Background
The film rights for Flaming Star had been circulating around Hollywood since 1958 when 20th Century Fox finally decided to cast Presley in the lead role. Originally Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando were lined up to play the brothers.
Presley's previous film, G.I. Blues, had been a success at the box office and had led to one of his best selling albums to that point. However, determined to be taken seriously as an actor, Presley asked for roles with fewer songs. Flaming Star was initially to include four songs, but after Presley demanded two of the songs be removed, it ended up with only the title song and a short number at the opening birthday party scene.
Barbara Steele, a British actress originally signed to play the love interest, was replaced during filming by Barbara Eden after studio executives decided that Steele's accent was too pronounced.
The film was released only one month after G.I. Blues but did not achieve the same degree of box office success, reaching number 12 on the Variety box office survey for the year. Presley's next film, Wild in the Country, also failed to impress fans or critics, and Colonel Tom Parker used this to persuade Presley that his audience didn't want to see him in straight acting roles. This led to musical-comedies such as Blue Hawaii and Kid Galahad, which set the precedent for most of his roles for the rest of his career.
Publicity stills of Elvis from the film were used by Andy Warhol to create several silkscreens: "Double Elvis," "Triple Elvis,", "Eight Elvises" and "Elvis 11 Times."
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