Elvis Presley's 14th feature film, Kissin' Cousins is a 1964 comedy musical film directed by Gene Nelson.
The US Army wants to use a mountain on Tennessee as an ICBM base, but is unable to negotiate with the Tatum family, the tenacious hillbillies inhabiting the place. Faced with permanent reassignment to Greenland if he fails, Captain Robert Salbo (Jack Albertson) gets assigned a soldier with blood ties to the Tatums, Second Lieutenant Josh Morgan (Presley), to help. When they arrive in Tatum territory on the Great Smoky Mountains, Josh meets his cousins, two lovely young ladies called Selena (Pamela Austin) and Azalea (Yvonne Craig), and Josh's practically twin cousin Jodie (Presley in a dual role). Selena and Azalea are sweet on Josh, which might prove to be the key to convince Pappy (Arthur O Connell) and Ma (Glenda Farrell) Tatum to lease the land.
Tropes:
- Apron Matron: Ma Tatum is a tough matriarch who will happily pull a wrestling throw on Jodie when he fails to obey her orders.
- Clashing Cousins: Jodie wrestles with Josh even after learning they're cousins and remains very hostile to him until the end.
- Deep South: The Tatums are Tennessee mountain folk and are portrayed as barely literate, retrograde people who don't see a problem with courting their cousins. A Confederate flag decorates their home. Most of this is played for humor.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: The Kittyhawks will swarm and force themselves on any newcomer male (except Captain Salbo, who's apparently not up to their standards). This is played for laughs and the men who fall into their hands aren't upset at their predicament (except our upstanding hero Josh, but even then it's more because the Kittyhawks get in the way of the mission).
- Green Around the Gills: Salbo turns green when Ma Tatum informs him that the dinner she has served consists of "opossum tails, owl gizzards, and grits fried in bear grease. And then that there gravy, that's just goat's milk with vulture eggs and mashed catfish eyes."
- Hillbilly Moonshiner: Pappy Tatum's moonshine business is a crucial plot point at the end, as Josh finally convinces him to lease the land by promising that the Army will get the "revenoors"
off his back. - Kissing Cousins: Josh courts his two female third cousins, pairing up with Azalea in the end, while Selena goes with the unrelated Sgt. Bailey. Incidentally, Josh uses the expression "kissing cousins" with its other meaning of "two things that resemble each other" to describe the strong resemblance between him and Jodie (giving the movie a Double-Meaning Title).
- A Man Is Always Eager: The soldiers that get kidnapped and then ravished by the Kittyhawks are quite happy with their situation. Only Josh resists them, and he only manages to convince the other soldiers to stand to attention when he points out heads will roll if the general catches them fooling around.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Captain Salbo is threatened with permanent reassignment to Greenland if he fails to convince the Tatum family to lease the land. Salbo tells Josh that he'll make sure this punishment extends to him as well when Josh snarkily tells him the Army had better pick another mountain.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Josh and Jodie look exactly like, both being played by Elvis Presley and with an In-Universe explanation of being distantly related. The differences are that Josh has Elvis' trademark black hair, while Jodie has blonde, and Jodie speaks with a backwoods drawl. They perform the title song together.
