Flaming Star

Last updated

Flaming Star
Flamsta2.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Don Siegel
Written by Clair Huffaker
Nunnally Johnson
Based onnovel Flaming Lance by Clair Huffaker
Produced by David Weisbart
Starring Elvis Presley
Barbara Eden
Dolores del Río
Steve Forrest
John McIntire
Cinematography Charles G. Clarke
Edited by Hugh S. Fowler
Music by Cyril J. Mockridge and Elvis Presley
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • December 16, 1960 (1960-12-16)(New York) [1]
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.7 million [2]
Box office$2 million (US/ Canada) [3] [4]

Flaming Star is a 1960 American Western film starring Elvis Presley, Barbara Eden, and Steve Forrest, based on the book Flaming Lance (1958) by Clair Huffaker. Critics agreed that Presley gave one of his better acting performances as the mixed-blood "Pacer Burton", a dramatic role. The film was directed by Don Siegel and had a working title of Black Star. [5]

Contents

The film reached number 12 on the box-office charts.

It was filmed in Utah and Los Angeles, as well as in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, California. [6] A road near Wildwood in Thousand Oaks has been named Flaming Star Avenue after the movie. [7]

Plot

Pacer Burton is the son of a Kiowa mother and a Texan father working as a rancher. His family, including a half-brother, Clint, live a typical life on the Texan frontier. Life becomes anything but typical when a nearby tribe of Kiowa begin raiding neighboring homesteads. Pacer soon finds himself caught between the two worlds, part of both, but belonging to neither.

Cast

Production

Development

The film was based on Clare Huffaker's novel Flaming Lance, which was published in 1958. [8]

Film rights were purchased by 20th Century Fox and Nunally Johnson was assigned to write the script. It was originally titled The Brothers of Flaming Arrow, then Flaming Lance. [9] In May 1958, Fox announced that a film version would start shooting the following month. [10] Johnson later recalled that the studio "said they couldn't make it because it would cost too much for a Western and a Western couldn't get in as much as it would cost, something like that." [11]

Huffaker was asked to make rewrites. "I took two weeks rewriting the script and only ten days of the book," he said. "I hate to say it, but in rewriting the script, I think it makes a better story than my original." [12]

Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando were originally slated to play the brothers [13] before Fox decided to cast Presley in the lead role. [13] Presley's previous film, G.I. Blues , had been a success at the box office and had led to one of his best-selling albums. [14] Determined to be taken seriously as an actor, though, Presley asked for roles with fewer songs. [13]

"Physically he's right," said producer David Weisbart, who had produced Presley's first film, Love Me Tender . "His Army training and the athletic interests he picked up there have left him in superb condition. He probably always was graceful... but now his grace is trained and refined and developed. What's more his slight Mississippi accent is no problem in a film set in West Texas." [15]

Director Don Siegel shot tests with Presley wearing dark contact lenses, but decided that they detracted from Presley's acting too much and discarded them. [15]

Fox insisted on the addition of four songs. "We aren't courageous enough to present him without any songs at all," said Weisbart. [15] "We've spotted them [the songs] where they'd come in naturally," said Weisbart. " At a frontier party, at an encampment, and during a horseback ride over the plains." [15]

Fox wanted a theme song, so Huffaker changed the title to Black Star, which he felt would be more fitting for a song than Flaming Lance would be. He concocted an old Indian legend about a black star. "It was OK to change the title and have a song written about a star," he said. [12]

Presley recorded a theme song, but it was later rerecorded as "Flaming Star", using the same words and melody. [16] [17]

Flaming Star was initially to include four songs. Siegel wished that Presley not appear "professional" in those scenes: "He should have an awkwardness and an absence of the Presley mannerisms." [18] Eventually, Presley demanded that two songs be removed, leaving just the title song and a short number at the opening birthday party scene. [13] Despite Presley's aforementioned desire to make films with fewer songs, this would be the last of his films to have a minimal number of songs until the 1969 release, Charro! , coincidentally his next western, had only a title song featured.

Johnson was contacted when abroad by Huffaker, who had written the original novel. He told Johnson that Presley was cast and wanted know if Johnson objected to Huffaker having credit on the script. "I'd always objected to that, but I couldn't say no to the guy," said Johnson. "He didn't do anything, as he admitted. I was wondering what in God's name they would do with Elvis Presley in this. All they did was put in a kind of a hoedown dance and Presley sang a song at the opening and then they went right on into the picture." [11]

Shooting

Filming started in August 1960. Parts of the film were shot in Delle, Lone Rock, and Skull Valley in Utah. Filming also took place at Rancho El Conejo in Thousand Oaks, California. [19]

Barbara Steele, originally signed to play the love interest, was replaced during filming by Barbara Eden after studio executives decided that Steele's British accent was too pronounced, [13] though Steele claims that she had quit. [20]

Soundtrack

Reception

Box office

The film was released only one month after G.I. Blues, but did not achieve the same degree of box-office success, reaching number 12 on the Variety box-office survey for the year. [13]

Critical receptions

The film received generally positive reviews, with a few critics lauding Presley's performance and noting his improvement as an actor. A. H. Weiler of The New York Times praised the film as "an unpretentious but sturdy Western that takes the time, the place and the people seriously." [21] Variety called the plot "disturbingly familiar and not altogether convincing, but the film, attractively mounted and consistently diverting, will entertain and absorb the audience it is tailored for." [22]

Harrison's Reports graded it "Very good," calling Presley "believable" and John McIntire "a powerful figure." [23] Charles Stinson of the Los Angeles Times appraised the film as "standard for its type — the half-breed tragedy — but done well enough to head a program double bill." Stinson wrote of Presley that "he seems to be improving noticeably with every film. He has, of course, rather a distance yet to go to dramatic power and polish. But 'Flaming Star' and 'G.I. Blues' are a long way up from 'Jailhouse Rock.'" [24] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post criticized the film for "flat, one-syllable dialogue" and "ruthless predictability," though he found some of the outdoor shots "handsome." [25] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that although the film "never really gets beyond the comic-strip weepie stage," director Siegel "has managed to communicate considerable excitement through flashes of imaginative cutting and handsome composition, notably in the first Indian attack, and in some realistically staged fight, chase and battle passages ... But Siegel's main achievement is his direction of Elvis Presley, still basically not an actor, but no longer a joke as a screen personality. Given the full, virile build-up, he plays the half-breed with a brooding presence that is surprisingly effective." [26]

Johnson eventually saw the film and said he "liked it very much." He thought Siegel "did a first-rate job and also Presley did." [11]

Quentin Tarantino later called the film "a truly great '50s Western, and maybe the most brutally violent American Western of its era." [27]

Effect on some African countries and territories

According to an Associated Press report from Johannesburg dated May 31, 1961, South Africans were initially not permitted to see the film. The government, which had strict laws to keep the races separate, banned the picture that same day because Presley "played the son of an American Indian woman and a white man." A day later, 20th Century Fox appealed, convincing the South Africa Board of Censors to lift the ban as long as it would not be shown to the country's indigenous population. The film then opened to segregated theaters, starting in Durban in early June. However, it was permanently banned in cinemas in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, as colonial government officials in those British territories were concerned that the movie could reignite racial tensions in the aftermath of the recent Mau Mau uprising.

Artistic legacy/Andy Warhol silkscreens

A publicity still from the film was used by Andy Warhol to create several silkscreens, among them numerous versions of "Single Elvis", "Double Elvis", "Elvis x 2" and "Elvis I and I", as well as an "Eight Elvises", and at least four "Triple Elvis" paintings, an "Elvis 4 Times" and the largest, "Elvis Times Eleven", which is currently housed at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Sales generated by at least 11 of these silkscreens through auction houses or in private sales are, as of May 13, 2021, in excess of $380 million.

Home media

The film was released on videocassette by Key Video in February 1985 as part of the release of 11 videos to mark the 50th anniversary of Presley's birth. [28] It has also been released internationally on DVD and Blu-ray disc. [29]

See also


Related Research Articles

<i>Love Me Tender</i> (film) 1956 film directed by Robert D. Webb

Love Me Tender is a 1956 American musical Western film directed by Robert D. Webb, and released by 20th Century Fox on November 15, 1956. The film, named after the song, stars Richard Egan, Debra Paget, and Elvis Presley in his acting debut. It was the only time in his acting career that he did not receive top billing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Eden</span> American actress (born 1931)

Barbara Eden is an American actress and singer, who starred as the title character in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970). Her other roles included Roslyn Pierce opposite Elvis Presley in Flaming Star (1960), Lieutenant (JG) Cathy Connors in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), and a single widowed mother, Stella Johnson, in the film Harper Valley PTA (1978) and in the television series of the same name.

<i>Blue Hawaii</i> 1961 film

Blue Hawaii is a 1961 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written American Musical. The film opened at number two in box-office receipts for that week and, despite mixed reviews from critics, finished as the 10th top-grossing film of 1961 and 14th for 1962 in the Variety national box office survey, earning $5 million. The film won a fourth place prize Laurel Award in the category of Top Musical of 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Steele</span> British actress (born 1937)

Barbara Steele is an English film actress known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. She has been referred to as the "Queen of All Scream Queens" and "Britain's first lady of horror". She played the dual role of Asa and Katia Vajda in Mario Bava's landmark film Black Sunday (1960), and starred in The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), The Long Hair of Death (1964), and Castle of Blood (1964).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buddy Adler</span> American film producer

E. Maurice "Buddy" Adler was an American film producer and production head for 20th Century Fox studios.

<i>G.I. Blues</i> 1960 film by Norman Taurog, Hal B. Wallis

G.I. Blues is a 1960 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley and Juliet Prowse. The movie – Presley’s fifth, but his first after discharge from the US Army – was filmed at Paramount Pictures studio, with some pre-production scenery shot on location in West Germany while Presley was stationed there. The movie won a 2nd place Laurel Award in the category of Top Musical of 1960.

<i>Wild in the Country</i> 1961 film

Wild in the Country is a 1961 American musical-drama film directed by Philip Dunne and starring Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins, Rafer Johnson and John Ireland. Based on the 1958 novel The Lost Country by J. R. Salamanca, the screenplay concerns a troubled young man from a dysfunctional family who pursues a literary career. The screenplay was written by playwright Clifford Odets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Weisbart</span> American film editor and producer (1915–1967)

David M. Weisbart was an American film editor and producer.

<i>Paradise, Hawaiian Style</i> 1966 film by Michael D. Moore

Paradise, Hawaiian Style is a 1966 American musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley. It was the third and final motion picture that Presley filmed in Hawaii. The film reached #40 on the Variety weekly box office chart, earning $2.5 million in theaters. In agreeing to do this film, Elvis's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was hoping to replicate the success of Presley's 1961 film, Blue Hawaii.

<i>Where the Boys Are</i> 1960 film by Henry Levin

Where the Boys Are is a 1960 American CinemaScope comedy film directed by Henry Levin and starring Connie Francis, Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton, and Frank Gorshin. It was written by George Wells based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout. The screenplay concerns four female college students who spend spring break in Fort Lauderdale. The title song "Where the Boys Are" was sung by Connie Francis, who played one of the foursome.

<i>100 Rifles</i> 1969 American Western film

100 Rifles is a 1969 American Western film directed by Tom Gries and starring Jim Brown, Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds. It is based on Robert MacLeod's 1966 novel The Californio. The film was shot in Spain. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, who had previously also scored Bandolero!, another Western starring Welch.

Clair Huffaker was an American screenwriter and author of westerns and other fiction, many of which were turned into films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sol C. Siegel</span> American film producer

Sol C. Siegel was an American film producer. Two of the numerous films he produced, A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

<i>Elvis Sings Flaming Star</i> Album by Elvis Presley

Singer Presents Elvis Singing Flaming Star and Others is a compilation album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Records on October 1, 1968. It spent five months available only at select retail stores featuring products by the Singer Sewing Machine Company as a promotional tie-in with Presley's upcoming Christmas television special on the NBC network, which Singer had sponsored. It was reissued for normal retail channels as Elvis Sings Flaming Star in April 1969, becoming the first Elvis Presley budget album on the RCA Camden label, catalogue CAS 2304. The 1969 release peaked at number 96 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It was certified Gold on July 15, 1999, and Platinum on January 6, 2004, by the Recording Industry Association of America.

<i>The Right Approach</i> 1961 film by David Butler

The Right Approach is a 1961 CinemaScope drama film directed by David Butler and starring Juliet Prowse, Frankie Vaughan and Martha Hyer.

<i>Sing Boy Sing</i> (film) 1958 American film

Sing Boy Sing is a 1958 American musical drama film released by 20th Century-Fox and starring newcomers Tommy Sands and Lili Gentle.

<i>All Hands on Deck</i> (1961 film) 1961 film

All Hands on Deck is a 1961 American DeLuxe musical film in CinemaScope directed by Norman Taurog and starring Pat Boone as a naval officer. It is based on the novel Warm Bodies by Donald R. Morris.

<i>The Wizard of Baghdad</i> 1961 film by George Sherman

The Wizard of Baghdad is a 1960 American comedy/fantasy film directed by George Sherman and starring Dick Shawn, Diane Baker, and Barry Coe. It was released by 20th Century Fox.

Flaming Star may refer to:

<i>Elvis by Request: Flaming Star and 3 Other Great Songs</i> 1961 EP by Elvis Presley

Elvis by Request: Flaming Star and 3 Other Great Songs is an EP by American singer Elvis Presley, containing two songs from the motion picture Flaming Star and two of his earlier hits on the reverse side.

References

  1. "Flaming Star – Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  2. Solomon, Aubrey (1989). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN   978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 252
  3. Solomon, Aubrey (1989). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN   978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 228. Note that figures are rentals accruing to distributors.
  4. "1961 Rentals and Potential". Variety. January 10, 1961. p. 58.
  5. FLAMING STAR Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 28, Iss. 324, (January 1, 1961): 31.
  6. Schad, Jerry (2009). Los Angeles County: A Comprehensive Hiking Guide. Wilderness Press. pp 35–36. ISBN   9780899976396.
  7. Bidwell, Carol A. (1989). The Conejo Valley: Old and New Frontiers. Windsor Publications. ISBN   9780897812993. p. 82.
  8. Review of book at Kirkus
  9. Hopper, Hedda (May 5, 1958) "Nunnally Johnson Scripts Indian Film". Los Angeles Times.
  10. FOX TO AUGMENT MOVIE SCHEDULE. New York Times. May 24, 1958: 18.
  11. 1 2 3 Johnson, Nunnally (1969). Recollections of Nunnally Johnson oral history transcript. University of California Oral History Program. pp. 128–129.
  12. 1 2 Finnigan, Joe (August 16, 1960) "Author Revises Story So Presley Can Sing". Los Angeles Times.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Victor, Adam (2008) The Elvis Encyclopaedia. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN   978-1585675982. p. 167
  14. Victor, Adam (2008) The Elvis Encyclopaedia. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN   978-1585675982. p. 190
  15. 1 2 3 4 New Elvis Presley Will Be Unveiled Los Angeles Times September 6, 1960: C11.
  16. "'Black Star': David Bowie's Connection to Elvis Presley | Elvis Articles". Elvis.com.au. January 16, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
  17. 2 MOVIES OPENING HERE WEDNESDAY. New York Times. July 25, 1960.
  18. PRESLEY FACING 'DEMANDING' ROLE. New York Times. October 4, 1960: 49.
  19. D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood Came to Town: A History of Moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton: Gibbs Smith. p. 289. ISBN   978-1-4236-0587-4. Wikidata   Q123575108.
  20. "Reluctant Scream Queen: A Conversation with Barbara Steele – Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict". popcultureaddict.com.
  21. Weiler, A. H. (December 17, 1960). "'Flaming Star' Opens". The New York Times : 19.
  22. "Flaming Star". Variety : 6. December 21, 1960.
  23. "'Flaming Star' with Elvis Presley, Barbara Eden, Steve Forrest, Dolores Del Rio, John McIntire". Harrison's Reports : 207. December 24, 1960.
  24. Stinson, Charles (December 23, 1960). "Elvis Presley Caught in Warfare of Races". Los Angeles Times : Section II, p. 7.
  25. Coe, Richard L. (January 6, 1961). "Everyone's Old Texas". The Washington Post . p. A20.
  26. "Flaming Star". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 28 (326): 31. March 1961.
  27. Tarantino, Quentin (December 24, 2019). "The Shootist". New Beverly Cinema. Archived from the original on January 24, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  28. "Presley Video Blitz Slated". Daily Variety . December 26, 1984. p. 3.
  29. "Elvis: Flaming Star DVD". www.elvispresleyshop.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
Movie reviews
DVD reviews