Product Description

Possibly the sexiest of all of The King's movies, this film finds Elvis playing a backwoods delinquent blessed with great literary talents with Millie Perkins as his childhood sweetheart. Co-starring Tuesday Weld.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20152 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 2002-08-13
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.com
Elvis plays a roughneck country boy, seething with hostility but gifted with literary talent. In the occasionally precious Clifford Odets script, this comes across as James Dean by way of a Thomas Wolfe novel--and not a bad shot at respectable acting by Elvis. His monologue about his dead mother, delivered to sympathetic shrink Hope Lange, is one of the most affecting things the King ever did in a movie. The songs are kept to a minimum, and Presley has some good, thrumming energy with the young Tuesday Weld (bad girl) and Millie Perkins (good girl), two uncommonly smart actresses. This is one of many Hollywood melodramas suggesting the angst brewing beneath the prosperity of the Eisenhower-Kennedy era, and it holds up decently, if not spectacularly. For Elvis fans, it's a poignant glimpse at a performer still in the young-buck stage of exciting possibilities. --Robert Horton

DVD features
Not much beyond the basics. The color in the widescreen transfer looks brand-new, although the soundtrack seems unevenly mixed at times. --Robert Horton

From the Back Cover
Wild in the Country features the King in one of his most emotional roles. Elvis Presley stars as a rebellious backwoods delinquent gifted with a rare literary talent. Hope Lange is the sympathetic psychiatrist who tries to help him, while Tuesday Weld and Millie Perkins round out an all-star cast as his seductive cousin and childhood sweetheart. This is Elvis at his untamed bad-boy best! Featured songs: Wild in the Country, I Slipped I Stumbled I Fell.

Customer Reviews

Wild In The Country
Wild In The Country would offer Elvis his last serious role in a film by a significant director (Philip Dunne). Elvis portrays Glenn Tyler, a southern boy from a rural, poverty-stricken background, who has just been released from juvenile hall. Central to the character of Glenn is that the brooding young man is at a crossroads in his life, and he must choose the path most suitable for him. His choices are represented by three women. Noreen (Tuesday Weld) is Glenn's cousin who urges him to stay with his own kind. Noreen offers passion and good times, but such a carefree existence allows little thought for the future. Betty Lee (Millie Perkins), who is Glenn's childhood sweetheart selflessly places Glenn's future above her own needs, urging him to leave town and attend college. She is prepared to lose him that he may have an education and a secure future. Hope Lange costars as Irene Sperry, the court-appointed psychiatrist assigned to Glenn's case, who recognizes in him the raw talent of a budding writer. She also encourages Glenn to attend college but causes scandal when she falls in love with him. Glenn ends up following Betty Lee's advice and asking her to wait for him.

With a strong supporting cast including a young Tuesday Weld who was only 17 years old during the film's production. She was one of the hottest and wildest starlets in Hollywood and already had romances with two of of her costars in the film - Elvis and Veteran Actor John Ireland.

Produced for Twentieth Century Fox by Jerry Wald. Released June 22, 1961. Color.

A singer who can act? Or an actor who can sing? You be the judge!!
Although I don't feel that this is one of Elvis' best efforts, there is still something about this movie that draws you to it!

A more serious role, than his usual musical performances, he comes across as still being a little raw, but I still enjoyed it, all the same.

There were fine supporting roles played by Millie Perkins as his girlfriend Betty Lee, Tuesday Weld as his cousin Noreen, and Hope Lange as his psychiatrist.

Tuesday Weld has come a long way since her debut, playing the teenage daughter of Danny Kaye ("Red Nichols") in The Five Pennies, and put in a very good performance.

Millie Perkins also delivered a sound performance. I enjoyed her role as much as I did in the movie The Diary of Anne Frank in which she portrayed "Anne Frank".

Hope Lange is always enjoyable to watch, and that is the case here again in this movie.

Although not ranked as high in my all time favourite Elvis movies, it is still worth the watch, and a good movie to have in your collection.

A True Elvis Gem That Must Be Recognized
Elvis can act, and sing and love!!! This movie, based very loosly on the JD Salamenca novel Lost In The Country, is about Glen who is put on probation after a run in with his drunk borhter(and a previous charge of car theft). He is to move in with his Uncle Rolfe and cousin Nory and work in Uncle Rolfe's Snake-Oil Medicine factory and he must meet with social worker Irene Sperry. He still finds time to spend time with girlfriend BettyLee but is warned to leave her alone, by her father. Even from the beginnig Glen is a sour, angry young man and only finds time to soften up to BettyLee and later Ms. Sperry who he considers an enemy who's trying to find out if he's "touched in the head". When he can no longer carry on with BettyLee he has a fling with his cousin Nory(who has an illegitimate baby) whom he butts heads with at first. Uncle Rolfe, in a way, encourages this but then seems outraged(when it really happens) causing Glen to lash out and run away to work at a car garage. Right now the only women he can turn to is Ms. Sperry who finds a hidden writing talent in Glen and asks him to write in a journal and present it to him. ONe day she takes him to a prestigious University and encourages his writing talent. ON the way back they stop over in a motel during a storm and of course they attempt to make love only to have Irene come to her senses. While there a young man(Glen's enemy) reads the motel register and realizes the two are there. The young man's father is the town lawyer who is married and carrying on with Ms. Sperry. When he tells his father(whom he can't stand), the man confronts Irene who confesses she is in love with Glen. She tries to discourage Glen, who feels the same way, when she explains her husband felt the same way but he was not ready for marriage and it led to his accidental death. Unfortunately, Glen is at the house when Irene is confronted by her lawyer lover and Glen then claims that the young man will die for this and the boy does after being hit by Glen. Glen is put on trial but Ms. Sperry arrives saying the deceased had a heart problem(she overheard this from the boy's father) but the father vehemently denies it. Irene is ruined and attempts suicide. Glen has been exonerated(after the boy's father realizes he cannot hide the heart condition and hurt Irene) and is released and tells her he will always be there. Glen then goes to college but still says he will be back for her. I can believe it! This is a rare opportunity to see an angry and sensitive Elvis who can act and he does very little singing. It's a shame his movie career didn't continue on this course. Hope Lange is excellent but she seems to play "the other women" alot, but always harmless. It's the first time she plays a rather weak one, especially when she tries to kill herself. This is a wonderful movie