Movie Review: Blue Hawaii (1961)

Genre: Musical Romantic Comedy  

Director: Norman Taurog  

Starring: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury  

Running Time: 102 minutes  

Synopsis: After two years in the army, Chad Gates (Elvis Presley) returns to Hawaii and reunites with his girlfriend Maile (Joan Blackman). He is intent on carving his own path in life and not following the wishes of his wealthy parents (Roland Winters and Angela Lansbury), who want him to join his father's pineapple business empire. Instead Chad accepts a job as a tour guide at the travel agency where Maile works. When attractive teacher Ms. Prentice (Nancy Walters) and four teenaged girls retain his tour guide services, romantic complications ensue.

What Works Well: The Hawaii locations look postcard gorgeous; Presley, Joan Blackman, Nancy Walters, and Jenny Maxwell (as a teenaged seductress) all glow in the sun; and Presley's rendition of Can't Help Falling In Love is a highlight. Director Norman Taurog keeps the mood light with a steady stream of humour.

What Does Not Work As Well: A total of 14 songs, most of them forgettable, are crammed into the running time, turning the production into glossy travelogue with a soundtrack rather than any attempt at a serious movie. At 35 years old and just 9 years older than Presley, Angela Lansbury is somehow cast as his mother, and delivers a full-on cartoonish portrayal of an overbearing parent. As the flimsy plot desperately searches for oxygen in the brief intervals before the next song (and there is always a next song), it stumbles onto the lowlight of Presley delivering a spanking to straighten out a woman's behaviour.

Key Quote:

Chad (to Maile): On you, wet is my favourite colour.

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Movie Review: Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Genre: Musical Drama  

Director: Richard Thorpe  

Starring: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy  

Running Time: 96 minutes  

Synopsis: Construction worker Vince Everett (Elvis Presley) is convicted of manslaughter after he kills a man in a bar fight. His prison cellmate Hank Hughton (Mickey Shaughnessy) is a fading country music singer, but spots Vince's singing talent and teaches him to play the guitar. Upon his release, the money-driven Vince is intent on establishing a music career, and partners with record promoter Peggy Van Alden (Judy Tyler). They are exposed to the unscrupulous side of the business and romantic complications before Vince finds success, but then Hank comes calling to claim a cut. 

What Works Well: The energetic title song arrives at the mid-point, and is an athletic highlight with innovative yet simple staging (vertical bars, striped shirts) showcasing Elvis at his best. Elsewhere he performs several romantic songs including Young And Beautiful, Don't Leave Me Now, and Treat Me Nice. In terms of plot and characters, the routine rags to riches story allows Vince to remain stubbornly unempathetic, a realistic if unusual adherence to deep-seated wealth obsession underpinned by starting with nothing. At just 22 years-old and already a huge music star, Elvis' acting is a passable commitment to surliness.

What Does Not Work As Well: Director Richard Thorpe hustles the story along with a focus on expediency at the expense of artistry. Every emotion wears an obvious and superficial badge, and none of the characters enjoy any meaningful depth. The third act crisis is triggered by a ludicrously contrived fist-fight. 

Key Quote:

Vince Everett, after aggressively kissing Peggy: That ain't tactics, honey. It's just the beast in me.



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Movie Review: Viva Las Vegas (1964)

A musical romance with some comic moments, Viva Las Vegas features a few good songs and a vibrant Ann-Margret, but an otherwise exceptionally flimsy plot.

Up-and-coming racing car driver Lucky Jackson (Elvis Presley) arrives in Las Vegas to compete in the Grand Prix, but he needs money to buy an engine. Veteran champion racer Count Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova) offers Lucky a job as a backup driver, but Lucky refuses and starts working as a waiter to make some money. Soon both Lucky and the Count are romantically pursuing swimming instructor Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret). 

Even by the standards of quickie musicals, Viva Las Vegas is entirely dismissive of anything that passes as a rational story. Writer Sally Benson must have used the full width of a napkin to scrawl down "racer seeks engine", and director George Sidney just points his cameras at Presley and Ann-Margret doing their thing and hopes for the best. By the end of the movie one character may have been decapitated and burned to a crisp in a car racing crash, but the horrifying tragedy is ignored in favour of a happy song reprise.

Ann-Margaret's vibrant charisma almost single-handedly threatens to save the movie, her stage-filling seductive presence pointing the way towards the future of musical entertainment and relegating Presley to a predictable warbling side-show. With an athleticism-focused fun wardrobe and colours complementing her flaming hair, she dominates in a display of racy energy. 

The musical highlights include the title song, the duet The Lady Loves Me, and Ann-Margret singing Appreciation and enjoying a legendary dance practice in an orange-red top and black leggings. Both the movie and the music achieve a peak with What'd I Say, the two stars scorching the screen in matching yellow outfits.

Elsewhere the film serves as a bit of a tourism commercial for Las Vegas, a montage sequence joining the lovers-to-be as they enjoy all that the town offers. Viva Las Vegas sustains no substance, but sells the sizzle.



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