= 3 stars

Starring Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury
Directed by Norman Taurog

Amazon Link

After watching Diamond Head, I decided to check out Blue Hawaii, which provides a similar enjoyable look at retro fifties Hawaii. It’s an Elvis-in-Paraside flick, of which The King made several (Girls, Girls, Girls!, Paradise Hawaiian Style, and I suppose the TV special Aloha From Hawaii also counts).

The plot is cheese-whiz - Elvis plays Chad, a local boy returning to Hawaii after a few years in the army. His parents are wealthy pineapple plantation owners who want him to stay on the straight and narrow, while he wants to do his own thing: getting a job as a tour guide, hanging out on the beach with his buddies, playing the ukulele, and getting into trouble with tourists. Chad’s love interest is Maile (Joan Blackman) who gets jealous when he takes a school teacher and four girls around to show them the local sights.

All this is just decoration for Elvis to perform and sing songs, which are mostly sub-par (Slicing Sand?). But there are a few gems, namely the cover Can’t Help Falling In Love and some tasteful nods to Hawaiian music (Aloha Oe, Hawaiian Wedding Song). I found one tune’s lyrics mildly amusing - Elvis compares himself to a “fresh pineapple in a can” - while locked in a jail cell. Yes, there are some groaners here, but Elvis displays a comfortable energy that at least looks like he’s having a ball of a time in Hawaii. This is during a relatively fit and prime time of his life (no fat, bloated Vegas stuff) - looking suave in swim shorts and sporting a slightly askew grin.

Having grown up in Hawaii, I really enjoyed the innocent, dreamy look of late fifties Waikiki. I recognized many of the sights like Tantalaus overlooking Honolulu, the road leading to Magic Island, and a long beach-frolicking scene at Hanauma Bay. I also got a kick out of one small detail - Elvis is asked for a good place to see night blooming cereus flowers in Honolulu (an answer only a local would know) and his response I can attest to as accurate. Elvis’s parents live in Kahala and later locations include a hotel on Kauai.

Blue Hawaii is basically a picture postcard advertisement of Hawaii as a tourist destination that lives on to this day - either in the drink name, the images the title evokes, or goofy Web 2.0 names like “Mahalo” or “Hulu”. If you don’t care about nostalgic Hawaii or Elvis Presley this film won’t do a thing for you - but I enjoyed it.

IMDB: Blue Hawaii
Wikipedia: Blue Hawaii
Rotten Tomatoes: Blue Hawaii 20%

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Categories: 3 Star Movies, Movies :: Tags: 3 stars, Angela Lansbury, Blue Hawaii, Elvis Presley, Hawaii, Joan Blackman, Norman Tourog :: Trackback URL
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