Blue Hawaii (1961)

When I was about four years old, I think this was the first movie I remember being on the television with me taking glances at it with my late grandmother in the room. Maybe it was because I loved "Gilligans Island" at that time in my young life, not due to Elvis. But very shortly into the flick, my wonderful grandmother gave me my first Elvis introduction. So to me, starting off, Elvis was an actor. I distinctly remember her saying " Oooooh an Elvis movie"...which brings me to now, my second viewing of it finally after all these years and my very first review... how fitting for me. The movie had feel good all over it...from the beautiful scenery to the occasional comedy which indeed made me laugh a couple times. No wander the movie made me look up to take notice as a four year old...beautiful, even in Technicolor. The laughs even work for today's age....especially towards the end, and a couple along the way. Hard to beat a beautiful ocean, palm trees, and Elvis.I'm personally however not the biggest musical lover. So to me, it loses a grade instantly for that. But dang man..the Elvis hit "Can't help falling in Love" is in there.That doesn't mean avoid all musicals your entire life. If you do, you might just miss a beautiful little flick like this. Oh by the way...Elvis is a fine actor...and did a fine job in Blue Hawaii.

Chad Gates has just gotten out of the Army, and is happy to be back in Hawaii with his surf-board, his beach buddies, and his girlfriend. His father wants him to go to work at the Great Southern Hawaiian Fruit Company, but Chad is reluctant. So Chad goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency.While I can't say I'm a huge Elvis fan, nor have I seen almost any of his movies, I rather enjoyed this one. It is just so laid back and fun. Sure, it makes little sense that he just breaks into song and sounds absolutely perfect. But does it matter? Amovie like this seems perfect or the era that brought us Frankie Avalon and such movies as "Beach Blanket Bingo". They just do not make good beach movies anymore. Heck, do they even make bad ones?

Blue Hawaii (1961)** (out of 4) After two years in the service, Chad Gates (Elvis Presley) returns home to Hawaii where his parents, including mom played by Angela Lansbury, wants him to join the family business. This doesn't sit too well with Chad because he wants to make his mark on the world by himself but with a little assistance from his girl (Joan Blackman). This is a pretty disappointing film for the music legend as it offers him very little in terms of the ability to show off a performance as the screenplay is so weak and juvenile that just about anyone could have played the lead. There's some good stuff scattered around but for the most part the screenplay doesn't have enough in it to last the entire running time of the film. As I've said, the biggest problem is the screenplay, which delivers a bunch of lame and obnoxious characters. We see Elvis having to deal with his mother as well as an older woman with a group of teenage girls including one (Jenny Maxwell) who thinks she's older than she is. I'm sure these characters were written with humor in mind but all of them come off very forced and obnoxious. These supporting characters really brought the film down even though the actual performers are rather good at bringing these obnoxious people to life. Elvis is decent in the role but it never seemed like he was too interested in the material. He has that typical charm of his but nothing he does ever really jumped out at me. Blackman makes for an attractive lead but she can't add anything else to the movie. The film features the classic "Can't Help Falling in Love" but outside of that I found the music to be quite lame. The various love songs to Hawaii were rather embarrassing as the musical numbers were poorly and lazily handled.

Out of the 3 films Elvis made which were set in Hawaii, this is far and away the best and ranks IMHO in the top 5 of all his films, second best in the 1960s behind only "Viva Las Vegas" which had the advantage of a better co-star. This film is a joy to watch, with lovely on-location photography and some of Elvis' better songs including his classic "Can't Help Falling in Love".The story is a sparse affair concerning Chad, a returned G.I. who wants to make his own way in life but whose overbearing mother (Angela Lansbury, great as usual) wants only to hear of him working in the family's pineapple business. Chad figures out a way to get a job with a tourist agency taking advantage of his knowledge of the islands, but a crisis involving one of his underage charges threatens to cut his new career short.The film itself is better than the average Elvis film, not so much because of any redeeming themes or ideas (i.e. "King Creole") but moreso because the script gives the characters witty dialog and the narrative exposition is just heavy enough to keep the audience interested without becoming absurdly dramatic. For example one line that always gets a laugh from an audience is when Chad is trying to convince the schoolteacher that he will be a good tour guide, and she asks him "Mr Gates, are you sure you can handle a teacher and 4 teenage girls?". Just the line itself gets a laugh. This movie has a lot of humor that works very well, it's not like you're sitting there saying "oh look at what Elvis is doing"; a lot of the comedy are situations that would be funny with any decent comedian. Here, as in just a few of his later films like "Follow that Dream", Elvis gets to show he has real ability and good timing for comedy.The narrative structure itself is fairly effective in terms of drawing the audience in -- always a tough job with a story that has so little action and drama. First we're presented with a fairly standard parents vs. kid dramatic story as described above, and then when we meet the tourists there is another important character, the teenage tease Ellie Corbett. She's a rich kid's daughter who feels unloved and is a bit of a JD if you know what I mean. She doesn't want to go see the pineapple farm, she doesn't want to learn to surf, and she doesn't want to attend a hookie-lau. The audience perhaps identifies with her in some sense, and the elements in the audience that want to resist the urge to enjoy this Hawaiian treat are overcome by way of Ms. Corbett's objections being gradually over-ruled. Also she represents a key in the narrative for Chad -- although she initially creates a romantic confusion between Chad and his girlfriend, eventually it's Chad's ability to reach out to her that proves his maturity and his ability at his job. This takes his character beyond the parent vs. child dichotomy and into the world of maturity, where we leave him.