Much has been said about Elvis Presley’s film career and how notoriously spotty it is. 

Much of that has to do with Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, who famously steered Elvis away from serious roles to continue to present the rock and roll icon in screwball comedies and light-hearted fare.

In 1969, Elvis made a bid to change that with his performance in the serious western, Charro!  Other than the title song, Elvis doesn’t sing so much as a single note throughout the film.  He has one love interest and only kisses her once in the first third of the film.  There are no scenes of wild parties.  There are no dances numbers, aside from a peak at a performance of showgirls in a saloon.  There are no beaches.  There are no jokes.   In fact, there is almost nothing funny about Charro!

The story follows Jess Wade (Elvis Presley), a man determined to live an honest life after spending time riding with outlaws.  The band of men he rode with has stolen a Mexican national treasure, and then frames Wade for the theft.  Wade must bring the men to justice and return the treasure to clear his name.

Now that story sounds promising in theory.  However, about halfway through the movie, Charro! becomes a rip-off of Howard Hawkes’ Rio Bravo.  Wade captures the bandit leader's younger brother and then throws him in jail.  The sheriff deputizes Wade, and the bandits give him until sundown to release the prisoner, or they’ll start blasting the town apart.

Charro! is in many ways an adequate western.  The settings and feel of the movie are all vintage American western, and Presley’s performance is actually fantastic.  He comes off as the quintessential badass that you knew he always could be, if given the chance.  His love interest, a saloon owner and former girlfriend of the leader of the bandits, is absolutely gorgeous, and her performance is also notable. 

However, the script for this film is mostly to blame for shackling everyone involved.  The movie could easily have stood another twenty to thirty minutes of character development on everyone’s part.  That’s actually kind of sad, when you consider that Presley actually made a solid choice selecting this film to star in.  The film was written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who created Gunsmoke, Rawhide and The Virginian.  It almost seems as if Warren is uncomfortable with a longer format, and prefers to rush along to reach the end.

I think even more sadly though, this showed what could have happened had Presley been allowed to star in more serious films.  He would never have been a Clint Eastwood, but he was hardly a slouch. 

In this same year, Elvis would release two more films (notably Change of Habit costarring Mary Tyler Moore), and then would hang up his film career for good.

Presentation
Well, it looks like a classic western from the 1960s.  The colors are superb, and the sound is fine.  Not much to say here.

Extras
Once again, just a theatrical trailer.  This one is so short you’ll miss it if you blink.

The Bottom Line
Charro! is a movie that is hard not to like on at least some level.  Presley’s performance is a fun one, but unlike Rio Bravo, or other westerns, we never get to see him truly cut loose and beat the hell out of some bad guys.  That’s too bad, and is one of the reasons I think I came away from this movie feeling like the whole thing just moved too slow.  This one is only for diehard western fans, and Elvis completists.