Second Viewing: G.I. Blues (1960)

You know, things are all going okay until an incredibly unbearable scene with Elvis and a baby that goes on for way too long. And it’s basically the climax of the movie, too.

This scene really plays against Elvis’s strengths as an actor (and yes, he does have strengths). He’s usually great in his chemistry with his female leads (on display here with the beautiful Juliet Prowse). He’s good in fight scenes. He’s got decent natural comedic timing. And he’s generally quite good in the musical performance scenes.

His performances do not match up well with the pre-recorded music. I blame that partially on this being an early Elvis film, and also just on Elvis as being such a natural singer and performer. You can see this in The Blues Brothers with Aretha Franklin — sometimes great singers will just never perform a song the same way twice, and it comes off kind of bad when the song is dubbed.

But as far as Elvis soundtracks go, this is far from the worst. I’ve never been a big fan of “Wooden Heart,” but “Pocketful of Rainbows,” “Frankfort Special,” and “Doin’ the Best I Can” are all pretty good.

Anyways for more detailed thoughts, we’ll be having a podcast episode out on this and Ridley Scott’s Alien, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. It’s a weird pairing, but them’s the breaks with the random number generator.

Rating: 5/10