![\"elvis3\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/elvis3fix.jpg\")
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When we last spoke<\/a>\u00a0I\u2019d seen King Creole<\/a>, a movie I greatly enjoyed. After\u00a0King Creole, Elvis was shipped off to the army, his mother died, he met his future wife Priscilla, and he picked up an unhealthy addiction to barbiturates.\u00a0Couple that with John Lennon\u2019s famous \u201cElvis died when he went into the army\u201d quote, and it seemed I might be in for a precipitous\u00a0 drop in quality.<\/p>\n I was feeling optimistic though, I mean\u00a0the last two were fun. And while\u00a0none of the films so far has been life-alteringly great, none of it’s been unwatchable either. Granted, my tolerance for the unwatchable is notoriously high<\/a>, but still\u2014so far, this journey has quite honestly been slightly better than anticipated.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Elvis is back, baby, and this time with more stars and stripes, but less hips and swagger. This is the first movie Elvis made after\u00a0coming back from the army, and from the non-stop parading of tanks and rah-rah army life cheerleading\u2014plus Elvis\u00a0looking the leanest and fittest he’s probably ever looked in his life\u2014it certainly shows. It’s not a bad movie really, but we\u2019re unfortunately back to bland,\u00a0Loving You<\/a>-esque storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n This time he\u2019s Tulsa McLean, a U.S. soldier stationed in Germany who dreams of opening a nightclub in Ohio\u00a0once he gets out of the army. Starting a business costs money though, so what better way to get rich quick than by taking up an all-or-nothing bet with some of your army pals? Specifically, a bet that he can’t score a night alone with famed night club dancer and \u201cice\u00a0princess\u201d Lili (Juliet Prowse) during his leave in Frankfurt.<\/span><\/p>\n He and Lili hit it off, mostly due to his ability to say polite things like “Is\u00a0this seat taken?” or “Where would you<\/em> like to go?” and maintain eye contact, instead of just grabbing her by the waist and telling her to come home with him. And so they go on a number of dates that include a boat ride, a hike, a gondola lift, and a\u00a0children’s puppet show. The more dates they go on, the more Tulsa’s guilt grows, as he actually starts to fall for Lili.<\/span><\/p>\n So, Tulsa calls the whole thing off, and instead of coming clean, tells Lili they can’t see each other any more because he’s a solider and she lives in Germany and he’s got big plans for nightclubs in cornfields, babe. But, when he suddenly finds himself having to babysit the love child of another soldier buddy\u2014while said buddy runs off to get married\u2014Tulsa discovers that he doesn’t know how to open a fridge door or not yell at crying babies, and thus must call up Lili to help him.\u00a0With the baby in tow, Tulsa wins the bet sort-of, due to the two of them staying up all night trying to get the baby to sleep. Lili of course eventually finds out about the bet, and is angry\u2014but not for too long, because Tulsa gets the army to be like \u2018hey, we’re\u00a0not cool with bets like that\u2019 and Lili points out that he didn’t even win, since the baby was there the whole time. Everybody laughs and does a musical number.<\/span><\/p>\n At its worst, G.I. Blues is Elvis singing a German love song to a puppet with a chorus of german children as his backup. At its\u00a0best, it’s a cute movie with a decently headstrong female character who doesn’t melt at the mere sight of Elvis. In fact, Prowse even\u00a0delivers a pretty biting line when she realizes the whole bet situation, straight-up telling Elvis he isn’t as attractive as he thinks he is and walking off. Nice one, Legs McProwse. (I mean really, can we talk about Juliet Prowse’s legs? They literally go on for days.\u00a0How is that physically possible?)<\/span><\/p>\n Elvis seems super subdued in this one\u2014no swagger, unbridled confidence, or anger issues. G.I. Blues Elvis is just a sweet guy trying his best to fit in with the boys, but at enough of a distance that their unsavory morals\u00a0don’t rub off on him. Hate to say it, but I kinda miss the crazy and abusive Elvis of Jailhouse Rock<\/a>. Granted, he’s somehow gotten hotter, but his personality and spark have dipped. Even his musical performances are\u00a0sort of tepid\u2014he barely moves and just looks kinda\u00a0bored. The songs themselves aren’t too memorable either\u2014Blue Suede\u00a0Shoes gets played, but for all of 10 seconds in a cheesy, meta, jukebox moment.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n All in all, G.I. Blues is a disappointing comeback. The story is corny, the grit has been bleached away, and as a result, the characters are bland. And it’s further disappointing\u00a0given that the affair\u00a0Elvis was carrying on with Juliet Prowse behind the scenes was so salacious\u2014she was Frank Sinatra’s gal at the time, who\u00a0reportedly threatened Elvis to back off or be \u2018dealt with\u2019 mob style.<\/span><\/p>\n P.S. For a much better army bet movie, one with actual soul and depth, watch Dogfight, starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor.<\/span><\/p>\n Best song: \u00a0<\/b>Apparently “Wooden Heart<\/a>”\u00a0was the single, but I’m sorry, I can’t deal with that crazy nonsense. I’m gonna nominate “Frankfort Special<\/a>,” a good ol’ hip shakin’ train travel song.<\/span><\/p>\n 2 out of 5 stars, \u00a0<\/p>\n After G.I. Blues successfully rebooted Elvis\u2019 film career, he wanted to try something more serious, something\u00a0with real emotion\u2014and so, western Elvis was revived.<\/span><\/p>\n Flaming Star probably has the most satisfying opening of any Elvis movie yet. It starts off with one of those big ol’ corny western birthday\u00a0sing-alongs, with square dancing and accordion and whatnot, and you’re already looking at your watch thinking \u2018Oh God, just kill me already, this is gonna suck\u2019, but then, surprise\u2014a twist out of nowhere that I won\u2019t spoil that totally rules.<\/span><\/p>\n Elvis Presley is Pacer, born from a Kiowa mother and a white father. They live somewhere out in Texas on a ranch, along\u00a0with his white half-brother\u00a0Clint (Steve Forrest). Life’s pretty fine and dandy until some indians come and slaughter their neighbors. The town blames Pacer and his mother Neddie (Dolores del Rio) for being responsible for the deaths, because, y\u2019know, racism.\u00a0Meanwhile, the chief of the Kiowa,\u00a0Buffalo Horn (Rodolfo Acosta) is actively trying to recruit Pacer to his tribe to help battle the white devils that are bogarting their\u00a0land and killing their people. Pacer is torn,\u00a0on one hand\u00a0he’s lived his entire life in white society with the family he loves; However, he\u2019s never been fully accepted, due to his heritage\u2014a feeling that’s even more pronounced now that the town is turning on him even harder. <\/span><\/p>\n The final act of betrayal comes for Pacer after his mother is shot and the townspeople refuse to allow a doctor to ride out and check on her. Full of rage, Pacer decides to join the tribe, but at\u00a0the stipulation that the rest of his\u00a0family remain unharmed. Unfortunately, with more people joining in from other tribes and towns to help fight, Pacer’s father winds up shot and his brother injured. In the end, Pacer sacrifices himself, posing as both Kiowa and white in order to direct the violence away from his brother. After confirming his brother is alive, Pacer then rides off injured into the sunset to chase\u00a0the flaming star of death.<\/span><\/p>\n This movie came out just a month after G.I. Blues, and due to its serious nature, lack of singing, and perhaps just an\u00a0over saturation of Elvis, it didn’t do nearly as well. It’s sad though, because Elvis actually does do a pretty good job at acting.\u00a0But then you think of the image of Elvis riding off into the sunset chasing the flaming star of death, and you can’t help but chuckle.\u00a0 He just isn’t good enough for you to forget\u00a0that he’s still Elvis. You can blame it on fame overshadowing performance, but personally, I think all they had to do was change his hairstyle\u00a0and maybe give the character more depth, and it would have felt more natural.\u00a0I’m genuinely torn because the movie isn’t bad, and Elvis isn’t bad, but it’s just not great either.<\/span><\/p>\n There’s a lot of potential in the film, but nobody really sticks the landings. Neddie wandering out into a desert storm after being mortally injured was an interesting scene. It’s rare you see women in 50s and 60s movies who get shot in the chest and keep on\u00a0walking\u2014even if it is to follow their dying visions of the flaming star of death. But even then, it gets undercut by her funeral, where her husband delivers a loving epitaph reminiscing\u00a0about the early days that takes a pretty steep downward turn when he mentions he “bought Neddy as a young girl.” Wow, way to take the romance out of it, guy.<\/span><\/p>\n Same with most of the Kiowa scenes\u2014everybody is overly stoic and lacking in the humanity the movie seems insist they have. The scene of Elvis sitting by the fire explaining simple science to the\u00a0tribe really walks the line between patronizing and lost-in-translation amusing. Not surprising for a ’60s cowboy flick, but also not as cringe-y as it could have been\u2014good job not being\u00a0too<\/i> racist, ’60s racists.<\/span><\/p>\n Elvis riding off into the sunset to die is also way too cheesy of an ending. If they really wanted to hammer\u00a0the point home of how screwed up society is, they would have ended with Elvis shooting himself in the head, perhaps after\u00a0taking out a buncha white guys\u2014but, alas, I don’t think the teen fans would have been too happy with that.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Best song:<\/b> \u00a0There’s thankfully no goddamn out-of-century singing in this movie, so take this montage I found<\/a> of footage from the movie and\u00a0the title song played over it.<\/span><\/p>\n 2 1\/2 out of 5 stars<\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\n Back to Jenna Does Elvis #2<\/a> |Forward to Jenna Does Elvis #4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we last spoke<\/a>\u00a0I\u2019d seen King Creole<\/a>, a movie I greatly enjoyed. After\u00a0King Creole, Elvis was shipped off to the army, his mother died, he met his future wife Priscilla, and he picked up an unhealthy addiction to barbiturates.\u00a0Couple that with John Lennon\u2019s famous \u201cElvis died when he went into the army\u201d quote, and it seemed I might be in for a precipitous\u00a0 drop in quality.<\/p>\n![\"giblues\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/giblues.jpg\")
G.I. Blues<\/a> (1960) | 104 min.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/strong>2 out of 5 Elvises<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"elvis1small\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/elvis1small.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"flamingstar\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/flamingstar.jpg\")
Flaming Star<\/a> (1960) | 101 min.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/span>1 out of 5 Elvises<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n