Flaming Star

Set in Texas after the Civil War, Flaming Star centres on Pacer Burton, the son of a white rancher and a Kiowa woman. Tensions between settlers and the Kiowa are escalating into open violence, and Pacer finds himself pulled in both directions as the two communities harden against each other. The Burton household itself becomes divided when Pacer's half-brother Clint and their father are drawn into the fighting, leaving Pacer to work out where he belongs.

Don Siegel directed the film, the sixth of the eighteen he made, following The Gun Runners and preceding Hell Is for Heroes. Clair Huffaker and Nunnally Johnson wrote the screenplay, from Huffaker's novel Flaming Lance, and David Weisbart produced it for 20th Century Fox. Elvis Presley plays Pacer, with Barbara Eden, Steve Forrest, Dolores del Río, John McIntire and Rodolfo Acosta among the credited cast.

The film was made for a modest budget and drew mixed responses from audiences, holding a 6.5 rating on IMDb and the same on TMDB. Critics were warmer: a 7.3 from a small pool of reviews places it above the audience scores. For Presley, it was an unusual dramatic role in a western rather than a musical, and one in which he sings only sparingly.