Wild in the Country (1961)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Simply Perfect

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Elvis turned in another fine non-musical performance. But apparently his manager Tom Parker didn't want his star singer to go down this road. Too bad because I think Elvis could have been a good serious actor. I doubt he would ever have been Oscar material, but that could be said for thousands of other actors who had successful acting careers. This movie had a good enough plot, with a good cast of known (and some future) talent to make it worth watching.

Don't get me wrong Elvis is cool, so is Millie Perkins, Tuesday Weld and Hope Lange, but thats about it, this movie makes the classic mistake of having about 2 plots and about 2 or 3 subplots to many, any movie should only have one main plot and one sub plot and thats IT! but Wild In The Country commits that exact offense, thus throws the movie into fast forward in the first 10 minutes first Elvis is in a fight with his brother which is in real life good friend and body guard (Red West) we see Elvis in the court room answering for that cause were left thinking Elvis killed him, then Elvis goes to live with his uncle, who's daughter (Tuesday Weld ) has the hots for him!(Elvis that is)lol. and we find he already has a girlfriend (Millie Perkins) then there's Hope Lange the phychiatrist who eventually falls for Elvis, then Elvis has aspirations to be an author, he winds up going to college to be an author, ! wait a minute ! in this movie Elvis doesn't even have a high school diploma, and hes going to college???????! Shouldn't he get a GED first, see what i mean, this movie is that confusing, and don't get me started on him hitting and supposedly killing Gary Lockwood,WHEWWWWW slapstck2000

This film (written by Clifford Odets of all people) is one of the better ones in Elvis' track record. The women are all beautiful accomplished actresses, especially Tuesday Weld, Hope Lange, and Millie Perkins. Good story-line involving moonshine and other things important to most small-town Americans.Not as interesting or involving as King Creole, this movie has qualities and showed that Elvis could have been a good actor if he wasn't doing tripe scripts all the time. This is a normal movie without unnecessary fight scenes or boring young actresses PRETENDING to think The King is a hot guy. Check this one out. Well worth your time for movie-lovers and Elvis fans.

Elvis Presley as a hell-raising juvenile delinquent? I don't think so. That's what `Wild in the Country' would have us believe, but in reality he's the only honest and decent male in the movie. He plays a misunderstood young man from a poor white trash background who is sent to a psychologist as part of his parole after he gets into trouble (which he often does through no real fault of his own, naturally). Hope Lange plays the `older woman,' who discovers a budding literary talent in her charge. However, according to director Philip Dunne's memoirs the part was originally offered to Simone Signoret (!). Contemplating this pairing is more exciting than anything that happens in this movie. Miss Lange gives it a good try, but she was only about 3 years older than Elvis. Signoret would have made a man out of him in no time! This was supposed to be Presley's big dramatic breakthrough in a non-singing role, but according to Dunne, the bosses at Fox insisted upon interpolating songs. The movie also suffers from the Production Code censorship of the time (no actual going to bed with Lange, thank you), and Elvis was too nice to be really bad. Considering all the strikes against it, it's surprising that `Country' is still as watchable as it is. Presley is as good as he's allowed to be, and Tuesday Weld also spices things up as the requisite `bad girl' who tempts him. Call this one a `bad movie to love.'