Tuesday Weld, Elvis Presley
Tuesday Weld, Elvis Presley’s sometimes girl, was also his costar in the wonderful Wild in the Country (1961), where they play two individuals who, at first, circle warily around each other, like cats who either want to fuck or fight, or maybe both (why choose?). His first words to her in the film are a soft gentlemanly, “Excuse me”, but he says it to her because she has purposefully and kind of rudely stood in the doorway, blocking his passage. She does so to make him deal with her. It takes willpower for him to slip past her, and his body language as he moves by her, trying not to touch her is one of his most erotic moments as an actor (yes, even more so than the “That ain’t tactics, baby, it’s just the beast in me” moment in Jailhouse Rock. It’s more so because it’s subtle, and the moment requires self-control and repression, which is inherently hot when you’re talking about two sexual powerhouses such as Tuesday Weld and Elvis Presley.)
What he does in the moment I’m talking about is simple as can be, natural and un-pushed, but eloquent and deep. From that moment, you know those two are going to go at it. Presley and Weld’s characters in Wild in the Country are bad news together when they finally hook up, but it is awesome cinema when Elvis is allowed to be wild, dirty, troubled, and careless, with a gal by his side who is even more so, a woman who has had a baby out of wedlock, eats with her mouth open, lets her dress strap fall down on her shoulder, and laughs with her head thrown back. They’re electric together.
Tuesday Weld said, in re: Presley:
He walked into a room and everything stopped. Elvis was just so physically beautiful that even if he didn’t have any talent . . . just his face, just his presence. And he was funny, charming, and complicated, but he didn’t wear it on his sleeve. You didn’t see that he was complicated. You saw great needs.
As electric as she is in Wild in the Country (and it’s unbelievable to think how young she is, to give such an assured performance), I love her especially in Pretty Poison with Anthony Perkins. It recently got a run at Film Forum and it was awesome to see it on the big screen. Her beauty is undeniable, and it works almost like an assault in the film. She is irresistible. But as the film goes on, you start to see/feel other more creepy sides. With the last frame, you are left with more questions. Her presence enlarges the second the film ends. It’s a character you walk around thinking about.
Both so raw and open to each other. They are the WILD in the title.
Yes, with her he gets to just let loose. You can feel his pity for her (something she gets from no one else) … and their dynamic together is just smokin’. Him drawing a bath as she glances at the open door. The thought of him about to get naked. The way he asks her to come into the bathroom and then grabs her. The way he walks behind her at the table, and pauses for a second – to reach down and pull up her dress strap. A kind of tender moment, the subtext being, “Honey, you are all a mess.”
It’s all so specifically portrayed. Makes me wish they had worked together more.
also there’s that lovely quiet moment when Presley sits outside with Millie Perkins, trying to talk with her, and get her off his back. Tuesday Weld sits on the top step of the outdoor stairwell, and strums the guitar – pulling the attention of EP and Millie. Millie wants to know all about her (“where is her husband, what is the baby like”) – and EP feels harassed by the questions. “Oh, hell, what do babies look like …” He’s not cruel to his girlfriend, he just wants to relax, he’s had a rough day – AND … he’s a bit drawn to that vision on the stairwell.
Millie looks up at Tuesday and comments quietly, “She’s pretty.” EP glances up at Tuesday, takes in the vision of her and says, agreeing, “Pretty and sad.”
It’s a lovely exchange – very well written – and happens early on in the movie but sets up almost the entire romantic subplot.
I remember being totally obsessed with TW when I was a teenager. I was about two years younger, so she seemed so daring and free to me (I was neither, needless to say). Wonder if she met John Ireland on this movie or before? I know they went out (or so “they” said, but who knows, they may just have been good friends). She was so beautiful, and I always fought with my girlfriends who liked good girls Sandra Dee or Carol Lynley more than Tuesday. God, that was forever ago. VANITY FAIR ran a picture of her a couple of years ago in their Hollywood issue and she was radiantly beautiful. She somehow figured out how to age well. Amazing. Thanks for this piece. It brought back many many memories (but then most of your pieces do).
In addition to that sexual electricity, in “Wild in the Country” we get to hear Clifford Odets trying to sound like Tennessee Williams, and Elvis speak the dialogue!
Heaven!!
and when the professor reads the story Elvis has written – and it’s all that be-bop Kerouac-esque style – just so much a part of that time.
There was always something about her that words couldn’t quite catch.