In what is probably his best serious acting role, Elvis Presley plays a young halfbreed in 1878 Texas, the son of a white man and Indian woman (John McIntire and Dolores Del Rio), who have lived in peace between their two communities but must choose sides when fighting breaks out. Apart from one song, delivered at a hoedown near the film's start, it is a purely dramatic role for Elvis, thanks largely to director Don Siegel, who battled the studio in an effort to have Presley not sing, and then elicited a rather remarkable performance from him in a role originally designed for Marlon Brando. The film received mixed reviews: as always, Siegel's direction was praised for its deliberate, workmanlike clarity. But Elvis' performance was generally lost to both fan and foe behind the fact of his presence. “Mr. Presley relies on two devices to portray emotion: he sulks, or twitches a muscle in his jaw,” was the N.Y. Herald Tribune's negative reaction. Arthur Knight found the same performance “singularly effective.... The deep eyes, filled with resentment, and the curling, sneering lips.... There is still the familiar, physical Elvis.... it is the depth of feeling he reveals that comes as a surprise.”
Flaming Star was little recognized for its strong presentation of racial conflict. “The question of prejudice against Indians was then, and is today, bad enough (without using it as a simple metaphor for White vs. Black). If our conclusion is pessimistic, it is because I can conceive of no other kind of conclusion for a film on prejudice if it is to be anything but a false conclusion.” --Don Siegel, Take One, 1972. (J.B.)