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hooked-on-elvis · 4 months

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Pictures of Elvis as Clint Reno on "Love Me Tender" (1956) | "The Rainmaker" screen test in Hollywood (March 26-28th, 1956) + magazine article | On "Love Me Tender" production and premiere (November 15, 1956). 🎬

He had never even been in a school play, but he loved the silver screen and dreamed of seeing himself upon it. In April of 1956*, his chance arrived when legendary Hollywood producer Hal Wallis gave him a screen test. He was asked to read a part from 'The Rainmaker' with actress Cynthia Baxter, who later confessed that her initial reaction to working with Elvis had been "Ugh!" Afterward, however, Baxter said she found him "amazing to work with." Elvis told Wallis he didn't like the Rainmaker role: The character was too "happy, jolly, lovesick." Well, Wallis asked him, what kind of part would you like to play? "One more like myself," he said, "so I won't have to do any excess acting." Four months later (after Wallis and Colonel Parker had negotiated a three-picture-deal for $400.000) he was on the set of 'Love Me Tender' playing Clint Reno (seen here) — a passionate, naive young man, destined to die young.

*Elvis' Hollywood screen test was actually held, not in April but in March 1956, between Monday, the 26th and Wednesday, the 28th. Elvis would later say he memorized every line of the script of 'The Rainmaker' (not only his lines, the whole script!) in preparation for the screen test. A couple of months later, however, he told Robert Johnson of the Memphis Press-Scimitar that he had misgivings from the start about the character he would play. “It was a good part, but I just couldn’t see it for me. A good-natured, happy teen-ager, but with nothing up here. After I read the script, I just wanted to do another kind of part,” said Presley to the reporter.

This thing the magazine wrote about Elvis wanting "not to do any excess acting" is total bullshit. EP would never say such thing once he was so happy to kick off his acting career. He dedicated himself and wanted to make it as good actor. Elvis was excellent memorizing lines even before he was an actor, when he would memorize lines from all his favorite movies (such as 'Rebel Without a Cause'). Once he was indeed on the other side of the screen, filming his first movie, Elvis didn't miss the chance and talked to many veteran actors in hopes to have hints on how to make it better in front of the camera. He dedicated himself the best he could — and as the years went by, even so his roles were less and less interesting or challenging, sometimes even silly as he feared in the beginning of his career, Elvis achieved the goal in being a natural in front of those Hollywood filming cameras, and this is something absolutely undeniable. The thing about complaining of the role he performed on his screen test in 1956, probably had something to do with the image Elvis wanted to project onto his young audience, and that was not one of a "good-natured" guy.

Elvis wanted serious roles and, besides, he liked the 'bad boy' atitude James Dean and Marlon Brando had... the menacing glances, the defiant rebel posture. Elvis mentioned this to Lloyd Shearer, in 1956 during a photo session at the Peabody Hotel, in Memphis, Tennessee. Lloyd was photographing Elvis when the Presley politely asked the photographer to promise not to snap him "not even smiling slightly". His objection was explained with:

"I've made a study of Marlon Brando. I've made a study of poor Jimmy Dean [actor James Dean had recently died in a car crash]. I've made a study of myself. And I know why girls, at least the young ones, go for us. We're sullen, we're broodin', we're something of a menace. I don't understand it exactly, but that's what girls like in men. I don't know anything about Hollywood. But I know that you can't be sexy if you smile. You can't be a rebel if you grin. If you don't mind, let me pose myself." — Elvis, 1956.

On his screen test in March, 1956, Presley did two scenes from 'The Rainmaker' (and also was asked, and performed against his will since he didn't wanted to sing on the screen at all, to 'Blue Sued Shoes') Later that year, Elvis recalled the dramatic tests. “I knew my script,” he said. “I got out there and just tried to put myself in the place of the character I was playing, just trying to act as naturally as I could.”

In May, Elvis told Will Jones of the Minneapolis Tribune that he favored the second of the two scenes. “I took this screen test where I came in and was real happy and jolly and I didn’t like it. I did this other one where I was mad at this girl, and I liked that better — it was me.”

Elvis worked with veteran actor Frank Faylen in one test scene and with twenty-one-year-old actress Cynthia Baxter (later Cynthia O’Neal) in another scene.

She later told TV Guide, “When the Wallis people told me I was to make a test with him, my reaction was ‘Ugh!’ But, you know, he is a very interesting boy — kind of amazing to work with. As an actor, he has a lot of work ahead of him, but he has wonderful attributes to start with.”

Actress Cynthia O'Neal (former Baxter). The picture (right) is the only still from 'The Rainmaker' scene she played with Elvis for his screen test on March 26th, 1956. No footage was released until today, unfortunately.

March 27th, 1956: Elvis with veteran actor Frank Faylen. The scene Elvis did with Faylen was this one below (no footage, sadly, but there's pictures from his test on the video, following the scenes):

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Allan Weiss was not as impressed with the dramatic part of Presley’s test as he was with the musical portion. “Elvis played the rebellious younger brother with amateurish conviction — like the lead in a high school play. His performance was believable, but lacked the polished subtleties of a professional.” On the other hand, after viewing the acting part of the test, Paramount dramatic coach Charlotte Clary thought Elvis might have a future as an actor. “The boy is a natural,” she judged. “There’s nothing fresh or obnoxious about him at all.” Source: http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-screen-test.html

On March 28th came Presley’s third screen test, the King lip-synched to “Blue Suede Shoes” in front of a set of rather shiny curtains. It was a wild audition, with Elvis giving his trademark gyrations and sneer. He was doing what he did majestically already, so he enchanted the screenwriter Allan Weiss.

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“The transformation was incredible. We knew instantly that we were in the presence of a phenomenon; electricity bounced off the walls of the sound stage. One felt it as an awesome thing — like an earthquake in progress, only without the implicit threat. Watching this insecure country boy, who apologized when he asked for a rehearsal as though he had some something wrong, turn into absolute dynamite when he stepped into the bright lights and started lip-synching the words of his familiar hit. He believed in it, and he made you believe it, no matter how ‘sophisticated’ your musical tastes were.” — Allan Weiss, Screenwriter.

This reaction may have set Elvis' fate in Hollywood, among other things (money-seeking, as naturally any company would be bound to be), but up until then as far as EP knew he would act in a non-musical role, so this kept him thrilling. Elvis' fans, as always, were very supportive, and couldn't wait to watch the rock star on the big screen.

(Above) August 16, 1956: Elvis left Memphis on an American Airlines flight for Los Angeles where he reported to 20th Century Fox for pre-production meetings for his first movie. The fans greeted him at the airport, holding "Presley for President" posters. 🥹

As the production for Elvis' first movie begun, things were... different. The studio/producers eventually altered the script to include 4 songs Elvis would sing, 'Love Me Tender' being one, and they altered the title of the film too — originally entitled 'The Reno Brothers' — so it could follow the name of that one Elvis song.

This turned things bittersweet to Presley. Elvis did not want to sing on the screen and he confessed to his close friends how upset watching as they promised him one thing and ended up eventually changing plans (to profit on his music career) without him being able to do anything about it (June Juanico was one girlfriend he vented about this).Top this to the fact that Elvis indeed preferred his part to be a little more to the 'bad boy' side, and Clint Reno was everything but a bad boy, and you can imagine how Elvis felt about his first movie, not fully satisfied after all. Still he kept hopeful about his acting career could evolve and he could eventually become a serious actor. This hopeful mood followed his next films, but it did not last long.

Either way, the premiere for 'Love Me Tender' was a huge success.

Arlene Cogan, a young fan that not much after this would become friends with Elvis, shared in her book "Elvis, This One's for You" that when she went to watch the movie she spent the whole day rewatching it in the theater, over and over again. She says that no one seemed to leave the room.

"When Elvis appeared on the screen, everyone screamed so much that you couldn't hear him." — Arlene Cogan on her book "Elvis, This One's for You".

On the day 'Love Me Tender' premiered in the theaters on November 15, 1956.

November 21st 1956. 1413 Main Street, Columbia, S.C., Richland County. A crowd of teenagers in the lobby of the Palmetto Theater for the opening of the Elvis Presley movie Love Me Tender.

November 16, 1956: Fans wait in line to see Elvis Presley in 'Love Me Tender'.

Even so Elvis' start in Hollywood wasn't quite as he expected (in personal satisfaction wise), Presley did it great as a sweet country boy, Clint Reno. Some critics didn't go for him and harshly bashed his acting skills (much going with their previous opinions on Elvis as a performer and the controversial about his 'antics' on the stage in the 50s), as much as some supported his initial kick off, but one thing's for sure: the young audience adored him regardless either if he was a "bad boy" onscreen or not. ♥

Elvis on "Love Me Tender", 1956.

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