G I Blues **** (1960, Elvis Presley, Juliet Prowse, Robert Ivers, James Douglas) – Classic Movie Review 1360

Director Norman Taurog’s 1960 musical G I Blues is an effective tailor-made show for Elvis Presley, then just back in movies after service in the US Army as the most publicised American soldier since General MacArthur.

Presley is very aptly cast as a guitar-playing American soldier in Germany called Tulsa McLean, a tank crewman who places with his buddy Dynamite (Edson Stroll) that he can spend the night with a local nightclub singer-dancer called Lili (Juliet Prowse), who is rumoured to be hard to get.

Presley’s acting ability, Prowse’s charismatic performance, the German locations and the 11 excellent songs (including Bert Kaempfert’s ‘Wooden Heart’, ‘Tonight Is So Right for Love’, and Carl Perkins’s ‘Blue Suede Shoes’) certainly take away the blues.

Taurog directs a trim, bright, hunky-looking Elvis for the first of an astonishing nine times. The story, watered down and uncredited, was taken from the much filmed 1933 Kenyon Nicholson – Charles Robinson play Sailor Beware, (a Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis vehicle as Sailor Beware for the same producer Hal B Wallis in 1952) but is now in 1960 showing its age.

G I Blues was filmed at the Paramount Pictures studio in Hollywood, with some pre-production scenes shot on location in Germany eight months before Presley’s release from the US Army, though he did not film during his time there and his double, Private First Class Tom Creel, was used for some shots. Some of these scenes are used in the film.

A riot in a Mexico City cinema showing G I Blues prompted the Mexican government to ban Presley’s movies.

The script is by Edmund Beloin and Henry Garson.

Presley’s Army career began in 1958, and by 1960 it was two years since he made his last film, King Creole. He returned to the US in March 1960 and began working on G I Blues in late April 1960.

It opened at the Victoria Theater in New York City on 4 November 1960 and grossed $4.3 million in US/ Canada rentals. The success of G I Blues resulted in Presley’s return to the musical-comedy genre after more dramatic roles, with his next film as Blue Hawaii, which was even more profitable than G I Blues.

The cast are Elvis Presley as Tulsa McLean, Juliet Prowse as Lili, Robert Ivers as PFC Cookie, James Douglas as Rick, Letícia Román as Tina, Sigrid Maier as Marla, Scotty Moore as himself, D.J. Fontana as himself, Arch Johnson as MSG McGraw, Kenneth Becker as Mac, Carl Crow as Walt, Beach Dickerson as Warren, Trent Dolan as Mickey, Fred Essler as Papa Mueller, John Hudson as CPT Hobart, The Jordanaires as Themselves, Mickey Knox as Jeeter, Erika Peters as Trudy, Jeremy Slate as Turk, Edson Stroll as Dynamite, Ron Starr as Harvey, and Ludwig Stössel as puppet show owner.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1360

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