Elvis Presley's 1st feature film, Love Me Tender is a 1956 western directed by Robert D. Webb.
Vance Reno (Richard Egan), a Confederate soldier, follows orders to steal payrolls from the Union. Unbeknownst to him at the time, the war has ended with the Confederacy's defeat. He decides to keep the money for himself and the rest of his team and goes back home to his family and his fiancee, Cathy (Debra Paget). However, he finds that she married his younger brother, Clinton (Presley), after they received false news of his fall in battle. Vance is heartbroken, but determined not to get in their way, so he decides to leave and settle elsewhere faraway, but those plans are complicated by the Feds, who want the money he stole back.
Tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: Vance and Cathy are allowed to be with each other in the end, albeit at the tragic cost of Clint's life.
- Bridal Carry: Vance picks up a bewildered Cathy and moves to carry her through the door of their home, thinking that he can finally marry her, only for Clint to interrupt by revealing she's now his wife.
- Cain and Abel: When Vance's traitorous war buddies convince Clint that he is trying to run away with Cathy, Clint goes crazy with jealousy and it culminates in a showdown between the two where Clint non-fatally shoots Vance. Clint immediately regrets it and tries to defend Vance when the aforementioned war buddies try to raid him, only to get fatally shot by them.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Clint becomes unhinged when he thinks Cathy is trying to run away with Vance, leading to him aggressively confronting her and disbelieving her claims, followed by a showdown with Vance.
- Historical Domain Character:
- The Reno brothers were actual train robbers
with a law-abiding sibling, Clinton, nicknamed "Honest Clint", though the similarities end there — the gang were career criminals from a young age driven out of their hometown, two of them signed up for the Union and Confederate Armies multiple times just to collect advance salaries and then desert, and their robberies did not have the excuse of being committed during the war. - A detective by the name of "Mr. Siringo" arrives on behalf of the U.S. government to question the brothers about the robbery, and ends up becoming a key figure in the events that follow. In reality, Charlie Siringo would've been still 10 years old at the time the film takes place, and definitely not a Pinkerton yet.
- The Reno brothers were actual train robbers
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Vance realizes Clint and Cathy are now married, he decides to go away so as not to hurt Cathy or Clint. It's subverted in that Cathy still has feelings for Vance.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Cathy urges Vance at first to be honest with Clint that they were courting and planned on getting married, knowing that Clint looks up to his big brother and would understand; instead, Vance tells him they were only "good friends" so he doesn't realize he was the Romantic Runner-Up. Between Cathy's obvious unrequited love and the later appearance of deception on Vance's part, this only serves to make Clint believe his brother's a cheating rat who's been deceiving him all this time.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Vance's family thought he died at war and are conflicted when he comes back home unscathed, since his fiancee married his brother Clint in the meanwhile.
- Sibling Triangle: Vance was eager to marry Cathy after coming back from the war, only to discover she married Clint because she thought he died at war. Cathy can't help but still love Vance, while Clint also genuinely loves her, making things quite painful for everybody involved.
