of Art) – reportedly worked on his debut novel for nearly seven years.
Much faster, however, “The Lost Country” managed to convince both serious reviewers – Henry Cavendish from The New York Times, in his text from November 1958, noted: “34-year-old JRSalamanca is trying to make a name for himself in the world of literature. And he succeeds mainly thanks to his writing style, which is not so much poetic prose as smooth poetry flowing through the channels of prose ” – as well as esteemed Hollywood filmmakers.
One of the first people to express interest in Salamanca’s work (even before its publication) and decide to adapt the story he described for the big screen was Jerry Wald (or rather Jerome Irving Wald, because that was his real name). An outstanding American screenwriter, film and radio producer, who began his adventure in show business while still a student, writing for the New York Evening Graphic tabloid, published in the years 1924-1932, and then collaborating with such excellent screenwriters as Julius J. Epstein and Richard Macauly. However, he gained the greatest recognition and popularity for the films produced in the second half of the 1950s: “An Affair To Remember” starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, “No Down Payment”, “Kiss Them For Me” (another film starring Cary Grant) and “The Long Hot Summer”, which launched Paul Newman’s career and earned him the Best Actor Award at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Wald acquired the film rights to “The Lost Country” in March 1958, initially intending to cast Bradford Dillman – known to audiences only from his performances on Broadway (he received a Theater World Award for his role as Edmund Tyrone in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”) and minor roles in films such as “A Certain Smile” and “In Love And War” – in the lead roles, as well as the award-winning British film star, Margaret Leighton (the actress had performed successfully both on Broadway and in numerous British and American productions, including Alfred Hitchcock’s melodrama “Under Capricorn”).
Unofficially, it was also said that the producer wanted to cast Elvis Presley in one of the title roles from the very beginning. However, he saw Simone Signoret * – a French actress who has received the most important awards, including a BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the British drama “Room At The Top” (for her role in the film, Signoret also received a Golden Globe nomination) – at the singer’s side.
Unfortunately, it quickly turned out that the filmmakers were unable to meet the star’s financial expectations and had to find another, preferably equally recognizable actress in her place.
According to some sources, it was supposed to be Barbara Bel Geddes. A popular English stage actress (for her performances on Broadway she received the Donaldson Award, the Theater World Award and the Tony Award, among others), film actress (Oscar nomination for the role of Katrin Hanson in the drama “I Remember Mama”) and television actress.
Ultimately, however, this name was abandoned…
In the second half of August 1959, the Los Angeles Times, citing Jerry Wald, reported that Joe Stephens was already working on a script for a film adaptation of J.R. Salamanca’s novel.
However, much greater excitement was caused by the involvement of the popular American director and screenwriter, Phillip Dunne (real name Phillip Ives Dunne), whose previous portfolio included dozens of films – mostly romantic stories in the style of “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir “, historical dramas such as “The Last of the Mohicans” and “The Robe”, and two Oscar nominations for the screenplay for the films “How Green Was My Valley” from 1941 and “David And Bathsheba”, shot a decade later, with Gregory Peck in the title role.
Dunne was reportedly approached by Jerry Wald to adapt The Lost Country while the two were collaborating on the 1958 war drama In Love And War.
- Simon Signoret – her real name was Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker
Information provided by EP Promised Land (Poland), Mariusz Ogieglo http://www.elvispromisedland.pl/
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