Development
The film was originally called The Reno Brothers based on a story by Maurice Geraghty. Fox bought the screen rights in August 1952 and assigned Robert L. Jacks to produce.
The film was not put into production immediately. A somewhat more realistic film telling the story of the Reno Brothers, Rage at Dawn starring Randolph Scott, had been released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1955.
Robert Buckner wrote a script and David Weisbart became a producer with Robert D. Webb to direct. In August 1956, Richard Egan signed to play the lead. Debra Paget was also signed before Presley.
Producer Weisbert said "we signed Elvis later for the younger brother (at $100,000) when we heard he was available."
Presley had shown interest in becoming an actor before achieving major success as a singer. His first No. 1 hit single, "Heartbreak Hotel", topped Billboard's Top 100 chart in April 1956, a few weeks after his screen test for this film. He had worked as a cinema usher in his youth and would often watch his screen idols James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Tony Curtis during shifts, studying their acting and learning lines from their movies. When he first met his future manager, Colonel Tom Parker, he expressed an interest in acting in film.
In interviews during his rise to fame, Presley would often talk about his hopes of attending somewhere like the Actors Studio. He also insisted that he would not like to sing in any of his movies because he wished to be taken seriously as a film star. However, Parker had a plan to cross-promote Presley's films with his music and this led to soundtracks being as important, if not moreso, than the scripts.
Presley screen-tested for Hal Wallis on March 26, 1956, at Paramount Studios. The test lasted three days and included Presley performing two scenes from The Rainmaker, and lip-syncing to Blue Suede Shoes.
Wallis' partner, Joe Hazen, commented: "As a straight actor, the guy has great potentialities." His first screen test, a scene from the William Inge play The Girls of Summer, resulted in drama coach Charlotte Clary declaring to her class of students, "Now that is a natural born actor".
On April 2, Wallis offered Presley a contract for one motion picture, with options on six more. The contract was finalized on April 25, and also stipulated that Presley was free to make at least one picture a year for other studios.
Wallis, who had produced classics such as Casablanca, Little Caesar, and The Maltese Falcon, had promised Presley that he would look for dramatic roles to let the singer take his acting career seriously.
Wallis considered Presley for a role in The Rat Race, a film about a "naive, innocent boy" who was struggling to make it as a musician in Manhattan, but he decided against it after another studio executive said, "Elvis Presley just doesn't look like that". The film was eventually made in 1960 with Tony Curtis in the lead role. Another possibility Wallis mulled over was to pair Presley with Jerry Lewis. Lewis had just separated from his comedy partner Dean Martin after a successful run of seventeen movies together, but again the idea was shelved.
On April 10, Presley confidently announced during a radio interview that his debut feature would be The Rainmaker with Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn. However, despite this belief, and due to Wallis being unable to find a project "good enough for the debut of Elvis Presley", he was loaned out to 20th Century Fox on August 13 and began work on Love Me Tender on August 22.
Presley's role had originally been turned down by both Jeffrey Hunter and Robert Wagner because the part was too small. According to Presley's then girlfriend, June Juanico, he was reluctant to take the role after realizing that his character died at the end, but he was persuaded to do it after she told him that the characters audiences were most likely to remember were the ones who had a tragic fate.
By August 17 Fox announced the four brothers would be played by James Drury, Cameron Mitchell, Presley and Egan. The New York Times called Presley's casting "somewhere between fantasy and drama" and said his next film would be for Paramount, The Lonesome Cowboy. William Campbell played another brother. Cameron Mitchell eventually turned down his role and was replaced by Neville Brand.
The moment Presley's casting was announced, Fox was deluged with queries about the film from Presley's fans. It was decided to expand his part and give him some songs to sing.
