Song of the rebel

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Movie
German title Song of the rebel
Original title Wild in the Country
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1961
length 114 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Philip Dunne
script Clifford Odets
production Jerry Wald
for Company of Artists
music Kenyon Hopkins
camera William C. Mellor
cut Dorothy Spencer
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
Flaming Star

Song of the Rebel is an American film directed by Philip Dunne from 1961. It was the seventh film in which Elvis Presley appeared as an actor.

action

Young Glenn Tyler knocks down his older brother Hank in self-defense. He barely escapes death. Glenn is given a suspended sentence because his uncle Rolfe Braxton offers to let him work in his distillery and to lead him on the right path. Glenn also has to report to his probation officer Irene once a week .

Rolfe has a simple plan: He took Glenn in because his daughter Noreen has an illegitimate child. Although the family maintains the facade and claims that Noreen is married to a man from the secret service and is currently on a secret mission, Rolfe hopes to be able to couple Glenn with Noreen. Should both marry, he wants to give Glenn half of the business. Glenn, however, is dating Betty Lee, whose father rejects him.

He goes to his probation officer Irene regularly. Initially dismissive, he builds trust in her. Glenn reads a lot and actually wanted to be a writer. His mother had wanted to send him to college but had to work hard while her husband and older son Hank didn't bother with anything. She died when Glenn was nine years old. Irene recognizes Glenn's talent for writing. When he is attacked by the half-strength Cliff, the son of her ex-lover Phil, who is suffering from heart disease, and can only be prevented from a duel with difficulty, Irene encourages him to write down the process. She finally presents the manuscript to a college professor friend of hers, who promises to work for a college scholarship for Glenn.

On their way back from college, Glenn and Irene get caught in a heavy thunderstorm and stay in a motel for the night. They take different rooms and Glenn confesses to Irene that he fell in love with her. They kiss, but Irene finally rejects him. Cliff also stays at the motel and sees Irenes and Glenn's entry in the motel's booking book. The next day, Cliff tells his father Phil and others that Irene and Glenn were staying at a motel together and constructs a relationship between the two. Irene, in turn, had refused Glenn's contact all day after the motel visit and raised Phil's hopes of a marriage, but admitted that she felt that she only wanted to enter into the marriage because of her escape from another man. Phil now sees this man in Glenn. He defends Irene and announces that he will beat Cliff for his lies until he is dead.

He finds Cliff, who provokes him - Glenn strikes and Cliff remains motionless. A little later, Glenn is arrested for manslaughter . There is a preliminary hearing, in which Irene in particular is contemptuous of her fellow human beings, as everyone believes that, as a probation officer and psychologist, she had a relationship with the much younger Glenn. Phil also announces to her that he wants to bring his rival Glenn to the line by all means. Irene testifies at the interrogation that Glenn wanted to beat up Cliff but did not want to kill. Rather, the death was due to his heart disease. The judge admits that up to now he had seen a bleeding in the heart as a result of the stroke and not a heart disease that he knew nothing about. Phil, who told Irene himself that Cliff had a heart condition, now rejects this: his son was healthy. Irene returns home, locks herself in the garage, and starts the car. Your suicide can be prevented at the last second. The news of her attempted suicide shocks Phil, who retracts his testimony in court and admits that Cliff had a heart condition and that he himself hit him because of his lies that day. Glenn is acquitted and rushes to Irene's sick bed, where he informs her of the happy outcome.

A little later, Irene says goodbye at Glenn train station. He'll go to college and study.

production

The film is based on the novel The Lost Country by JR Salamanca. It was filmed from November 6, 1960 to January 18, 1961 in the Napa Valley around St. Helena and Calistoga and in the studios of 20th Century Fox. It premiered on June 8, 1961 in Memphis . The film was released in US cinemas on June 22, 1961, and in Germany on September 1, 1961.

Elvis Presley, who was dubbed in the German version by Rainer Brandt , sings the titles Wild In The Country , I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Feel , In My Way and Husky Dusky Day in the film .

criticism

The film service was almost horrified: “… the script [Elvis Presley] offers three opportunities to sing a sentimental song to the lute, more badly than right… This is what an Elvis Presley drama looks like recently! In view of the annoying shred, one is inclined to almost long for the stripes that he used to fill with his screams. "

Cinema, on the other hand, saw “Elvis very seriously on James Dean's path. Conclusion: Curious Elvis vehicle, only for die-hard fans. "

Time Out London wrote that while the entire film is as exciting as a glass of milk, the accumulation of curiosities is all the more powerful.

Allmovie judged a little more differentiated. The film is not Presley's best, but it is his most serious; he asked his acting skills the most. However, Clifford Odets and Elvis Presley simply did not match. The film is neither fish nor meat because it has too much Odetsian seriousness to be really an Elvis film and too much Elvis to actually be a serious film. Although the film has strengths, it is overall unsatisfactory; especially its end is unbearably melodramatic.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Mg .: The song of the rebel . In: film-dienst , No. 39, 1961.
  2. ↑ See cinema.de
  3. ↑ ... the whole's as wild as a glass of milk, but its curio quotient is enormous. See Time Out London
  4. ↑ "Wild in the Country may not be Elvis Presley's best film, but it's arguably his most serious - as well as the film that most tested his acting ability. [...] the mixture of Odets and Presley doesn't combine productively. [...] the result has too much Odets to work as a Presley vehicle and too much Elvis to be the serious 'issue' picture that it tries to be. Neither fish nor fowl, Wild is ultimately unsatisfying, but it does have some strengths. […] Indeed, the last portion of the film becomes unbearably melodramatic and never recovers. "Cf. allemovie.com