Here"s the alpha point of Elvis Presley"s film career, the introduction of the raw-boned Mississippi boy into Hollywood pictures. E.P. takes a supporting role, and his entrance is delayed for nearly 20 minutes: kid brother to returning Civil War soldier Richard Egan, his character marries Egan"s sweetheart Debra Paget when Egan is presumed dead. It"s a chance for Elvis, his face still trembling with baby fat, to emote dramatically and finish tragically, both of which he does passably well. A serviceable Western, the film shamelessly shoehorns four Presley tunes into two sequences: E.P. crooning on mama"s porch, and performing at a country fair (where starchy locals don"t seem disturbed at the boy"s gyrating hips and happy feet). All in all, a shrewd way to put a foot in Hollywood"s doorway, and, of course, one of the last Presley movies to feel like a real film and not a vehicle for the King. --Robert Horton