You can always tell a good Elvis movie from a bad one, and "G.I. Blues" ranks as one of his better efforts. The story boils down basically to Elvis gets the girl no matter how reluctant she may be. This time he pursues the gorgeous Juliet Prowse. Prowse plays an eligible, single, white, female named Lili who puts on quite a floor show in the German nightclub where she dances. Elvis is in the military—as he was briefly in real life—but this time he is Tulsa MacLean, a member of a U.S. Army tank battalion. The G.I.s challenge him to a bet that he cannot spend a night alone with Lili, and Tulsa embarks on the arduous task of romancing this iceberg. Predictably, the Pelvis wins the wager, but he doesn't do it in an obnoxious fashion. Indeed, his behavior is that of a gentleman, and he impresses Lili with his good manners while his drooling buddies watch from afar. "G.I. Blues" was his fifth cinematic outing, coming between Michael Curtiz's above-average "King Creole" and one of his finest westerns Don Siegel's "Flaming Star." This was his sixth outing with director Norman Taurog, the most prolific of Elvis's directors with nine films films to his credit. The Germany scenery is nice. "Donovan's Reef" writer Edmund Beloin and "A Visit to a Small Planet" scribe Henry Garson drum up some good dialogue in this lightweight but entertaining romantic comedy.
Review of G.I. Blues
