WILD IN THE COUNTRY (1961)

 THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Philip Dunne

SCREENWRITER: Clifford Odets, J.R. Salamanca

FILM STARS: Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins, Rafer Johnson, John Ireland, Gary Lockwood, Christina Crawford

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: J.R. Salamanca

TYPE: Abridged Novel

PUBLISHER: Cardinal

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1961

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1958

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The Lost Country

NOTES

GENRE: Domestic Drama

WORDS: Another underrated Elvis Presley film (aren’t they all?). And, as close as Elvis got to a prestigious studio A-picture. Elvis is excellent as a hot tempered backwoods country boy with literary aspirations (yes, you read that right). Of course he must sing, and he does, but not much when compared to his musical romantic comedies. The film was filmed in glorious colour in Napa Valley, California doubling for the Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia. Director Dunne was also a screenwriter (and wrote the screenplays for The Robe (1953), Way of a Gaucho (1952), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), Pinky (1949), The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1947), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and many others) so he was suited to a directing novels. Apparently he did have a (uncredited) hand in the screenplay here as well as directing . His directing career wasn’t as successful though there were solid films (Blue Denim (1959),  Ten North Frederick (1958), Three Brave Men (1956)). Clifford Odets handled the screenplay with novelist Salamanca. Odets was a playwright of the US proletarian school and wrote Waiting for Lefty (1935), Awake and Sing! (1935), Golden Boy (1937), Clash by Night (1941), The Big Knife (1949) and many others as well as screenplays for None but the Lonely Heart (1944)(which he also directed) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Apparently, according to Dunne, Odets was fired and Dunne had to finish the screenplay. None of that has a bearing on this film tie-in but you just have to mention that for the Elvis movie poo poo-ers.

Novelist Salamanca, himself, is no slouch either. Not prolific but well regarded with novels Lilith (1961) and A Sea Change (1969) and others. It seems that Salamanca was involved (or at least allowed) this abridgement of his novel. I’m keen to read this but I’m hanging out to read the (unabridged) original novel, which is, thin on the ground. Apparently Salamanca based his character on  a real author who went from nowhere to the toast of the NYC literary scene but I don’t know who that is. I do note that some of the character names have been changed including Elvis’ character who goes from Jim Blackstarr to Glenn Tyler.

LINKS

TRAILER

SONGS

The title song

a ballad from the film (and one of Elvis’ best ballads)