Blue Hawaii
- Elvis Presley
- Joan Blackman
- Angela Lansbury
- Nancy Walters
company
- November 22, 1961 (1961-11-22) (United States)
Blue Hawaii is a 1961 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written American Musical.[3] The film opened at number two in box-office receipts for that week and, despite mixed reviews from critics, finished as the 10th top-grossing film of 1961 and 14th for 1962 in the Variety national box office survey, earning $5 million.[4] The film won a fourth place prize Laurel Award in the category of Top Musical of 1961.[5]
Plot
Having been released from the Army, Chadwick "Chad" Gates is eager to return to Hawaii with his surfboard, his native Hawaiian beach friends, and his mixed-race girlfriend Maile Duval. His mother, Sarah Lee, wants him to follow in his father's footsteps and take over management at the Great Southern Hawaiian Fruit Company, the family business, but Chad is reluctant and goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency. His slightly scatter-brained boss is Mr. Chapman.
The first clients Chad has are an attractive school teacher, Abigail Prentice, and four teenage female students. One of the students, 17-year-old Ellie Corbett, seems self-centered and doesn't get along with the other three, but she becomes smitten with Chad. Chad's girlfriend, Maile, becomes jealous of Abigail, who is quite fond of Chad. After Ellie's flirtatious ways with another tourist cause a wild fight to erupt in a restaurant, Mr. Chapman fires Chad. Maile quits her job in protest. Maile and Chad independently continue guiding Abigail and the four youths, taking them to Kaua'i.
One night Ellie attempts to seduce Chad in his hotel room, but he refuses her advances; at the same moment, Maile pays a surprise visit to the hotel. Ellie despondently flees in a stolen jeep, intending to drown herself in the ocean. Before she can, Chad pulls her out, attempts to speak to her, but then decides to punish her with a spanking. In the next scene, the girls, including Ellie, are having breakfast. Ellie is now pleasant, friendly and well-mannered, and jokes about the spanking. Meanwhile, Abigail has found romance with Jack Kelman, a longtime business partner of Chad's father. With Jack's help, Chad and his father resolve their differences about Chad's future.
Chad and Maile form their own tourism business—Gates of Hawaii—and begin arrangements to provide tourist services for his father's large network of fruit salesmen in the U.S. and Canada. The film ends with Chad's and Maile's lavish outdoor wedding.
Cast
- Elvis Presley as Chadwick "Chad" Gates
- Joan Blackman as Maile Duval
- Angela Lansbury as Sarah Lee Gates
- Nancy Walters as Abigail Prentice
- Roland Winters as Fred Gates
- John Archer as Jack Kelman
- Howard McNear as Mr. Chapman
- Steve Brodie as Tucker Garvey
- Darlene Tompkins as Patsy Simon
- Iris Adrian as Enid Garvey
- Hilo Hattie as Waihila
- Jenny Maxwell as Ellie Corbett
- Pamela Austin as Selena "Sandy" Emerson (as Pamela Kirk)
- Christian Kay as Beverly Martin
- Lani Kai as Carl Tanami
- Jose De Vega as Ernie Gordon
- Frank Atienza as Ito O'Hara
- Tiki Hanalei as Ping Pong
- Flora Kaai Hayes as Maile's grandmother (uncredited)
Production
Blue Hawaii was the first of three Elvis films shot in Hawaii, followed by Girls! Girls! Girls! in 1962 and Paradise, Hawaiian Style in 1965. Producer Hal B. Wallis was keen to put Presley in a film that showed how the army affected a man.[6] Actress Juliet Prowse, who had starred with Presley in GI Blues, was approached to be his love interest again. But after her demands were put forward, Paramount decided to drop her for the role, choosing Joan Blackman instead.[6] Presley was apparently so pale before shooting that Wallis personally recommended a brand of tanning lamp to darken his skin.[6] The film was announced in the fall of 1960 as Hawaii Beach Boy.[7] At the time, film producer Walter Mirisch had a film titled Hawaii in production, and he was upset that Wallis had chosen such a similar name.[7]
Presley arrived in Hawaii on March 18, 1961, to prepare for a charity concert he was giving on March 25 to raise funds for the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.[8] He arrived at the recording studio on March 21 to start recording the film's soundtrack.[8] Three weeks later, location filming had finished, including scenes at Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head, Mount Tantalus, and Hanauma Bay, a volcanic crater that is open to the sea, near the bedroom community of Hawaii Kai, a few miles away from Waikiki.[6][9] After location filming, the crew returned to the Paramount lot to finish other scenes for the film. Presley relaxed during filming by giving karate demonstrations with his friend and employee, Red West, which resulted in Presley's fingers becoming bruised and swollen. Wallis warned the female stars of the film to avoid parties Presley hosted because they were turning up for shooting looking tired.[6]
Wallis used the box-office returns from Blue Hawaii to finance an upcoming Wallis film, 1964's Becket, starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole.
Presley was 26 at the time this film was released, and a not yet 36-year-old Angela Lansbury played his character's mother. Nancy Walters, who was cast as the older schoolteacher, was in reality only 18 months older than Presley.
Much of the film was shot on location at the Coco Palms Resort on the east coast of Kauai.
Although it is mentioned in the film that Chad's parents live in Kāhala, one of the most expensive and exclusive areas of Honolulu in 1961, the view from their "lanai" (porch or terrace) shows Diamond Head as it appears from Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. In actuality, Kāhala is on the other side of Diamond Head from Waikiki.
Several scenes were filmed in and around Waikiki Beach, including the opening driving scenes and the office scene across the street from the "International Market". The scenes in which Chad's clients stay in a hotel and in which he picks up his tour group – as well as those on the beach where he spends time with Maile – were all filmed on the property now known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach.
Reception
Howard Thompson of The New York Times called the film "blandly uneventful" with a "nonsensical and harmless" plot, though he wrote that Presley "delivers the songs and rhythmical spasms right on schedule. We counted fourteen tunes, about half of them replete with ukulele trimmings and exotic, weaving dancers. One of them, a number called 'Beach Boy Blues,' is nifty, and Presley delivers it accordingly. No kidding."[10] Variety wrote, "Hal Kanter's breezy screenplay, from a story by Allan Weiss, is the slim, but convenient, foundation around which Wallis and staff have erected a handsome, picture-postcard production crammed with typical South Seas musical hulaballoo ... Under Norman Taurog's broad direction, Presley, in essence, is playing himself—a role sure to delight his ardent fans."[11] Harrison's Reports graded the film "Fair", adding: "As is the custom in a Presley production, the crooner-gyrater dominates the running time of the film. That is why, it is more the pity, now that he has so many films under his acting belt that he still continues to deliver such an embarrassingly poor performance."[12] John L. Scott of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "does a lot for the 'paradise of the Pacific,' showing its foamy waves, palm trees, luaus and a couple of plush hotels, but not very much for Elvis' fans (what age bracket does he appeal to now?) ... One of these days Elvis will play a straight role with substance, and we'll definitely find out whether he can act or not."[13]
Accolades
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- "Blue Hawaii" – Nominated[14]
Soundtrack
Presley's remake of the title song introduced it to an audience too young to remember Bing Crosby's original hit version.
The soundtrack album was on the Billboard Pop Albums chart for 79 weeks, where it spent 20 weeks at #1. It has been certified by the RIAA for sales of three million copies in the U.S.[15]
The soundtrack album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1961 in the category of Best Sound Track Album or Recording of Original Cast from a Motion Picture or Television.
The soundtrack featured the hit song "Can't Help Falling in Love" sung by Elvis, which is certified Platinum by the RIAA, for U.S. sales in excess of one million copies. The song peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Billboard Hot 100[16] and hit No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for six weeks, as well as topping the British charts in 1962.[17][18]
As of 4 March 2024, the song was the most streamed Elvis Presley song with total streams on Spotify totalled at 836,193,249 and was on course to be the first Elvis Presley song streamed on one billion occasions. Youtube streams on the Elvis Presley channel totalled in excess of 400 million on the same date.
See also
References
- ^ Lisanti, Tom. Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969, McFarland, 2005, p. 50.
- ^ "All-Time Top Grossers" in Variety, 8 January 1964, p. 69.
- ^ Writers Guild of America, USA (1962) – IMDb.
- ^ Victor, Adam. The Elvis Encyclopedia. Overlook, 2008.
- ^ 1962 Laurel Awards – IMDb.
- ^ a b c d e Victor, Adam. The Elvis Encyclopaedia (2008), p.44-45.
- ^ a b Worth, Fred L. Elvis: His Life from A to Z, Random House, 1992, p.245/246.
- ^ a b Guralnick, Peter. Careless Love, p.99.
- ^ "Blue Hawaii website". Archived from the original on 2009-02-10. Retrieved 2009-01-16.
- ^ Thompson, Howard (February 22, 1962). "'Blue Hawaii' Opens". The New York Times: 20.
- ^ "Blue Hawaii". Variety: 6. November 29, 1961.
- ^ "Film Review: Blue Hawaii". Harrison's Reports: 190–191. December 2, 1961.
- ^ Scott, John L. (November 24, 1961). "Elvis Goes Hawaiian in His New Picture". Los Angeles Times: Part IV, p. 15, 17.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-07-30.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums 1955-1996.
- ^ "Music: Top 100 – Billboard Hot 100 Chart", Billboard
- ^ "Adult Contemporary Chart – Billboard", Billboard
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 196.
External links
- Blue Hawaii at IMDb
- Blue Hawaii at the TCM Movie Database
- Blue Hawaii at AllMovie
- Blue Hawaii at Rotten Tomatoes
- Elvis in Hawaii Presley's movies in Hawaii
- v
- t
- e
- Elvis Presley
- Elvis (1956 album)
- Elvis' Christmas Album
- Elvis Is Back!
- His Hand in Mine
- Something for Everybody
- Pot Luck
- How Great Thou Art
- From Elvis in Memphis
- From Memphis to Vegas / From Vegas to Memphis
- That's the Way It Is
- Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old)
- Love Letters from Elvis
- Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas
- Elvis Now
- He Touched Me
- Elvis (1973 album)
- Raised on Rock / For Ol' Times Sake
- Good Times
- Promised Land
- Today
- From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee
- Moody Blue
- Loving You
- King Creole
- G.I. Blues
- Blue Hawaii
- Girls! Girls! Girls!
- It Happened at the World's Fair
- Fun in Acapulco
- Kissin' Cousins
- Roustabout
- Girl Happy
- Harum Scarum
- Frankie and Johnny
- Paradise Hawaiian Style
- Spinout
- Double Trouble
- Clambake
- Speedway
- Viva Elvis
- Elvis Presley: The Searcher
- Love Me Tender
- Peace in the Valley
- Jailhouse Rock
- Flaming Star
- Follow That Dream
- Kid Galahad
- Viva Las Vegas
- Tickle Me
- Easy Come, Easy Go
- Elvis (1968 album)
- From Memphis to Vegas / From Vegas to Memphis
- On Stage
- As Recorded at Madison Square Garden
- Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite
- Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis
- Having Fun with Elvis on Stage
- Elvis in Concert
- An Afternoon in the Garden
- Elvis Sings Flaming Star
- Let's Be Friends
- Almost in Love
- C'mon Everybody
- I Got Lucky
- Elvis' 40 Greatest
- Pure Gold
- Elvis' Golden Records
- For LP Fans Only
- A Date with Elvis
- 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong
- Elvis' Golden Records Volume 3
- Elvis for Everyone!
- Elvis' Gold Records Volume 4
- Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 1
- Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 2
- The Sun Sessions
- Welcome to My World
- He Walks Beside Me
- Mahalo from Elvis
- Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 3
- Greatest Hits Volume 1
- Elvis' Gold Records Volume 5
- Amazing Grace: His Greatest Sacred Performances
- Command Performances: The Essential 60s Masters II
- Elvis 56
- Tiger Man
- Memories: The '68 Comeback Special
- Sunrise
- Suspicious Minds: The Memphis 1969 Anthology
- The 50 Greatest Hits
- ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits
- 2nd to None
- Elvis at Sun
- Hitstory
- Elvis Inspirational
- Elvis Rock
- Elvis Christmas
- The Essential Elvis Presley
- Christmas Duets
- If I Can Dream
- Way Down in the Jungle Room
- The Wonder of You
- Where No One Stands Alone
- Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Vol. 1
- The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50's Masters
- From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters
- Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters
- Peace in the Valley: The Complete Gospel Recordings
- Live in Las Vegas
- Today, Tomorrow, and Forever
- Elvis the King
- The Complete '68 Comeback Special
- The Complete Elvis Presley Masters
- Elvis (1979 film)
- Elvis and Me (miniseries)
- Elvis (1990 series)
- Elvis Meets Nixon
- Elvis (2005 miniseries)
- Elvis & Nixon
- Elvis (2022 film)
- Agent Elvis (2023 series)
- Priscilla
- The Pied Piper of Cleveland
- Elvis: That's the Way It Is
- Elvis on Tour
- This Is Elvis
- The New Gladiators
- Elvis Presley: The Searcher
- The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: Welcome Home Elvis
- Elvis ('68 Comeback Special)
- Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite
- Elvis in Concert
- Cooking with Elvis
- All Shook Up
- Elvis. The Musical
- Elvis: The Concert
- Viva Elvis
- The Elvis Dead
- Lisa Marie Presley (daughter)
- Riley Keough (granddaughter)
- Priscilla Presley (ex-wife)
- Brandon Presley (second cousin)
- Sam Phillips
- The Blue Moon Boys
- The Jordanaires
- The Imperials
- The Sweet Inspirations
- TCB Band
- J. D. Sumner
- Stephen H. Sholes
- June Juanico
- Memphis Mafia
- Colonel Tom Parker
- George C. Nichopoulos
- Judy Spreckels
- Linda Thompson
- Ginger Alden
- Larry Geller
- Graceland
- Audubon Street House
- Impersonators
- Elvis and Gladys
- Elvis and Me
- Elvis: What Happened?
- Elvis-A-Rama Museum
- Sun recordings
- Million Dollar Quartet
- Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley
- Songs about Elvis
- Elvis Presley Enterprises
- Elvis Presley Lake
- "Elvis has left the building"
- Elvis Radio
- FBI files on Elvis Presley
- Military service
- Eight Elvises
- Triple Elvis
- Elvis Presley's Pink Cadillac
- Elvis Presley's guitars
- Elvis Presley single
- Elvis Presley Forever stamp
- Elvis sightings
- Elvis sandwich
- Fool's Gold Loaf
- Elvis' Greatest Shit
- List of memorials
- Category