Café Europa en uniforme

Decent Elvis fare with some standout songs {Tonight Is So Right For Love,Shoppin'Around,G.I.Blues},a fairly funny script and good production values.Elvis and Juliet Prowse have excellent chemistry and easily carry the film through it's weaker moments.

I loved this film. It's not typical Elvis in the sense that for once he doesn't play the irreverent gigolo with a woman waiting for him in every bar; his one big dream is to do music in his own nightclub. He's quite likable and ends up even being noble when he turns the plot (of a soldier engulfed in an bet with his army buddies to 'defrost' a gorgeous nightclub dancer) on its side when he falls in love with the stunning Juliet Prowse. This one is similar in tone to VIVA LAS VEGAS because female lead Prowse is an independent woman, and not a typical Elvis groupie. That's why I like it all the more. She is never, in my opinion, actually 'refrigerated;' even when she turns down a pass from Elvis she's not so much rude as she is firm in her convictions. But what a dancer- with a pair of gams that stretch into next week!! Her introduction in the film (which shows a spinning cardboard cutout in a marquee window turn into the actual Prowse- in a strapless white, shredded dress) is breathtaking!!

Elvis was photographed in uniform while still in service (in Germany) for this amusing, light service comedy. He must make good on a bet made for another serviceman who's been sent to Alaska -- to bed dancer Prowse within a week. She's legendarily cold, but warms up to E's garrulous charms and his chivalry. She takes him out to the country, where he sings to her on a ski-lift and (unfortunately) at a children's puppet show. This is really the beginning of the new Elvis, the family Elvis, which is now despised by many fans of his grittier 50s act, but also really helped him sustain his career through the weird 60s pop music atmosphere. A lot of people that are into Elvis are down on his movie recordings, but the fact is that this is what kept his stuff going when others who came up in rock and roll (Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Bill Haley, etc.) were faltering or beginning exclusively European and Mexican tours and films.

The film, as it is, should serve as nostalgia for some, and as a bright spot of silliness on the now much bleaker cinema screens.

GI Blues was Elvis Presley's fifth picture and first one since his return from the Army as America's most celebrated draftee of the Fifties. It also marked his first film with director Norman Taurog who did nine films with the King.

Taurog like so many in Hollywood in front of and behind the camera was getting less and less employment and taking what he could get. These were the kind of people that Elvis's manager Colonel Tom Parker made sure helped his meal ticket in any way possible. Norman Taurog won an Oscar in 1931 for Skippy and was nominated for his direction of Boys Town in 1938 which won Spencer Tracy an Oscar. Over the years Taurog directed such musical performers as Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Mario Lanza, Eddie Fisher, and Debbie Reynolds. This man was most assuredly a help to the King's career and I've no doubt Parker was behind getting him.

Parker is a controversial figure, especially among Elvis's legion of fans as to whether he helped or hindered Elvis's career. He might have done a little of both, but one thing the man was always sure of is that in Presley's movies, he made sure that he got the best support in front and behind the camera. Norman Taurog extended his own career via the King. Everybody made out here.

The Colonel also was a master at keeping the publicity going while Elvis was a $78.00 a month GI serving in Germany. So much so there was a tremendous about of advance publicity about this film which was about a young rock and rolling soldier who finds love in Frankfurt.

Elvis gets hooked into a Guys and Dolls type bet that he can't spend the night in Juliet Prowse's apartment. Prowse is a local entertainer at one of the clubs in Frankfurt and she's got a reputation as one cold lady. But you know she ain't got a chance with the king.

Part of the publicity surrounding this film was Juliet Prowse's relationship with another guy she did a film with that year, Frank Sinatra. She and Sinatra were quite the item and they announced their engagement and then broke it off just as quickly. Juliet was quite the dancer both in GI Blues and in Can-Can. I remember all of this quite well as a lad. And it was always a special treat in Elvis films when he got a female co-star who was also musical like Ann-Margret, Nancy Sinatra, or Juliet Prowse.

Elvis had a bunch of songs in the film including his own Blue Suede Shoes playing on a jukebox during a bar brawl. One song I really liked was Pocketful of Rainbows which he sings to Juliet while riding in a cable car. It should have been a bigger hit for him.

GI Blues was a fine jump start for Elvis's return to the big screen and to his loyal legion of fans.

This is Elvis. If I had to explain, you would not understand.