Tamblyn supported older actors in two Westerns: Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger in "The Last Hunt" (1956), a flop; and Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford in "The Fastest Gun Alive" (1956), a big hit, where he performed an extraordinary "shovel" dance at a hoe-down early in the film. He served (uncredited) as a choreographer for Elvis Presley in 1957's "Jailhouse Rock". MGM loaned Tamblyn to Allied Artists for his first star role, "The Young Guns" (1957). Back at MGM he supported Glenn Ford and Gia Scala in "Don't Go Near the Water" (1957), a comedy set among members of the U.S. Navy.