Year: 1962
Director: Norman Taurog
Country: US
Language: English
After the enormous success of Blue Hawaii (1961), Paramount producer Hal Wallis took Elvis back to Hawaii to film the location scenes for the film. Such colorful scenery was a staple of Elvis’s movies in the early 1960s. The formula was simple: unpretentious light musical comedy with plenty of Elvis musical numbers. There was one major difference, however, Elvis would no longer be supported by an experienced supporting cast.
When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, a sailor (Elvis Presley) has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. He is also caught between two women.
In most of his previous film vehicles, Elvis had been surrounded by strong supporting casts. King Creole and Kid Galahad are two examples of how experienced co-stars helped enhance Presley’s performance and provide his films with credibility. The studio would begin to rely on Elvis' popularity alone, which seemed like a bit of a rocky strategy, especially because the character in this film was given rather shallow writing.Thankfully Elvis had improved his acting since the early days of his film career.
Counting the light final production number there are 12 Presley tunes in the film. They average about nine minutes apart, with some being separated by as little as two minutes. Elvis' breakout performance, Return to Sender, helped sell a lot of soundtracks and earned Elvis a Golden Globe nomination for best actor. Unfortunately, due to reliance of the current dance craze ("the twist"), the choreography is sub-par particularly because its dated and out of Elvis' range. We want to see hip gyrations damnit!
Girls! Girls! Girls! is an enjoyable little Elvis picture that tries its best out of a formula that is running out of gas. It features some good production design and cinematography. Elvis in Hawaii is an iconic image in the minds of his fans.
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