Plot

Having been launched from the Military, Chadwick “Chad” Gates (Presley) is raring to return to Hawaii along with his surfboard, his seaside mates, and his girlfriend Maile Duval (Joan Blackman). His mom, Sarah Lee (Angela Lansbury), desires him to comply with in his father’s footsteps and take over administration on the Nice Southern Hawaiian Fruit Firm, the household enterprise, however Chad is reluctant and goes to work as a tour information at his girlfriend’s company. His barely scatter-brained boss is Mr. Chapman (Howard McNear).

The primary purchasers Chad has are a pretty faculty trainer (Abigail Prentice) and 4 teenage ladies in her cost. One woman, Ellie, is bratty, self-centered, and doesn’t get together with the opposite three in her group, however nonetheless turns into smitten with Chad. Chad’s girlfriend, Maile, turns into jealous of the trainer who is sort of keen on Chad. After Ellie’s flirtatious methods with one other vacationer trigger a wild struggle to erupt in a restaurant, Chad is fired from his place as tour information by Mr. Chapman. Maile quits her job in protest. Maile and Chad independently proceed offering vacationer actions to Abigail and the 4 ladies.

One evening Ellie makes an attempt to seduce Chad, however he refuses her advances. Ellie despondently flees in a jeep with the intent to commit suicide. Earlier than Ellie can drown herself, Chad saves her and administers an overdue spanking. In the meantime, Abigail has discovered romance with Jack Kelman, a long-time enterprise companion in Chad’s father’s pineapple firm. With Jack’s assist, Chad and his father resolve their variations about Chad’s future.

Chad and Maile kind their very own tourism enterprise—Gates of Hawaii—and start preparations to offer vacationer providers for his father’s giant community of fruit salesmen within the continental United States and Canada. The movie ends with Chad and Maile’s lavish outside Hawaiian marriage ceremony ceremony.

Solid

Manufacturing

Blue Hawaii was the primary of three Elvis movies to be shot in Hawaii, adopted by Ladies! Ladies! Ladies! in 1962 and Paradise, Hawaiian Type in 1965. Producer Hal B. Wallis was eager to place Presley into a movie that confirmed how the military affected a person.^[6] Actress Juliet Prowse, who had starred with Presley in GI Blues, was approached to be his love curiosity once more. Nonetheless, after her calls for have been put ahead, Paramount determined to drop her as a attainable candidate for the position, selecting Joan Blackman as a substitute.^[6] Presley was apparently so pale earlier than taking pictures that Wallis personally beneficial a model of tanning lamp to darken his pores and skin.^[6] The movie was introduced within the fall of 1960 as Hawaii Seashore Boy.^[7] On the time, movie producer Walter Mirisch had an analogous titled movie in manufacturing, “Hawaii”, and he was upset that Wallis had chosen such an analogous title.^[7]

Presley arrived in Hawaii on March 18, 1961, to organize for a charity live performance that he was acting on March 25 to boost funds for the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.^[8] He arrived on the recording studio on March 21 to begin the recording of the movie’s soundtrack.^[8] Three weeks later, location filming had completed, together with scenes at Waikiki Seashore, Diamond Head, Mount Tantalus, and Hanauma Bay, a volcanic crater that’s open to the ocean, close to the bed room neighborhood of Hawaii Kai, a couple of miles away from Waikiki.^[6][9] Following location filming, the crew returned to the Paramount lot to complete different scenes for the movie. Presley would calm down throughout filming by giving karate demonstrations along with his good friend and worker, Crimson West, which resulted in Presley’s fingers changing into bruised and swollen. Wallis warned the feminine stars of the movie to keep away from events hosted by Presley as a result of they have been turning up for taking pictures wanting drained.^[6]

Producer Hal Wallis would use the field workplace returns from Blue Hawaii to finance an upcoming Wallis movie, 1964’s Becket, starring Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole.

Presley was 26 on the time this movie was launched, and a not but 36-year-old Angela Lansbury performed his character’s mom. Nancy Walters, who was forged because the older faculty trainer was, in actuality, solely 18 months older than Presley.

A lot of the movie was shot on location on the Coco Palms Resort on the east coast of Kauai. The resort was deserted after Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

Though it’s talked about within the movie that Chad’s dad and mom stay in Kāhala, some of the costly and unique areas of Honolulu in 1961, the view from their “lanai” (porch or terrace) reveals Diamond Head because it seems from Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. Actually, Kāhala is situated on the opposite facet of Diamond Head from Waikiki.

There have been a number of scenes filmed in and across the well-known Waikiki Seashore, together with the opening driving scenes, in addition to the workplace scene throughout the road from the “Worldwide Market”. The scenes the place Chad’s purchasers stayed in a resort and the place he picked up his tour group – in addition to the seaside he frolicked along with his girlfriend – have been all filmed on the property that’s now referred to as the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Seashore.

Reception

Howard Thompson of The New York Occasions known as the movie “blandly uneventful” with a “nonsensical and innocent” plot, although he wrote that Presley “delivers the songs and rhythmical spasms proper on schedule. We counted fourteen tunes, about half of them replete with ukulele trimmings and unique, weaving dancers. Certainly one of them, a quantity known as ‘Seashore Boy Blues,’ is nifty, and Presley delivers it accordingly. No kidding.”^[10] Selection wrote, “Hal Kanter’s breezy screenplay, from a narrative by Allan Weiss, is the slim, however handy, basis round which Wallis and workers have erected a good-looking, picture-postcard manufacturing full of typical South Seas musical hulaballoo … Beneath Norman Taurog’s broad route, Presley, in essence, is enjoying himself—a task certain to thrill his ardent followers.”^[11] Harrison’s Stories graded the movie as “Truthful”, including, “As is the customized in a Presley manufacturing, the crooner-gyrater dominates the working time of the movie. That’s the reason, it’s extra the pity, now that he has so many movies below his performing belt that he nonetheless continues to ship such an embarrassingly poor efficiency.”^[12] John L. Scott of the Los Angeles Occasions wrote that the movie “does quite a bit for the ‘paradise of the Pacific,’ displaying its foamy waves, palm bushes, luaus and a few plush lodges, however not very a lot for Elvis’ followers (what age bracket does he enchantment to now?) … Certainly one of today Elvis will play a straight position with substance, and we’ll undoubtedly discover out whether or not he can act or not.”^[13]

Accolades

The movie is acknowledged by American Movie Institute in these lists:

• 2004: AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs:
  • “Blue Hawaii” – Nominated^[14]

Soundtrack

Presley’s remake of the title track launched it to an viewers too younger to recollect Bing Crosby’s unique hit model.

The soundtrack album was on the Billboard Pop Albums chart for 79 weeks, the place it spent 20 weeks at #1. It has been licensed by the RIAA for gross sales of three million copies within the U.S.^[15]

The soundtrack album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1961 within the class of Finest Sound Observe Album or Recording of Authentic Solid from a Movement Image or Tv.

The soundtrack featured the hit track “Cannot Assist Falling in Love” sung by Elvis, which is licensed Platinum by the RIAA, for U.S. gross sales in extra of 1 million copies. The track peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Billboard Scorching 100^[16] and Hit No. 1 on the Grownup Up to date chart for six weeks in addition to topping the British Charts in 1962.^[17][18]

See additionally

• Listing of American movies of 1961