For Elvis fans and Western movie enthusiasts alike, this is
actually a fairly significant film. It was Presley's sixth starring role and
the second one (following G.I. BLUES) after he'd completed his much-ballyhooed
hitch in the army.
While BLUES was a huge box office hit, FLAMING STAR did okay
but not nearly as well. His next film, WILD IN THE COUNTRY, also was something
of a box office disappointment. With the exception of G.I. BLUES, all of
Presley's films up through WILD contained some serious elements and showed
promise for his potential to be quite a good actor. Nevertheless, his mentor
and manager Col. Tom Parker saw the lesser box office clout of WILD and FLAMING
STAR (which featured only two song performances with one of them only done over
the opening credits) as signs that what Elvis's audiences really wanted was to
see him sing and dance and flirt with pretty girls and to hell with anything
too somber or requiring the development of his acting chops. Hence, the
following string of lightweight musical fluff (with a couple arguable
exceptions) that most folks today tend to identify Elvis with today, as far as
his film work.
And that's a damn shame.
There's no better example than his work in FLAMING STAR to
show what a strong presence he was on the screen --- and how much stronger he
could have gotten, if given the chance.
As half-breed Pacer Burton, Presley is dark and lithe and
increasingly dangerous as the events of racial intolerance between Whites and
Indians unfold and escalate in this action/drams Western. Elvis is supported on
all fronts by veterans --- from director Don Siegel (this was prior to the
renown he would gain in later years after teaming with Clint Eastwood in the
Dirty Harry films and others, but he was a well-established craftsman at this
point all the same); to writers Nunally Johnson and Clair Huffaker (on whose
novel the screenplay was based); to co-stars such as Steve Forest and Barbara Eden
--- and he holds his own and then some. Silent film goddess Dolores del Rio
plays Pacer's Kiowa mother, veteran character actor John McIntire his father.
They turn in the film's two finest performances --- del Rio in a noble,
understated way; McIntire in a wide-ranging arc from tough gruffness to grim,
deep sorrow. But next in line, acting-wise, and not by very much, is Elvis
himself … considerably ahead of rather wooden turns by Forrest and Eden.
My biggest quibble is with the whole "flaming star of
death" thing that serves as the title tie-in and allegedly is some sort of
premonition that Indians sometimes envision when the time of their death is
near. It seemed a little too hokey and out of sync with the straightforward
grittiness that the rest of the film seemed to be striving for.
Otherwise, FLAMING STAR is tight, tough, and quite
satisfying. It may not be THE SEARCHERS … but it's a hell of a lot closer to
that, I assure you, than it is to TICKLE ME or any of those other musical
throwaways Elvis got stuck doing later on.
