Blue Hawaii
You know, in todayâs day and age where many men are slugs and treat their girlfriends like shit, ya gotta admire the way The King himself, Elvis Presley, conducted himself around women in the golden era of his films. Never losing his temper or getting carried away with anger, Presley was always seen dealing with women with a good humor and an infectious smile, no matter what kind of drama the women would face him with. That quality shines through in much of this 1961 effort, an assembly-line musical no doubt, but effective if youâd like to watch the Kingâs style with the opposite sex. In many ways the overall badness of Presleyâs films almost have a calming effect, never taking themselves seriously and always featuring a shoestring of a plot on which Elvis can break out into a song at any time. Here, the songs are mostly forgettable tripe (especially when he sings about how much his fatass friend Ito can eat), with the exception of the immortal âCanât Help Falling In Love With Youâ, which he uses to serenade his girlfriendâs grandmother(!). The story is no great shakes: Elvis comes back to Hawaii after serving in the military and decides he wants to do his own thing instead of going to work for his fatherâs pineapple company, much to the chagrin of his racist hag of a mother (Angela Lansbury), which leads to him going to work as a tour guide for vacationers to the island (where thereâs a luau almost every night). His main girlfriend is played by Joan Blackmon, who maintains an easy, natural chemistry with The King (of course), and then heâs assigned to escort around the island a schoolteacher and her four teenage charges, one of whom is so spoiled that she resents the whole trip and criticizes everything, even as Elvis gently tries to coax her into joining in. This leads to the most controversial aspect of the film, as the underage girl finally decides to throw herself at Elvis, and when sheâs rebuffed, attempts to drown herself only to have The King pull her out of the water and decide that whatâs best for her is to have a thorough spanking. Naturally, in the context of the story and the era it was made, itâs clearly stated that the spanking came about because Elvisâ character wanted to show that he âcares enoughâ about her to do something for her own good, even though in reality the viewer wonders if The King perhaps enjoyed it a bit too much. Not that it mattered to teenage girls at the time, who loved Elvis so much that they would have surely lined up in droves to receive the same treatment. Overall though, this is still your typical dumb musical comedy of the era, and certainly not helped by Elvis having an idiotic entourage of âisland boysâ who follow him everywhere he goes, or by his father being a complete putz with no mindful opinions of his own. So, if youâd like to see The King doing his thing in his prime, check it out, as a lot of todayâs men could watch and learn how to treat women right by observing Elvisâ styleâŚ
5/10