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Long harbouring a dream of becoming a movie star as well as a chart topping rock and roll idol, Elvis Presley made his acting debut as Clint Reno in this 1956 Western, starring as the young brother who stays home to take care of the family farm while his three older brothers fight for the Confederates in the American Civil War, later returning to find that Clint has married the former girlfriend of eldest brother Vance. Initially titled 'The Reno Brothers' and conceived as a Civil War drama without songs, four musical numbers including 'Love Me Tender' were shoehorned into the script after Elvis was cast in the picture. Following Presley's performance of the ballad on the Ed Sullivan Show, which prompted one million advanced sales of the single, Twentieth Century Fox retitled the film 'Love Me Tender'. Although most reviewers were somewhat critical of Presley's acting abilities, the film was so popular that it recouped its cost just two weeks after national release, and Elvis would go on to act in a further thirty feature films over the next thirteen years.
Introducing a generation of cinema-goers to Elvis on screen, poster artist Tom William Chantrell packed a punch with his design for the original British quad, picturing a roaring halftone Elvis on a popping hot pink ground, punctuated with a pulsing acid yellow silhouette of Presley with his guitar.