Revelations from Elvis’s rebellious ‘Love Me Tender’ brother tempered by a Benedictine nun

Taken between August 22 and September 21, 1956, a rare color still finds 21-year-old Elvis Presley self-assuredly filming “Love Me Tender” on location at the 20th Century Fox Ranch in Malibu Creek State Park, Calabasas, California. The 90-minute black and white sagebrush oater was originally known as “The Reno Brothers.” The title cut, an unadorned performance excepting Vito Mumolo’s acoustic guitar and light harmonies by the Ken Darby Trio, would become Presley’s fifth number one pop single. Image Credit: For Elvis CD Collectors Forum user “Mike from Holland” / Walt Disney Studios

Elvis Presley’s film debut was the modestly budgeted 1956 Civil War-set western Love Me Tender, forgotten except for its theme song repurposed as an eternal wedding ballad. A previously unpublished interview with costar James Drury, later earning TV immortality as The Virginian, takes stock of his friendship with the rock superstar and Mother Dolores Hart, who abandoned a promising six-year Hollywood career [e.g. Presley’s Loving You and King Creole] for a Connecticut monastery. Head back to part three, entitled “Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country According to Dirty Rat James Drury,” in case you’re just joining the rodeo.

The James Drury Interview, Part Four

Let’s talk about your sole movie with Elvis Presley.

Richard Egan, Bill [William] Campbell, and I had very instrumental roles as Elvis’s older brothers in Love Me Tender [directed by Robert D. Webb]. Elvis did a great job for a beginning actor. In fact, he was maybe better in Love Me Tender than in any other movie because he had a real story to work with and a real dramatic situation.

We all know about his declining Hollywood trajectory of formula films, but Elvis could have been an amazingly adept actor if he had been able to frequently work with good scripts. Most of his later films had stories lacking depth. I don’t mean to criticize Elvis. I am just saying he had a much better script in Love Me Tender than he was ever able to work with again [not quite — King Creole, Flaming Star, Follow That Dream, and Change of Habit allowed Presley to sink his teeth into meatier roles that did not completely rely on superfluous musical interludes].

Elvis was a very eager and earnest young man on Love Me Tender. He wanted to learn about motion picture acting. He questioned us constantly about different camera shots and hitting your marks. We gave him all the advice we could. He went on to great success, of course.

Disguised as a Union soldier, James Drury keeps his pistol on the telegraph operator as his Rebel brothers-in-arms covertly rob a Union payroll train in the waning days of the Civil War in Twentieth Century Fox’s 1956 western “Love Me Tender” starring Richard Egan, Debra Paget, and Elvis Presley. Drury guest-starred four times on “Gunsmoke,” was reunited with Egan in Disney’s beloved “Pollyanna,” menaced Randolph Scott in director Sam Peckinpah’s career-making “Ride the High Country,” and finally earned his defining role as the titular ranch foreman mysteriously known only as “The Virginian” from 1962–1971 on NBC. Image Credit: eBay / Walt Disney Studios

Was it difficult to talk with Elvis in light of the ever-present Memphis Mafia?