G.I. Blues (1960)
Tulsa is a specialist in the US Army stationed in Germany. He loves to sing and has dreams to run his own nightclub when he leaves the army....but dreams don't come cheap. Tulsa places a bet with his friend Dynamite that he can spend the night with a club dancer named Lili, who is rumored to be hard to get. When Dynamite gets transferred, Tulsa is brought in to take his place. He is not looking forward to it, but in order to keep his money, he must go through with it.
The Rollicking Story of America's Lovin' G.I's
Tulsa McLean: Lili? Now this isn't the time and it's certainly not the place.
Lili: Well, of course I'll marry you. I love you.
K?nig-Adolf-Platz, Idstein, Hessen, Germany
Reisingeranlage, Weisbaden, Hessen, Germany
Edwards Barracks, Homburger Landstrasse, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany
Camp Wildflecken, Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany
Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany
Despite the European locale, all of Presley's scenes were filmed in Hollywood.
The Princesses of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the King of Thailand, and other royals visited the studio and met Elvis Presley.
The 3rd Armored Division was Elvis's division when he was in the army, as it is in this movie.
This film marked a turning point in Elvis Presley's screen persona. Up until his stint in the U.S. Army, art imitated life, with Presley typically cast as a shy, unassuming country boy. Following his release from the armed services, Presley kicked off the hayseed, emerging as a slick, articulate bon vivant. He would occasionally mix the two personas, as in Wild in the Country (1961), but for the most part, Presley would veer toward the hip side for the rest of his career. That said, Presley's inability to obscure his drawl dictated that most of his characters came from the south.
While filming on the sky lift in R?desheim, director of photography Loyal Griggs fell out of a tram car, plunging thirty feet to the vineyards below, but was not seriously injured.
Continuity
During the "Frankfurt Special" number on the train, Tulsa's seating position changes twice.
Factual errors
In the opening scene when Elvis and another soldier are loading ammunition into the tank, the shells being loaded are much too large for the main tank gun, which was 90mm on the M48 tank.
Lili offers to make food with Liederkranz, a Limburger-like cheese, but Liederkranz cheese was never authentic German cheese; it was developed in the USA by the developer of Velveeta.
Revealing mistakes
When Elvis is singing in the train, he keeps moving his left leg (knee), he stops playing the guitar to touch his left knee, but the guitar can be heard playing.
The scenes with the tanks in the beginning are partly and visibly sped up.
Miscellaneous
In the shower scene, all shown waist-up naked, besides a sergeant showering along with enlisted men, when focusing on him after Elvis takes his soap, the sergeant is shown putting his hands down towards his waist, in a sort of pulling up shorts gesture - despite, all being supposedly, presumably naked for proper showering ablutions.
While Elvis is stood around in his tank overall, his name reads as Maclean but when his name is written down (or even credited) it's Mclean.
When Tulsa brings the baby to Lili's apartment after breaking his bottle, childless Lili either just happens to have a baby bottle or finds one at 2:30 AM.
Audio/visual unsynchronized
When the G.I.s are on the train to Frankfurt, Elvis is singing "Frankfurt Special." He stands from the seat playing an acoustic guitar, but the music heard is actually an electric guitar.
Plot holes
Interesting that nobody in Germany seemed to speak German.
Character error
The G.I.s are wearing underwear in the shower.
When leaving the Cafe Europa, Tulsa stands half a head taller than Lili. In actuality Elvis was only a half inch taller than Juliet Prowse's 5'11".
About five minutes from the end Lili says to Tulsa "you underestimate your attraction" but she should have said "you overestimate your attraction" as she was putting him down and not complimenting him.