06.14.16
Pasadena Elvis Presley Film Festival: “G.I. Blues”
“Observe the neatness and precision of the grape fields.” Best line of movie dialogue, ever, from Juliet Prowse as “Lili,” 700 feet up in a cable car over the Main River with Tulsa McLean (Elvis) in “G. I. Blues.”
I take you back to 1960 when Elvis Presley was a worldwide celebrity, a young man in the Army, and there was a draft. He was still very cool.
What country was that? Not America in 2016, that’s for sure. A pop star with an album that went number 1, serving in the military in the endless war? Hahahahahahahahahaha. Where are you from? The Oort Cloud?
Fifty-six years ago on a planet far away, where the US military isn’t a nightmarish global Wehrmacht hovering overhead as a technology-enabled bludgeon, Elvis did a light-hearted movie about GIs looking for fun and love in Frankfurt. And despite a desire to make money on a seedy bet as to who can bed “ice queen” club dancer Lili, in the end, everyone does the right thing. There’s no John Paul Vann in Saigon-like behavior in sight. (Look it up.)
While it’s a farce with plenty of hokum and over-acting, it’s still a warm story. Juliet Prowse dances less but is sexier and more elegant than Ann Margaret would be years later. And “G.I. Blues” is worlds better than “Viva Las Vegas,” and above the solid happy mediocrity of “Roustabout.”
You’d recognize the soundtrack cover in an instant and the music is pretty good to great, from “Shoppin’ Around” to the title track and a restaurant serenade to Prowse, “Tonight is So Right for Love.” “Wooden Heart” with Elvis acting out in a puppet show is especially dear.
N.b.: The most modern American love farce/musical fully supported by the US military that I can think of? Top Gun. Seriously. Think about it. Not as good as GI Blues, though, not even close.