Hawaii movies

Lisa’s Home Bijou: Girls! Girls! Girls! Elvis sings

October 23, 2017 by Lisa Grable 8 Comments

Film Festival: Elvis in Hawaii

Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) stars Elvis Presley as a poor orphan working man, making his money by leading sport fishing tours, maintaining boats, catching tuna, and singing in a nightclub. There are two main girls in the film, Stella Stevens and Laurel Goodwin.

I thought Stella Stevens would be the star of this movie. She gets to sing and have a few key scenes with Elvis. I definitely would have liked more from such a 1960s icon. Stella plays Robin, Ross’ old girlfriend.

Ross Carpenter (Elvis Presley) takes out private charters on the boat Kingfisher. His clients want sport fishing for marlin and swordfish. Elvis gets to show some muscle reeling in the huge fish.

“And you want to keep them away? –Ah no! I like girls! –But not as much as the boat. –I live on the boat. I’d like to own her. –What’s stopping you? –Money!” Ross and Mrs. Morgan

As an orphan, Ross has made his own family relationships with people around Oahu.

“When I was a kid after my father died I lived on what other people gave me. Clothes that other kids had outgrown and didn’t fit me. Toys that had been broken and thrown out. I even got to where I thought the food I ate was given to me because someone else had finished with it.” –Ross

First, Papa Stavros owns a fleet of boats including the Westwind, a sailboat Ross built with his father before he died. He and Mama have to move to Arizona and they have to sell all their boats. Ross takes Laurel to a big Greek anniversary party for Mama and Papa.

Next, Ross is buddies with the folks at the Pirates Den nightclub. Robin Gantner (Stella Stevens) is the headliner. Sam offers him a job singing anytime. Ross meets Laurel Dodge (Laurel Goodwin) at the club. Laurel is from out of town – very cagey about who she is, where she’s from.

“Sir Galahad. You’re Sir Galahad, Don Juan, and Casanova rolled into one. If it isn’t this boat it’s girls. Girls, girls, girls!” –Robin

Ross introduces Laurel to another family of his, the Yungs. They live in a plantation-style house at Paradise Cove (this could be on the leeward side, at today’s Ko Olina). Kin Yung (the great Benson Fong) runs a fishing operation. His son Chen works for Ross.

The plot revolves around Ross’ conflict with Wesley. Wesley Johnson (Jeremy Slate) is a broker at the marina with a reputation for drinking and chasing women. He decides to buy all of Papa’s boats. Ross needs $10,000 to buy the Westwind back from him. He has to go to work as a tuna boat captain for Wesley and a singer for Sam at the Pirates Den.

“She wrote upon it / Return to sender / Address unknown / No such number / No such zone” –Ross

Girls! Girls! Girls! never mentions Hawaii. The Pirates Den is nautical. Street scenes look like they are on set. The movie theater posters on the street show Blue Hawaii. I kept wondering if the original script was supposed to be in New Orleans or Florida and the producers went for Hawaii instead.

The Ala Wai Boat Harbor in Honolulu is prominently featured along with the Kewalo Basin Harbor. Bit parts are filled with Hawaiian extras. Outrigger canoes are in the Paradise Cove scenes and a cat named Kapu. The Ala Moana Building is in the skyline, with the first revolving restaurant in the US.

The tuna boat called Kilohana and the fishing scenes are off the Waimanalo coast. Today the tuna market is near Sand Island and the Kapalama Basin. At the party at the end we have Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian, Tahitian, Phillipine, and Balinese dancers.The top hit from the movie is Return to Sender and watching Elvis sing it on stage is just great. Other songs on the soundtrack:

Girls! Girls! Girls!
Never Let Me Go
I Don’t Wanna Be Tied
Mama
We’ll Be Together
A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You
Earth Boy
The Nearness of You
Because of Love
Thanks to the Rolling Sea
Song of the Shrimp
The Walls have Ears
We’re Coming in Loaded
Baby, Baby, Baby
Dainty Little Moonbeams

Elvis looks really good in Girls! Girls! Girls! He’s skippering the boats, reeling in fish, wielding tools, dancing, and singing. The Sixties’ women’s fashion are so much fun! All the Elvis movie plot points are here: fighting over a woman, lame comedy, and interaction with sweet little children.

Resource links for Girls! Girls! Girls!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056023/?ref_=nm_knf_t1
- Girls! Girls! Girls! From IMDb
http://stellastevens.biz/
- Official Stella Stevens website
http://www.elvisinhawaii.com/
- Elvis in Hawaii website
http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/47783/1962v52no7.pdf?sequence=1
- 1962 view of Ala Moana Building from University of Hawaii
http://nicospier38.com/about/
- Nico’s Pier 38 restaurant

Affiliate links: if you make a purchase using these links, I’ll receive a small compensation towards maintaining this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Lisa’s Home Bijou: Paradise, Hawaiian Style

October 9, 2017 by Lisa Grable Leave a Comment

Film Festival: Elvis in Hawaii

Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) stars Elvis Presley as a womanizing pilot who launches the idea of helicopter tours in the Hawaiian islands. It is one of the three films Elvis made in Hawaii and the aerial photography of Oahu and Kaua’i are just stunning. Are Elvis and the plot stunning? Well…

The film opens with Rick Richards (Elvis Presley) flying in first class on a plane in his pilot’s uniform. He’s been fired from a major airline and can’t get a job because of his woman-chasing ways.

Rick meets up with his friend Danny (the great James Shigeta) who owns a charter air service. They call each other Missionary and Native. He can’t give Rick a job because he doesn’t have enough customers to feed his family of 5 children.

The rest of Paradise, Hawaiian Style revolves around Rick managing to get access to 2 helicopters and starting an inter-island chopper service with Danny. His business philosophy is “I’ll scratch your back, and you’ll scratch mine.” He builds the business by meeting up with all the young ladies he knows that work as concierges at the resorts.

“We figured out a way to scratch each other’s backs. I sold him on going into partnership with us. He scratches our backs by putting up the choppers, we scratch his by putting up the service. –What kind of service? –A personal air service. Look, we both know these islands, Danny. We could use the choppers to fly tourists to places they could never reach by any other means of transportation!” –Rick and Danny

Jan (Donna Butterworth), Danny’s little girl. Rick enjoys playing with Danny’s children and he sings a spirited song with Jan, Queenie Wahine’s Papaya. Jan sings another song with Rick, Datin’, while he flies her in a chopper over to Kaua’i. Jan has a big solo number with Won’t you come home Bill Bailey, which she sings at the Polynesian welcoming festival at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Rick’s relationship with Jan may be his best.

Lehua. Rick joins Danny on a charter flight with a client who sells alligator shoes headed to Maui for a convention. They land on Maui and Rick spots Lehua working at concierge desk in resort. She’s mad because he stood her up two years ago. He tries to convince her to help book passengers for their new helicopter charter service.

“Aren’t you a little late? –We had a date, remember? –How could I forget. When? –For dinner, June 4^th, two years ago. –And you’ve been waiting all this time? You must be starving! –Not anymore. I ate my heart out for a day or two.” –Lehua and Rick

Lani. Rick gets excited when he has to fly a client to Hanalei Plantation on Kaua’i because he knows Lani there. Rick sells Lani on the charter idea. Lani sings and dances at the club Piki Niki and includes Rick in One good turn deserves another.

Later, Rick has to pick up a couple in Kaua’i so he offers to take Jan with him to swim at Iron Kettle, an outdoor café at the beach. When they land at Hanalei Bay, they meet Lani and her father.

“You come back to marry my daughter? … My ancestors had the right idea. If a young man didn’t want to marry your daughter, you dipped him in coconut butter and threw him into a volcano.” –Lani’s father

Lani and Rick plan to fly for a picnic with Jan. Rick grabs a guitar and sings Sand Castles to the pretty girls on the beach before they take off.

At this point there is fantastic aerial photography of Waimea Canyon. Lani, Rick, and Jan go snorkeling at Moonlight Beach (they are actually at Kualoa Regional Park with a great view of Mokoli’i island.)

Lani hides the chopper keys so they can’t leave. She really wants more time with Rick. They spend hours searching for the key in the sand. Danny ends up being so angry about Rick keeping Jan out all night and they’ve lost all their customers for the day. He dissolves the partnership.

Pua. Pua is a tour guide at the Polynesian Cultural Center at Laie on the North Shore of Oahu. Rick flies the copter over the center. All the college students working there are dancing and singing Pupu A O ‘Ewa (also sung in Donovan’s Reef!).

Bula Maleya, a song from Fiji, which says hello to Fiji and Malaysia, became Drums of the Islands for Elvis. He sings it while he’s riding with Pua in an outrigger.

“Drums of the islands / You’re beating in my heart / You’re with me no matter where I roam / If ever I wander / if ever we’re apart / I know that you will lead me home” –Rick

The outrigger passes through all the Polynesian “lands” at the center and we see dances for each. As they pass Hawaii, there are men and women doing hula with uli uli (gourd rattles with feathers) and pu’ili (split bamboo sticks).

Joanna. Rick takes a job that involves a client paying a lot of money to fly a set of show dogs uncrated! He flies to the Kahala to meet with Joanna (near Diamond Head on Oahu). She rides with him with the dogs.

He sings A Dog’s Life to the 4 dogs and Joanna. The dogs go crazy and he tries to get control of the chopper over a pineapple field. He ends up running a car off the highway. The driver is from the Island Aviation Bureau. The dogs emerge upon landing all bandaged up from fighting with each other. Joanna is pretty dinged up too!

Judy (Suzanna Leigh). Rick advertises for a Girl Friday to run the new office of Danrick Airways. Danny’s friend Judy loves to fly. Danny loans her a wedding ring for her interview with Rick.

“Sometimes saying you’re married works better than an insect repellant!” –Danny

Judy gets the job managing their office. She ends up being a stable and beautiful part of Rick’s life.

At the final luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center, Rick spots Lani with a date. Pua and Lehua show up with dates too! Rick is trying to avoid them. Finally, Joanna arrives also. Rick is dragged on stage with Tahitian dancers. He sings Stop Where You Are.

Outside, the Pacific islanders are putting on a big show of dances from the island nations, including Samoan slap dance (Fa’ataupati).

Rick reveals that he knows Judy is actually single and he commits to her by joining a hula on stage, singing This is My Heaven. He rocks the pu’ili bamboo rattles. Then the finale is Drums of the Islands and he joins each national group and plays instruments. Then he jumps on a giant drum!

Starting with the Paradise, Hawaiian Style opening credits song, Hawaii USA, Elvis is in fine voice but the songs don’t have a clear style. I think of what the Beatles and Beach Boys were doing in 1966 and these songs sound more like Las Vegas floor shows. Elvis isn’t given a lot of acting to do, but he flirts well with all the girls and he looks like he could be flying the helicopter.

Try Paradise, Hawaiian Style for romantic Elvis and beautiful photography of Kaua’i.

Resource links for Paradise, Hawaiian Style

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059563/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
- Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) from IMDb
https://www.elvis.com.au/presley/interview-with-donna-butterworth.shtml
- Interview with Donna Butterworth from Elvis Australia
http://www.thetahititraveler.com/general-information/art-culture/polynesian-dance-music/
- Polynesian dance and music from The Tahiti Traveler
http://www.dancespirit.com/the-beauty-of-polynesian-dance-2326036610.html
- Polynesian dance from Dance Spirit
http://www.kauai.com
- Explore Kauai the Garden Isle
Affiliate links: if you make a purchase using these links, I’ll receive a small compensation towards maintaining this blog, at no extra cost to you.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Lisa’s Home Bijou: Blue Hawaii Elvis as beach boy

September 25, 2017 by Lisa Grable Leave a Comment

Film Festival: Elvis in Hawaii

Blue Hawaii (1961) is the first of the three Hawaii films starring Elvis Presley. The soundtrack album for this movie was a huge hit and three of his most famous songs are here: Blue Hawaii, I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You, and the Hawaiian Wedding Song.

“Dreams come true / In blue Hawaii / And mine could all come true / This magic night / A night with you” –Elvis

Elvis plays Chad Gates, a young man who is returning to his home in Oahu from military service in Italy. His father is a pineapple company executive and his mother is a social/class-conscious Southerner. Sarah Lee (Angela Lansbury) is a Southern belle who is worried about associating “with the finer elements.” They live in a beautiful home in Manoa or Tantalus or Kahala (it depends if you believe the script, the views out the windows, or the road signs!). Chad is a Hawaiian beach boy at heart and wants to make a living on his own, incorporating his love of Hawaii.

Chad’s girlfriend is Maile (Joan Blackman), a descendant of a Hawaiian royal family and a tourist bureau employee. Chad’s friends are Hawaiian and make a living playing music.

Chad defies his parents and begins working as a tourist guide for Maile’s company. His first client is a schoolteacher, Miss Prentice, escorting 4 high school girls. This sets up the adventures, conflicts, and fantastic scenery in the film.

Soundtrack

The many songs keep the movie rolling along.

I Was Almost Always True to You: Maile finds Waihila (Hilo Hattie), selling leis at the airport. They run out to the tarmac to meet the plane and greet Chad arriving home from the Army. Chad sings to Maile as they drive to the beach, at Hanauma Bay. This is the old days, it’s nearly deserted! Chad has an old grass shack he built with his friends. He plans to live there and surf, dive, and play music.

Aloha ‘Oe: Chad and Maile are out swimming in the bay and meet up with an outrigger with 4 of Chad’s friends. The song begins with the Hawaiians singing the first verse of the famous song in Hawaiian. Chad and his friends sing while riding in the outrigger. They have two guitars and a conch shell.

No More: Chad and the boys sing on the beach. Chad is remembering his romantic escapades in Naples. Now the boys have guitars, bongos, steel drum, and pahu (coconut and sharkskin drum).

I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You: Chad escapes his elegant home to go to a birthday party in Haleiwa. It’s Maile’s grandmother’s birthday. The boys are leading a Tahitian song when he arrives. Chad sings to Mrs. Maneka, Maile’s grandmother.

Rock A Hula: Chad’s mother throws a big society welcome home party for Chad. The beach boys are the band for the party. Chad sings with his friends, swinging uli uli (gourd rattles) while he does classic Elvis gyrating.

“The way she moves her hips to her fingertips / I feel like having fun / And when she starts to sway I’ve got to say / She really pulls the grass around” –Chad

Let’s go on a moonlight swim: Maile’s boss (Howard McNear) decides to hire Chad as a tourist guide and sends him to the Hilton Hawaiian Village to meet a schoolteacher. Miss Prentice has 4 teenage girls with her. Chad sings to the girls while driving them through the pineapple fields.

Ku’u Ipo: Chad sets up a hukilau at the beach for the guests. Chad sings a love song (Sweetheart) with his ukulele at the hukilau. Chad gets everyone down to the beach to help pull in the nets full of fish (hukilau). They cook the fish and eat on the beach.

Ito Eat: Chad is inspired to sing a calypso song about how much his friend Ito likes to eat.

“Ito is an eating boy / He never get enough of fish and poi / He eat everything he don’t care what / He even eat the shell from the coconut”–Chad, boys and girls

Slicin’ Sand: Everyone starts to rock, kicking sand in their dance.

Hawaiian Sunset: the Island Inn is having a luau party the next evening. Chad invites his father’s big boss to the party, Mr. Kelman. He and Miss Prentice share a mai tai with two straws. Chad is on stage with his ukulele, his band, and 2 hula dancers in cellophane skirts.

Beach Boy Blues: A drunk tourist from Tulsa starts a fight with Chad. The police break it up and Chad is in jail with his buddies. They sing a blues song in jail. Fortunately, the boys got arrested with their instruments.

“I’m a poor Hawaiian beach boy / A long way from the beach / Cuz someone shoved his face against my hand / Now I’m a kissin’ cousin to a ripe pineapple / I’m in the can” – Chad

Kaua’i, Island of Love: Chad decides to start his own tourist bureau with Miss Prentice and the girls as his first clients. They fly to Kaua’i and the fabulous Coco Palms resort. Chad sings as he takes the girls horseback riding along the Coconut Coast.

Hawaiian wedding song (Ke Kali Nei Au): After a lot of drama, Chad makes up with Maile and they decide to marry. The ceremony is at the beautiful lagoons at Coco Palms.

Chad tells his parents about his job. His mother continues to be upset that he is not taking his place at the pineapple company.

“I like my job, Mom. It’s fun, it’s interesting, and you meet a lot of nice people. –Nonsense. Tourists aren’t people. They’re… they’re tourists!” –Chad and Sarah Lee

Hawaii featured sites

Featured along with Hanauma Bay, and the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki are the Punchbowl heights above Honolulu, the pineapple fields at Wahiawa, and the famed sunset torchlighting ceremony at Coco Palms in Kaua’i.

Hawaiian cast

A few Hawaiians appear in this film. Hilo Hattie (Clara Inter) was the famous comedic singer and dancer playing a lei greeter at the airport. Bella Richards was a revered kumu hula (hula teacher) from Kailua on Oahu. Lani Kai was a singer, songwriter, and actor. He appeared on Adventures in Paradise and the original Hawaii Five-O. Frank Atienza was a regular on Magnum, PI. Ralph Tiki Hanalei was an actor with appearances on Adventures in Paradise, Hawaii Five-O, and Hawaiian Eye.

Worth watching!

Elvis was in his 20s in Blue Hawaii and makes a good acting effort. Along with being a lover and a singer, he has conflict with his parents and has to deal with petulant tourists. He is very handsome swimming and in his Hawaiian shirts. You can see what he might have become as an actor.

For music, romance, and views of early statehood Hawaii, you can’t go wrong with Blue Hawaii!