| Wild in the Country | |
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Movie poster |
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| Directed by | Philip Dunne |
| Produced by | Jerry Wald |
| Written by | J.R. Salamanca (novel) Clifford Odets (screenwriter) |
| Starring | Elvis Presley Hope Lange Tuesday Weld Millie Perkins |
| Music by | Kenyon Hopkins |
| Cinematography | William C. Mellor |
| Editing by | Dorothy Spencer |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | June 15, 1961 |
| Running time | 114 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,975,000[1] |
Wild in the Country is a 1961 film drama starring Elvis Presley in which he portrays a troubled young man from a dysfunctional family who pursues a literary career. The screenplay was written by playwright Clifford Odets.
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The movie starts off with Glenn Tyler (Elvis Presley) getting into a fight with, and badly injuring, his drunken brother. A court releases him on probation into the care of his uncle in a small town, appointing Irene Sperry (Hope Lange) to give him psychological counselling. Marked as a trouble-maker, he is falsely suspected of various misdemeanors including an affair with Irene. Eventually shown to be innocent, he leaves to go to college and become a writer.
Filmed on location in the Napa Valley and in Hollywood Studios, although it is set in the Shenandoah Valley, the cast and crew created a public sensation in Napa for over two months of filming. The motel that they stayed at, Casa Beliveau (since torn down) was so mobbed that Elvis had to be moved to the St. Helena home that was being used in the film as Irene Sperry's (Hope Lange) house where Glenn Tyler (Elvis) went for counseling. Now a top-rated inn in the Napa Valley and known as The Ink House you can still stay in the room that Elvis slept in for over two months. Other Napa Valley locations figuring prominently in the movie are portions of the Napa River, portrayed in the opening scene. This section of the river is located at what is now the Casa Nuestra Winery, between Calistoga and St. Helena. Also featured are the downtown main street of the town of Calistoga where Glenn Tyler's uncle and his cousin (Tuesday Weld) lived, the Silverado Trail between Calistoga and St. Helena, the Cameo Cinema (then The Roxy), an old movie theater still in operation in downtown St. Helena where the dance hall scenes with Elvis and Tuesday Weld were filmed, and the hills and farmland behind what is now Whitehall Lane Winery just north of the town of Rutherford. At the Ink House you will recognize the house, the backyard where a drunken Glenn Tyler tries to hose down Irene Sperry through the porch window, and the 1885 barn where Irene Sperry drives her DeSoto in to attempt suicide when she is so distraught over her suspected romance with Glenn and the scandal it has caused. In one scene, Betty Lee (played by Millie Perkins) slaps Glenn (played by Elvis himself). Millie Perkins suffered a broken arm while doing the scene, and before the film was released, the scene ended up being cut out of the movie.
This was Elvis' last dramatic lead role until Charro! as his next film, Blue Hawaii, was his first big budget musical and was a box office sensation. All his subsequent movies were largely formula musicals which were quite lucrative but never gave him the chance to develop his potential as a serious actor that was very apparent in Wild in the Country.
In the original script and rough cut of the film, Hope Lange's character Irene Sperry succeeds in her suicide attempt. However, preview audiences reacted negatively to it and the scene was redone in which Irene survives and sees Glenn off to college.
Presley began an off-screen romance with Hollywood "bad girl" Tuesday Weld but the relationship was short-lived after Colonel Tom Parker warned Presley against his involvement, fearful it would harm his image. Elvis and Hope Lange also were quite taken with each other, but her separation from her husband did not result in a divorce until the next summer making her unavailable for a serious relationship.
Other notable members in the cast included Jason Robards, Sr., Christina Crawford (daughter of Joan Crawford who went on to pen Mommie Dearest), Pat Buttram who was then known as the sidekick on the Gene Autry Show and went on to later fame as Mr. Haney on Green Acres, and the legendary Rudd Weatherwax who trained the animals used in the movie and was best known for his work with Lassie and Mr. Ed The Talking Horse which were television hits of the time.
Other ironies among the cast include Millie Perkins playing Elvis' girlfriend in this movie and Elvis' mother in Elvis, the short-lived 1980's mini-series. While Hope Lange and Tuesday Weld each portrayed the same character, Selena Cross, Lange had originated the role in the original film, Peyton Place. In the sequel, Return to Peyton Place, Weld portrayed Cross.
Recording sessions took place on November 7 and 8, 1960, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California, under the supervision of producer Urban Thielmann. Five songs were recorded for the film, all ballads with "Lonely Man" and "Forget Me Never" left out of the film.
Since Wild in the Country showcased Presley the actor rather than the singing star, so RCA elected to release neither a long-playing album nor an EP as the soundtrack for a Presley film. The Colonel promised 20th Century Fox to assist with promotion by releasing some songs on singles.[2]:143 Despite being cut from the film, "Lonely Man" was actually the first song from the score to be released, appearing on February 7, 1961 as catalogue 47-7850b, the b-side of Presley's chart-topping hit single, "Surrender."[2] The title track to the film, "Wild in the Country," was released on the very next single, catalogue 47-7880b on May 2, 1961, as the b-side of the #5 hit "I Feel So Bad."[2] Both b-sides made the Billboard Hot 100 independently of their A-sides, "Lonely Man" peaking at #32 and "Wild in the Country" at #26.
The songs "In My Way" and "Forget Me Never" would be included on the 1965 anniversary compilation album Elvis for Everyone, while "I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell" appeared on the 1961 album Something for Everybody.
The soundtrack was re-released on the Follow that Dream collectors label with unrleased outtakes of all the songs.
Personnel
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Film music track listing
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