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Love Me Tender
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (3rd November 2013). |
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The Film
 When is a movie featuring Elvis Presley not an Elvis Movie? When that movie is “Love Me Tender”. I can hear the cries now—“But that doesn’t make sense,” says the befuddled reader, “’Love Me Tender’ is The Elvis Movie. It was his first film!” True, Presley made his debut in the picture, directed by Robert D. Webb. He even sang the title song (and three others) in the film. His character, Clint, is an integral part to the plot; a member of the Reno clan at the center of the scenario scripted by Robert Buckner. All of those things are indeed accurate. And yet, I still portend; “Love Me Tender” is not an Elvis Movie. Not in the way people mean when they string those words together to describe a majority of the music-n-movie megastar’s big screen career. Elvis isn’t the star of “Love Me Tender”, despite what the public—and 20th Century Fox, who’ve unlovingly dumped “Tender’s” actual stars from the cover of this Blu-ray (and most other home video iterations) for a giant image of Elvis—like to think. He’s simply in the picture, like many other actors who played second fiddle to any number of real stars in their respective debuts, not the center of it (decidedly unlike, say, “Jailhouse Rock” (1957), and essentially every other one of Elvis’ cinematic endeavors). Presley appeared in 31 features as an actor (not counting the concert films, where he made a showing as a bloated, judo-chopping unintentional parody of himself—which I’m pretty sure wasn’t a character; at least not a conscious one). 30 of those features are what I’d consider Elvis Movies. By which I mean, vague vehicles—some good, a vast majority of them incredibly mediocre and a fair few even outright bad—used to sell his music and the carefully crafted iconic image of Elvis Presley. In most of these Elvis Movies, Presley plays the same stock character (or near-abouts anyway); an attractive, clean cut guy, who shucks off the shackles of responsibility—whatever his responsibilities may be—to have some fun, sings some songs, and get the girl in the end. “Love Me Tender”, unlike all the others, doesn’t quite fit the manufactured mold of the Elvis moneymaking machine through which the studios, producers, his manager Col. Tom Parker, and the iconic star made lots of money. At least in part, that’s because the machine hadn’t been “built” yet when he made his debut—although the blueprint schematic was well on the way to completion by the time he was cast in the film. “Tender” tells the tale, based on the real life story, of three brothers—Vance (Richard Egan; the film’s actual lead), Brett (William Campbell), and Ray (James Drury)—who became some of the most notorious train robbers in Post-Civil War America. The Reno trio, both in the fictional and real world, were Confederate soldiers during the war. As the film begins, Robert E. Lee has surrendered to Grant at the Appomattox courthouse; the war is over. But, because news travels slowly on horseback in 1865, the Reno’s don’t know of the submission, and attack a band of Union men, hijacking a US Army train, and coming away with a carriage-load of Federal Government cash. The act instantly turns them into outlaws; what would’ve been perfectly sanctioned as soldiers, now has them on the run as enemies of the State. Elvis enters the picture at about the half hour mark, as the youngest of the Reno brothers—a role that was originally offered to Robert Wagner and Jeffrey “Christopher Pike” Hunter, both of whom were under contract with 20th Century Fox. Presley was a Paramount player, and had recently signed a contract with mega-producer Hal B. Wallis. He entered the Fox stable, on loan, during pre-production of Joshua Logan’s “Bus Stop” (1956), where he nearly starred opposite Marilyn Monroe. For all of Presley’s flaws as an actor, and entertainer, a lack of charisma was not one of them. The same could not be said for Don Murray, who ended up playing the role of Bo in “Bus Stop”. I often wonder what would’ve happened had Presley ended up in “Bus Stop”. Would making a debut in that film rather than “Love Me Tender” have taken him elsewhere in Hollywood? Would “Bus Stop” have been as successful as “Love Me Tender”, and if it had been, would studio bean counters and bosses attribute all of the success to Presley, or given Monroe more, all or equal credit? If he hadn’t been given sole credit—as he was for the smash of “Tender”—would the parade of predictable pictures regurgitating a formula have come to light so quickly? One also ponders the possibilities of Elvis embracing of the Method like so many of his contemporaries. Presley always wanted to be an actor—even more than a musician—and he idolized James Dean and Marlon Brando. He had an interest in studying at The Actors Studio, where he would’ve learned all about Stanislavski and Strasberg, and it’s possible Monroe—who had just come back from a year in New York, where she studied "The Method"—could’ve convinced him to pursue the dream of being a real actor. Alas, Elvis—or, more accurately, his manager—passed on the prospect of teaming with Monroe. And part of me thinks, the missed opportunity of “Bus Stop” is the reason he never went beyond simply having a screen presence—charisma—by honing skills as an actor. And that gave way to his fear of confronting clichés that fuelled the formulaic Elvis Movie output for another decade at least. Can you imagine if Elvis Presley had gone down a more serious path in his movie career? But I digress… back to “Love Me Tender”. Presley first appears with a little less than an hour still left on the clock. Unlike his brothers, Presley’s Clint Reno didn’t go off to fight in the war, and instead stayed on the farm to look after their mother, Martha (Mildred Dunnock), and big brother Vance’s voluptuous squeeze, Cathy (Debra Paget). Due to a misunderstanding, Clint, Martha, and Cathy believe the elder Reno men died in the war. So when the brothers return home, with a ton of cash and some ex-Confederate soldiers in tow—with news that they’re on the run—Clint and the others are very much surprised. But perhaps not as much as Vance, who must come to terms with the fact Clint and Cathy have gotten married in his absence. The remainder of the film deals with the uneasy love triangle between Cathy and the two men she very much loves, set against Vance’s equally iffy report with his gang. When Vance learns of his mistake—that the war is indeed over, and he’s a wanted criminal, the eldest Reno plans to return the money; the rest of his Gang (or The Jackson Thieves, as they were called) don’t quite see things the same way. I’ve always thought “Love Me Tender” was a film was an identity crisis. On one hand, most of it is played straight, with the frayed edges of a gritty low-budget Western on display. On the other, Presley breaks out in no less than four rousing musical numbers, each with kitschy, wholly anachronistic, choreography. Separately, the two parts are fine for what they are—a “B” movie, and a proto Presley picture. Together, the blend is less successful. The film lumbers along, with slightly overwrought acting and some decent action scenes, and then suddenly, Elvis is singin’ a tune, and then its back to the action. The romantic interplay between the three parties is perhaps the most entertaining aspect of the film; but it is constantly put on hold. The action-oriented diversions from the plot are less bothersome in terms of structure—they would be a natural progression, unfolding in similar ways in any other Western. The music feels forced into the film, as catchy and kitschy as it is—and, indeed, it is; even here, in his formative years playing a secondary part, it’s easy to see why Presley played well with audiences. It seems like an afterthought. A last minute addition, forced into the film during hasty rewrites. It was. Before Presley was cast, the film had exactly zero songs (beyond a usual score by Lionel Newman). After, it had four—“Let Me”, “We’re Gonna Move”, “Poor Boy”, and of course, “Love Me Tender”, the hot selling single that made Fox change the film’s title from the original, and much more fitting, “The Reno Brothers”. At times, there’s an odd, piecemeal, quality to the film. As though they started shooting something, and decided it was something else entirely after a considerable amount of film was already in the can. Still, even with the tonal inconsistencies and use of music, in many aspects, “Love Me Tender” is a fairly conventional B-Western, with few surprises. It’s entertaining, but forgettable. The acting is occasionally suspect. The plot hits the hallmarks of half a dozen other similar films, building to an inevitable shootout in the climax where—and I don’t feel bad spoiling this, because the movie is nearly 60 years old (it’s also one of only two movies where this happens, which is why it’s probably well known spoiler anyway)—Elvis’ character dies. Yes, dies. Clint was expendable; because he wasn’t the main character. But Elvis wasn’t. By the time the film was finished, and being promoted, Presley was without a doubt the main audience-draw. He was such a draw that the end credit scene, with his characters strange reprisal—he should be dead; yet rises to perform, with different hair—was added to the film after his demise tested poorly with audiences. “Love Me Tender” was a smash success, and made back its (steadily increased) $1,000,000 budget in a week. To meet demand, the picture had more prints struck for distribution than any film ever, at the time it was released. And rising star Presley, whose musical career was exploding, was the main reason why. Perhaps, it was the only reason the film was a big a success. As much as it pains me to say this—because I think it would’ve been vastly more interesting if Presley had made “Bus Stop” and become a more serious, trained, actor instead—without Elvis, I doubt we’d be getting a spiffy new blu-ray of “Love Me Tender” today. I doubt the film would be remembered at all.
Video
Wait… black-and-white and Cinemascope? It’s a bit of a shock to see, but yes, those two did come together in “Love Me Tender”. It was one of the only times Fox released such a film. When the studio introduced their anamorphic widescreen “Miracle You See Without Glasses” in 1953, a company-wide decree stated all Cinemascope features were to be produced in color and have 4-track stereo sound. The stereo part didn’t last long. Within a few years, as exhibitors failed to upgrade their sound systems as a means to save some money after costly renovations for widescreen hit them hard, mono-tracked prints of Cinemascope pictures began to appear. However, it was and is a rare thing to see the genuine Cinemascope credit in monochrome; “Love Me Tender” is an exception to the rule. From the outset, the Cinemascope process was reserved for the studio’s so-called “A” pictures. But as widescreen proved successful, Fox realized it needed a workaround to get their more profitable “B” pictures, produced in less expensive black-and-white, in a similar format. Thus Regalscope was born. Introduced in 1956, the same year “Tender” tumbled into theaters, Regalscope was a branding reserved for ostensibly independent productions made by Robert L. Lippert’s Regal Pictures Inc. and distributed (and actually, not-so-secretly, financed) by 20th Century Fox. Different logo, and of course black-and-white vs. color stock aside, the Regal and Cinemascope processes were identical. Early Regalscope productions used the same Bausch & Lomb lenses as their Cinemascope counterparts; sometimes, the lenses were the exact ones used on the color pictures on different days. Had Elvis Presley not signed on to “Love Me Tender”, the film might have been released with the Regal credit. It would’ve been one of the first features to be released as such, in fact. But, because Presley was in the picture, and the film retroactively morphed, in rewrites and production, from a low-budget B to something not quite so cut-rate, the studio ultimately labeled it with the Cinemascope logo. “Love Me Tender” was lensed by cinematographer Leo Tover, who came up through the ranks in the silent era to become a prominent, twice-Oscar-nominated, director of photography by the 1940's. Tover worked primarily at Paramount, and, in his later years, 20th Century Fox, where he shot Robert Wise’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) and Henry Levin’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1957), among many other films. Like many of his contemporaries, Tover went to great lengths designing shots to make the most of the new, expansive, frame of the widescreen format. In “Tender”, Tover makes effective use of ‘Scope, positioning actors in a way that make them seem to mimic their mountainous surroundings. There’s also something striking about the minimalism of monochrome, which Tover exploits subtly; night shots take on an interesting, almost noir-ish, tone. Fox’s transfer of the film on Blu-ray, presented in 1080p 24/fps high definition using AVC MPEG-4 codec, appears to be from a pristine source. I haven’t been able to find information one way or the other, but if this isn’t an all-new remaster done specifically for Blu-ray, then the master from the 50th anniversary DVD was in exceptional condition. Framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, the resulting image of the new Blu-ray is spotless—with nary a speck, fleck, dirt, debris, stray hair or any other age-related bit of damage to be seen. Sharpness isn’t particularly satisfying—like many Cinema/Regalscope releases, medium and wide shot suffer from an at-times pervasive softness. That said, texture detail is excellent; the disc has a fine patina of film grain, a fairly accurate and well-delineated grayscale, and contrast appears natural and not boosted. Like many 50's Fox features made in their famed anamorphic widescreen format, “Tender” has a rather severe case of the distorting “Mumps”, most obvious in close ups. There’s the expected, and noticeable, shift in density during optical transitions, too. On the plus side, unwarranted processing, including edge enhancement and noise reduction, isn’t an issue. Compression artifacts and other encoding anomies are nonexistent. In my personal opinion, a disc should be rewarded a high grade for faithfully reflecting it’s source, and with Cinemascope, that means the inevitable (often uncorrectable) flaws and all. I feel the Blu-ray edition of “Tender” does Tover’s photography justice.
Audio
Like most of Fox’s recent catalog releases, “Love Me Tender” offers its original release soundtrack in lossless—in this case, English mono encoded in DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0—and a slew of more modern options in a variety of languages. The disc includes an all-new English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 remix, and several dub and subtitle options in a variety of audio codecs. The original mono and 5.1 remix suffer from the same problems, which all trace back to the fidelity of the nearly 60-year-old source. Dialogue reproduction is fine, but the track is a tad brittle on the high end, and has almost no low-end to speak of. As should be expected, the LFE remains silent throughout, and surround use in the more modern 5.1 track is reserved purely for a slight bleed of the music—Presley four songs, and the score (by Lionel Newman). The songs are the sonic highlight of the disc. The choice between the mono and the 5.1 is yours. I found the original preferable, as I almost always do; however I admit the remix isn’t terribly offensive. It too is mostly focused to the front, and nicely expands the left and right sides of the soundstage. Alternate audio mixes include dubs in Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 mono, Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono, German Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 1.0 mono, and Castilian Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono. Optional subtitles are available in English, Mandarin, Norwegian, French, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Danish, German, Italian, Cantonese, Croatian, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Latvian, and Lithuanian.
Extras
“Love Me Tender” was released twice on DVD—first in a relatively bare affair, and again as part of Fox’s Cinema Classics Collection for the flick’s 50th Anniversary. All of the extras from the second edition—save a few trailers—have been ported over to Blu-ray, including an audio commentary, several featurettes, and two theatrical trailers for the film. The Blu-ray disc is authored with optional bookmarks and the resume playback function. Note: all video content is technically encoded in 1080p AVC MPEG-4 high definition, but each piece has clearly been upconverted from standard definition sources. Elvis “expert”, Jerry Schilling, does a decent job with his audio commentary, and the track is certainly a recommended listen for fans. Schilling was Presley’s friend and bodyguard, and a member of the “Memphis Mafia”. He has published a book about his time with The King, and in the years following Presley’s death, was a producer on a number of Elvis-related documentaries (on this track, Schilling claims to have had a hand in nine docs; IMDB lists seven). Schilling’s commentary is single-track, keeping things entirely Elvis focused. Unfortunately, while it’ll no doubt please fans of Elvis, this approach means the track will be worthless to those wishing for a more detailed overview of the production. The tone is conversational, and Schilling seems to come from a well-meaning place, offering some insight into the earliest days of Elvis’ career, but he also repeats himself a few times, and there are several long gaps where he seems to have run out of things to say about his friend and the film. The disc also includes about 40 minutes of featurettes. The first of these featurettes is titled “Elvis Hits Hollywood” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, “1080p”; 12 minutes 43 seconds). It’s a brief piece, with a few Elvis “historians” discussing Presley’s early career in music and film. The next featurette, “The Colonel and the King” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, “1080p”; 11 minutes 3 seconds), looks at Presley’s notoriously nefarious, money-hungry manager Col. Tom Parker. “Love Me Tender: The Birth and Boom of the Elvis Hit” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, “1080p”; 8 minutes 6 seconds) offers an overview of the title song from the film. The featurette traces its origins, as a hit single, to the multitude of covers done by other artists in the years following its release. Another music focused featurette, titled “Love Me Tender: The Soundtrack” (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, “1080p”; 7 minutes 32 seconds), puts the spotlight on the three other songs sung in the film, as well as the title track, and how the success of the eventual album changed movie promotion and Presley’s subsequent career in film. “Love Me Tender’s” original theatrical trailer (2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, “1080p”; 2 minutes 21 seconds) and a slightly shorter Spanish alternate theatrical trailer (2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, “1080p”; 2 minutes 4 seconds) have both been included.
Packaging
Curious. 20th Century Fox has recently reintroduced their abandoned Studio Classics banner on Blu-ray, adding a number of titles that were not originally part of the line during the standard def era in the process. However, “Love Me Tender” arrives not as part of the Studio Classics wave—despite its inclusion in the short-lived spiritual successor of the Studio Classics, the Cinema Classics Collection (a banner under which many of the original Studio Classics titles were re-released in deluxe editions). Despite the missing insignia, “Love Me Tender” is packaged similarly to a Studio Classics Blu-ray release in a standard eco-Elite keep case, with some terrible colorized cover art. The dual layered BD-50 is region free.
Overall
Elvis Presley appeared in 31 films as an actor; 30 of those were what I’d call Elvis Movies. The other, his first, was “Love Me Tender”. It shows signs of the Elvis Movie formula, but was too early in the cycle of career to have it all fine-tuned. The film isn’t particularly good; it’s a “B” movie retroactively elevated to “A” status, because one of the supporting players became a huge star. The Blu-ray has a fantastically filmic video, satisfying sound, and some worthwhile special features. For fans of The King, 50's kitsch, or (occasionally weird) widescreen Westerns, “Love Me Tender” is worth a look.
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