Wild in the Country

(1961)

Film / Drama

Director: Philip Dunne

Cast: Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld and Millie Perkins

Wild in the Country is a drama starring Elvis Presley who portrays a troubled young man from a dysfunctional family pursuing a literary career.  As the movie opens, Glenn Tyler (Elvis Presley) is fighting with his drunken brother and badly injures him. After being released from court on probation, he is placed into the care of his uncle in a small town.  Appointed to Irene Sperry (Hope Lange) to give him psychological counseling, he is already marked as a trouble-maker, and is falsely suspected of various misdemeanors, including an affair with Irene. Eventually proven to be innocent, he leaves the small town to go to college and become a writer.

This was Elvis' last dramatic lead role until Charro! as his next film, Blue Hawaii, was his first big budget musical and was a huge box office sensation. All of Presley’s subsequent movies were largely formula musicals, which despite being quite lucrative, never gave him the chance to develop his potential as a serious actor, which was very apparent in "Wild in the Country".

 Wild in the Country trailer