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Released by: Twilight Time Releasing
Released on: November 18th, 2014.
Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Elvis Presley, John McIntire, Dolores Del Rio, Barbara Eden
Year: 1960
Purchase From Screen Archives
The Movie:
After Love Me Tender Elvis would make Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole and G.I. Blues (widely regarded as some of his best films) before taking on the role of Pacer Burton, the son of a white father named Sam (John McIntire) and a Native American woman named Neddy (Dolores Del Rio). Since the Kiowa Indian tribe is looked down upon by many of the white settlers in the area, you can see how Pacer and his family might run into trouble now and again. Things get complicated for Pacer and his brother Clint (Steve Forrest) when a nearby house full of white settlers is murdered by the Kiowa while the Burtons are left safe and sound. The townsfolk figure they might be in on this, and they take none too kindly to that. As a small scale war erupts in the area, the Burtons only want to be left alone, but when the settlers push the family to take a side, tensions flare and peace no longer seems like a viable option…
Directed by none other than Don Siegel long before he'd be known for working with action icons like Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson, Flaming Star again contains a really good performance from Elvis. His acting is light on dialogue and high facial expressions and body language accentuated by the moody camerawork. This lets him play to his strong points and his work in this picture is genuinely effective.
As decent as Elvis is in the movie, however, it's Dolores Del Rio who steals every scene that she's in. We can completely buy her in the part and because of that, her conflict becomes fairly real to us. It's easy to sympathize with her as we get a grip on her feelings for both her family and her people. L.Q. Jones and Barbara Eden also pop up here in amusing supporting roles. This one turns out to be quite a bit more mature than most of Elvis' other films, and a fair bit more thought provoking at that.
There are only two musical numbers here and they don't really feel out of place at all, while the cinematography from Charles Clarke ensures that the picture is consistently impressive on a visual level. The camerawork does an excellent job of capturing the dusty landscape over which the melodrama plays out, and Siegel's solid and workmanlike direction ensures that the picture moves at a strong pace. The film is also surprisingly violent (at least for an Elvis movie) and features some tense scenes of well-choreographed action, all of which are handled nicely by the talented cast.
Flaming Star might not be the movie that immediately springs to mind when you think of Elvis films and its darker subject matter and more serious tone may mean that it'll forever live in the shadow of his more popular lighthearted films but it is a well-made movie that's definitely worth revisiting for fans of Elvis, Siegel or just quality American western films in general.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Flaming Star arrives on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world from Twilight Time in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed in the film's original widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35.1. This is, like the transfer provided for Follow That Dream a few months back, a very strong picture boasting excellent detail and a nice film-like appearance that provides a pretty substantial visual upgrade over the past DVD release. A nice, natural amount of film grain is present but never overpowering and print damage is never an issue. Colors are reproduced quite nicely and look pretty accurate, as does contrast. Skin tones look lifelike and natural, nice and warm without becoming too pink or too orange. The black levels might not quite hit reference quality levels but they're deep, while shadow detail is fine and the darker scenes are free of any crush or compression artifacts.
There are two audio options provided here for the feature, the original English language Mono track and a new 5.1 mix, both in DTS-HD Master Audio format track with optional closed captioning offered up in English as well. The mono mix is a simple but effective track gets the job done. There's decent depth and range here as well. The 5.1 mix opens up the action scenes and spreads the score around nicely without sounding too forced. It's not the most aggressive over the top track you'll ever here but it sounds good. There are no issues with any hiss or distortion on either mix and the levels are properly balanced on both tracks.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary with Film Historians Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman. This is a solid, well-researched track that does a fine job of laying out where Siegel's career was at this point and how his directorial style compliments the performances in the movie. We also get some interesting facts and observations about the cinematography, the use of music in the film, the locations and various cast and crew members.
Additionally we get the film's original theatrical trailer, static menus and chapter selection. Inside the Blu-ray case, however, is the obligatory color insert booklet containing archival images and another set of insightful, well-written liner notes from scribe Julie Kirgo. She rightly points out some of what makes this particular picture stand out against the other entries in Elvis' filmography and offers some welcome background information on the film as well as the cast and crew that made it.
The Final Word:
Flaming Star is definitely one of Elvis' best films and Twilight Time have done it right with this Blu-ray release. The transfer is a strong one and offers a very noticeable improvement over the past DVD and on top of that we get some decent extras and two lossless audio options. A very fine release for a really good western.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
