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''Charro!'' is a 1969 American
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
film starring
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
, shot on location at Apacheland Movie Ranch and Old Tucson Studios in Arizona. This was Presley's only film in which he did not sing on-screen; the film featured no songs at all other than the main title theme, which was played over the opening credits. It was also the only movie in which Presley wore a beard. The film was novelized by Harry Whittington.Bridges, Ben
"Harry Whittington."
''www.benbridges.com.uk.'' Retrieved December 9, 2016.
Ina Balin, Victor French, Barbara Werle, and Solomon Sturges co-starred. It was the final film for director Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced and wrote it. It was also the only Presley film distributed by National General Pictures. The film made a profit but was not a runaway success, and remains one of Presley's least-seen films despite being regarded among his best in terms of his acting (as opposed to his singing).


Plot

Jess Wade, a former member of a gang of outlaws led by Vince Hackett, is led to believe that an old flame, Tracy Winters, wants to meet him in a seedy Mexican saloon. Jess sees Billy Roy Hackett, Vince's younger brother, summoning Vince and the other members of the gang into the saloon, and realizes he has been set up. Jess orders the bar patrons to leave before a shootout ensues. Making a break for the door, Jess is stopped by Gunner, another gang member, and is forced to relinquish his gun and to go with them to their hideout in the mountains. Vince later tells him that the gang has stolen a gold-plated cannon that was used by Emperor Maximilian in his ill-fated fight against popular Mexican leader
Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Mexican politician, military commander, and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. A Zapotec peoples, Zapotec, he w ...
. Vince informs him that a wanted poster has been produced: it says that Jess is in the gang who stole the cannon and has sustained a neck wound as a result of being shot by one of the guards. Ordering his men to subdue Jess on the ground, Vince uses a branding iron to burn his neck. They take his horse, leaving him stranded. He captures a wild horse in the desert and saddle-breaks it. The gang's motive is to force a ransom from the town they stole the cannon from, but the gang also use the cannon to hold the townspeople at bay. Only Jess can save the people from his former gang.


Cast

*
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
as Jess Wade * Ina Balin as Tracey Winters * Victor French as Vince Hackett * Barbara Werle as Sara Ramsey * Solomon Sturges as Billy Roy Hackett * Lynn Kellogg as Marcie * Paul Brinegar as Opie Keetch * Harry Landers as Heff * Tony Young as Lt. Rivera * James Almanzar as Sheriff Ramsey * James Sikking as Gunner


Background

The role of Jess Wade was originally offered to
Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...
, who turned it down. The budget for the movie was estimated at $2.5 million and Elvis was paid his now standard $850,000 plus 50% of the profits. Committed to the role of a rough gunfighter in the film, Elvis grew a beard for the only time in a movie. His ''
Memphis Mafia The Memphis Mafia was the nickname given in the 60'sby the media to the group of Elvis Presley's friends, associates, employees and cousins whose main functions were to accompany, protect, and serve Presley. From the beginning of his career in 195 ...
'' cohorts showed their support for Elvis by also growing beards at this time. Elvis also did his own horse riding in the film, which was helped by the experience he had with horses on his own ranch, the '' Circle G''. Elvis had long been a gun owner and collector of firearms, and he used to practice his quick draw with
Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...
. Elvis made sure that he could show off his skills with firearms in this film. Working titles for the film included ''Jack Valentine'', ''Johnny Hung'', and ''Come Hell or Come Sundown''. Presley signed up to the project with high hopes after reading the serious, song-free script, but was left disappointed when he arrived for his first day of shooting on July 22, 1968, to find that the script he had originally signed up for had been changed beyond recognition, although Elvis ensured the main characters name of Jesus Wade was changed to Jess Wade. The original opening scene, which was to feature female nudity, was dropped and focused instead on the film's opening gunfight. Frederick Louis Fox's original story for ''Charro!'' contains many violent scenes that were dropped from the film altogether, such as a closeup and longer edit of the branding scene. Harry Whittington based his novelization of ''Charro!'' on Fox's story, and included the scenes that Warren deemed too violent for the film.De Jong, Gerrit
"Original Books Adapted Into Elvis Presley's Movies."
''www.elvisechoesofthepast.com.'' Retrieved December 9, 2016.
A scene featuring a nude Ina Balin climbing from a bath was also removed, although this scene has been restored in the complete unedited version. Location scenes were shot at Apache Junction and the Apacheland Movie Ranch in
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
. Proud of his work in ''Charro!'', Elvis said this was one of his favorite films, whilst there was much interest in Elvis starring in a western at that time.
Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memor ...
wanted to co-star with Elvis in ''
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' is a 1969 American Western (genre), Western buddy film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman. Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, k ...
'' and
John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne, was an American actor. Nicknamed "Duke", he became a Pop icon, popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood' ...
wanted Elvis to co-star with him in '' True Grit''. Elvis' manager
Colonel Tom Parker Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 January 21, 1997) was a Dutch people, Dutch talent manager and concert promoter, best known as the manager of Elvis Presley. Parker was born in the Netherlands and Il ...
contested Elvis' billing and would only agree if he was top billed. Eventually, he was paid more money to star in ''
Charro ''Charro'', in Mexico, is historically the horseman from the countryside, the Ranchero, who lived and worked in the haciendas and performed all his tasks on horseback, working mainly as vaqueros and caporales, among other jobs. He was ren ...
'' than he would have been in those films. ''
Charro ''Charro'', in Mexico, is historically the horseman from the countryside, the Ranchero, who lived and worked in the haciendas and performed all his tasks on horseback, working mainly as vaqueros and caporales, among other jobs. He was ren ...
'' has been strongly reassessed as one of Elvis' best films and his performance as Jess Wade has been called the most convincing of his career. Many fans believe that a new phase of Elvis' acting career should have been ahead for him after this film and '' Change of Habit'', but the concert stage beckoned.
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...
used the name of Charro's director, Charles Marquis Warren, for Samuel L. Jackson's character in his western ''
The Hateful Eight ''The Hateful Eight'' is a 2015 American western thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce De ...
''.


Reception

The film, although successful, was not received as well as Presley's previous films. Many of Presley's fans were put off by the lack of songs, and critics were generally unimpressed with the film as a whole. Despite this, the film made a good profit and Presley received $850,000 for his work and 50% of the profits. Roger Greenspun of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote of Presley's performance, "He treats his part rather as a minor embarrassment, and he seems determined not to push himself in a role that could have used a stronger personality to fill the lapses in the story and the wide open spaces in the dialogue." '' Variety'' wrote that "Presley strolls through a tedious role that would have driven many another actor up the wall ... Even more at fault than Presley, who has occasionally responded in the past to the demands of a good director, is Charles Marquis Warren, who takes credit (or blame?) for the script, the direction, and even part of the production." Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' wrote that in the film Presley "sings nary a note, which is too bad. A song or two, though arguably inappropriate, would have helped to relieve the tedium of this trite low-budget Western that has quick-sale-to-TV stamped all over it." Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' called it "the least kinesthetic Western I've ever seen," which "seems to have conceived for the small screen. A plot that might suffice for 30 minutes of restless entertainment has been stretched to a somnambulent 98 minutes." Allan Eyles of ''
The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' wrote, "Unfortunately, ''Charro'' is fatally undermined by the slack staging of its action highlights and by a plot riddled with irrational behaviour and dialogue ... As if to compensate for the film's lack of impact, Hugo Montenegro's lively but over-attentive score does too much underlining of mood and character."


Soundtrack

In June 1968, Presley had already completed the sequences and recorded the songs for what would be his comeback television special and its attendant album, '' Elvis'', that put his musical talents back on display after the long slog of the
soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
years. During the special, Presley erroneously states that he had made twenty-nine "pictures" up to that time. The actual tally was twenty-eight at taping. ''Charro'' would be the twenty-ninth. By the time the special aired in December 1968, Presley had completed his thirtieth film, '' The Trouble with Girls (and How to Get into It)''. His confidence and enthusiasm restored, Presley turned to his musical obligations for ''Charro!'' Appropriately for a Western, the studio hired Hugo Montenegro to produce the two songs intended for the film. The recording session took place at Samuel Goldwyn Studio in
Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...
on October 15, 1968.Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 260. The title song appeared in the movie during the
opening credits In a motion picture, television program or video game, the opening credits or opening titles are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank scree ...
, and was released commercially on February 25, 1969, as the
b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
to RCA 47-9731 "
Memories Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is Encoding (memory), encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future Action (philosophy), action. I ...
," which had also appeared on the TV special and album. The other song recorded for the film, but not used, "Let's Forget About the Stars", appeared on the budget album '' Let's Be Friends'' in 1970. This song is erroneously referred to in some sources as an outtake from the soundtrack of the later Presley film '' Change of Habit''.


Personnel

*
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
-
vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
* Sue Allen, Sally Stevens, Allan Capps, Loren Faber
Ronald Hicklin, Ian Freebairn Smith, Robert Zwirn - backing vocals *
Howard Roberts Howard Mancel Roberts (October 2, 1929 – June 28, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician. Early life Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Damon and Vesta Roberts, and began playing guitar at the age of 8 — a ...
, Tommy Tedesco, Ralph Grasso -
electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
* Don Randi -
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
* Max Bennett -
bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
* Ray Brown -
double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
* Cubby O'Brien -
drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
* Emil Radocchia -
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
* ''unknown horns and strings''


Film music track listing

# "
Charro ''Charro'', in Mexico, is historically the horseman from the countryside, the Ranchero, who lived and worked in the haciendas and performed all his tasks on horseback, working mainly as vaqueros and caporales, among other jobs. He was ren ...
" ( Billy Strange and Mac Davis) # " Let's Forget About the Stars" ( A. L. Owens) (Recorded for the film, but unused)


Home media

''Charro!'' was released on
Video CD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video), (not to be confused with CD Video which is a type of Laserdisc) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The f ...
in 1996. ''Charro!'' was released to DVD in the summer of 2007. It marked the very first time that an uncut release of the film was presented to the retail market, and in its original wide-screen letterbox format. This DVD version underwent an extensive re-mastering process to restore the original 35mm film-print quality. Previous VHS issues of the film, notably the 1990 Warner Home Video release, were of an inferior standard, mainly due to poor picture quality and minor edits throughout the film. An oddity concerning ''Charro!'' is the film's classification. Despite containing violence and partial nudity (the latter a scene in which Ina Balin's character is shown exiting a bath tub), it was released with an
MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, the mini-major Amazon MGM Studios, as well as the video streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. F ...
G rating, even though other Presley films from the 1968-69 period carry PG ratings. These latter releases are somewhat less 'adult' than ''Charro!''.


See also

*
List of American films of 1969 This is a list of American films released in 1969 in film, 1969. Box office The highest-grossing American films released in 1969, by domestic box office gross revenue as estimated by ''The Numbers (website), The Numbers'', are as follows: ...


References


External links

* * {{Charles Marquis Warren 1969 films 1969 Western (genre) films 1960s English-language films American Western (genre) films Films directed by Charles Marquis Warren Films scored by Hugo Montenegro Films set in Mexico Films shot in Tucson, Arizona National General Pictures films 1960s American films English-language Western (genre) films