Charro!

1969

G

This is Yacs again with a movie review and this will be the 5th Elvis Presley movie that I have reviewed. Charro! was Elvis’s 29th acting effort and he only starred in two more films after this one. This was the only movie that Elvis didn’t perform any songs in his whole collection and it was also the only film that he donned a beard. It is a Western film and Elvis didn’t act in many films of this particular genre, but at this point in his acting career, he was far from an amateur and he did well in serious acting roles. Without further ado, here is my review of the film and I will attach links to my other Elvis reviews if you are interested in those.

The setting of Charro! Is somewhere along the Mexican/American border, but it isn’t clearly specified. The film revolves around the main character Jess Wade (Elvis Presley) and his attempt to be a better man and leave his life as an outlaw behind. Jess rides into town and stops in a Mexican bar. He hopes to hear from a former lover, Tracey Winters (Ina Balin), but instead runs into the old gang he used to run with and was ambushed. Jess nearly makes his escape, but is captured by the gang led by Vince Hackett (Victor French). His brother, Billy Roy Hackett (Solomon Sturges), Gunner (James Sikking) and others aid in the kidnapping and inform Jess that he is a wanted man. The gang stole a gold-plated cannon that is worth $100,000 and is an historic Mexican artifact. They set Jess up as the thief. The gang beat Jess up and hold a hot iron on his neck, because in the description of his wanted poster it said that he could be identified by a mark on his neck. Jess is sent on his way and is now attempting to get away from Mexican and American government authorities.

Jess finds his way into town and runs into the local Sheriff, Dan Ramsey (James Almanzar). Obviously at this point, the sheriff knows about the wanted poster, but doesn’t believe Jess is guilty of the crime. Shortly after, Jess stops by a hotel and meets up with his former lover, Tracey, and the two get reacquainted. Billy Roy stops into the hotel ballroom later that night and runs into Jess, but Billy Roy runs into more trouble than he bargained for. He wounded the Sheriff by gunshot and is captured and placed in the jail for the time being. While the Sheriff is recovering, he swears in Jess as a deputy. Vince discovers that Billy Roy strayed from the group that night and discovers what happened to him. For the rest of the film, the gang tries to free Billy Roy from jail and they put the whole town in danger until they get what they want. In the process, the sheriff’s wife, Sara Ramsey (Barbara Werle) and the rest of the townspeople, with the exception of only a couple people, still believe that Jess is in on the gang’s terrorization of the town.

Like I said earlier, this is my 5th Elvis movie review and I have mentioned previously that for the most part, I am watching his best rated films. I have always been interested in this movie prior to watching it, but this was the first time I have seen it all the way through. Apparently, this movie was first offered to Clint Eastwood, but he turned it down. Eastwood was quickly becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and I guess he had other offers for better things. It was also said that the script changed quite a bit from the first time Elvis read it, which upset him. The film was successful, but not well received among fans. It was said at the time that fans were upset that there wasn’t any music in the film. Also, interestingly enough, the rating of this particular movie was G, but at first there was supposed to be some full frontal nudity in the opening scene. I have a feeling it would’ve been a completely different movie if the script didn’t change.

I personally thought that this film was pretty good, despite only having a 5.7/10 rating on IMDb. Like I said earlier, fans were upset that there wasn’t an Elvis musical performance that we come to expect, but I personally love that there isn’t music in it other than the intro. It gave him the ability to show off his acting skills, rather than using his music as a crutch to get him through the film. While this probably wasn’t his best acting effort, I blame the script changes and direction of the film more than his acting abilities.

While this wasn’t a particularly strong cast, it was a cast that fit the film. This let Elvis be the star of the show, without the potential of being overshadowed by any performer. His rival Vince Hackett, was played by Victor French who was probably most recognized as Mr. Edwards on the hit TV show, Little House on the Prairie. Elvis’s love interest Tracey Winters was played by Ina Balin, who happened to be a Golden Globe winning actress. It was a decent cast, but one that wasn’t very well known at the time other than some of them being in a couple films, mostly westerns.

Is this a timeless classic Western and/or a must watch? Probably not, but I would say it is the perfect lazy afternoon Western that you can just pop in and watch. If you are an Elvis fan, you will enjoy it though. As of this week, I now have a copy of every movie that Elvis ever starred in, but my Charro! DVD didn’t want to cooperate for the last 10 minutes, so thank goodness it was streaming on Tubi. I would recommend checking Tubi out, because they have free movies and TV shows and there seems to be a lot of good content on there.

Of the 5 Elvis films that I have reviewed, I would say that this is probably my worst rated or second to last. Not to say that it was bad or I didn’t enjoy it, like I mentioned before, I have reviewed his most liked films so far and it has to be placed somewhere.

GRADE: 3.4/5

Yacs

Previous Elvis Movie Reviews:

Now that I have reviewed 5 Elvis movies, from here on out I think I am going to rank the movies that I have reviewed of his. I will place them in the order from best to worst. Some of my review opinions may change though, for example, I mentioned that Jailhouse Rock was probably my third rated film of Elvis in the article, but after a little time for it to settle in, I’d say it is probably second on my list. Also, if I could rate these again, I would change a couple of them. Here are the Elvis movies that I have reviewed.

Charro!

Movie Review: Charro!