Girls! Girls! Girls! Year of release: 1962 Studio: Paramount Director: Norman Taurog Plot: Elvis plays Ross Carpenter, a Hawaiian fishing guide and sailor. When he finds out his boss is retiring Ross seeks to raise money to buy the sailboat that he built with his father. Meanwhile he is caught in a love triangle with 2 women. Songs: Girls! Girls! Girls! I Don't Wanna Be Tied We'll Be Together A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You Earth Boy Return To Sender Because of Love Thanks To The Rolling Sea Song of the Shrimp The Walls Have Ears We're Coming In Loaded Trailer:
Too many songs this time but about a third are really good. Return is, of course, a classic that many fans were upset when it wasn't on any of his Golden Records sets. And the Leiber and Stoller title track(a cover of the Coasters) is maybe the second best title track(Gotta give the nod to Viva Las Vegas). What the heck is it with Elvis and boats?
Girls, girls, girls! (1962) A very simple plot - no deep message -, just pure escapism with some exotic locations and a big bunch of pop-rock songs. For the last time until "Live a little, Love a little" (1968), Elvis looks tremendously gorgeous: wearing black cloths with a nice tan and the absolute, ultimate, near perfect rockin' haircut. He sounds really good too (the edge is still there!) He's supposed to be the Captain of a boat but... whatever, that does not really matter. Laurel Goldwin is another cute leading lady who seems to enjoy some really crazy scenes (THE WALLS HAVE EARS!!) and the supporting cast ain't too shabby eather (the "bad" guy during I DON'T WANNA BE TIED just does the same thing as in MEAN WOMAN BLUES, 5 years earlier!) There is one classic dance scene - RETURN TO SENDER -, probably Elvis best performance since the JAILHOUSE ROCK dancing number. The whole thing is fluffy, harmless and so simple, but it is good fun and Hawaii looks great in Technicolor. TOP#11 ----------------------------------- 11. Wild in the Country (1961) 10. G.I. Blues (1960) 9. Love Me Tender (1956) 8. Girls, girls, girls (1962) 7. Kid Galahad (1962) 6. Blue Hawaii (1961) 5. Loving you (1957) 4. Follow that Dream (1962) 3. King Creole (1958) 2. Jailhouse Rock (1957) 1. Flaming star (1960)
To me, Girls Girls Girls is where the formula gets locked in. Especially seeing as the location is Hawaii, trying to capitalize on Blue Hawaii’s success at least in part. The songs are decent for the most part - where else do we get to hear Elvis do a sea chanty, and I love the discussion we had regarding Song of the Shrimp in the song-by-song thread. Astonishingly the movie was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture. Was 1962 a particularly weak year for film? Sorry E, this one gets a C- from me. That said, I haven’t watched this one in years so I reserve the right to change my score upon a future viewing (good or bad). I do love that Pizza Hut used I Don’t Wanna Be Free in a TV commercial:
And what’s with the trend starting in GGG with having kids play prominent roles? There’s this film, It Happened At The World’s Fair, Fun In Acapulco, Paradise Hawaiian Style, Clambake, Speedway, probably another one or two I’m mentally trying to block? As if the cheapness trend weren’t enough of an insult to Elvis there’s him being forced to sing/act with children.
Probably designed to further soften his bad boy Rock & Roll persona and move him squarely into the arms of naysayers and middle America. If little kids like him, then what's the problem moms and dads? He's a good guy!
It's weird that as enraptured as my 8 year old self was with Blue Hawaii, his next two Island pictures didn't have the same cachet for me. I don't think I've even seen either of them since the 60s. All I really remember about GGG is one of my favorite 60s Elvis hits, Return To Sender, the film's saving grace. I don't even have this on dvd so at the moment, I can't watch to see just how good or bad it really is. Something tells me it may be the latter. C'mon TCM, do me a solid!
I was gonna try and do you a favor by posting the film’s trailer to see if it triggers any memories but after viewing it makes zero mention of the plot! I guess Paramount had little faith in it too.
I'm guessing Paramount didn't feel the need since it was Elvis and at the time, the audience was already built in. Plot? We don't need no stinking plot!
GGG was another Elvis movie that I had not previously seen - in fact of those we have yet to discuss I think I have only seen about 5 of them. On paper I thought the idea of Elvis playing a fishing guide / sailor was interesting. It seemed to be a different type of role. At least he wasn't playing someone who had just got our of the army!!! However it is obviously a pretty lightweight film. It was directed by Norman Taurog who also directed GI Blues and Blue Hawaii so I kind of guessed the type of film we would be getting. As others have mentioned, the scenes with the kids are pretty embarrassing. In fact the whole section with that family was quite cringeworthy. I also felt the final realisation that 'the boat is not as important as the girl' was just tossed away and could have been handled better, but as others have said, why worry about the plot. I can't remember if I have mentioned this before, but as we are getting into the some of the less significant movies from Elvis' career I find myself wishing that someone had realised that a concert film or documentary would have brought just as many people into the movie theatres. He was being filmed beautifully on celluloid by professionals - it's a shame that at least a couple of these movies didn't document Elvis the performer in a more significant way.
I'm trying to get caught up here after a super busy week. I wanted to watch Kid Galahad again for awhile, even though it was not too long ago that my lady and I went on our Elvis marathon of movie watching during our Covid shutdown last year. I like this film for several reasons, but I'm probably a little biased about it for several reasons. Firstly, the movie is suppose to be set in the Catskills in New York, but they filmed much of the movie in Idyllwild in Southern California. I went up there a few times as an adult, not even being aware of the fact that Elvis had filmed a movie up there. A gorgeous place to hang out or have a picnic. I wish I knew about the Hidden Lodge where Elvis filmed a lot of the scenes from the movie. It has been remodeled beautifully and you can rent the 3,400 square foot lodge for a group of ten people or less. I might try that out one day, Lol. I have loved a lot of sports ever since I was a young boy, especially football, basketball and heavyweight boxing. Ironically, my uncle once owned the San Diego Padres, but my father and I were never baseball fans. We would end up asking my uncle for San Diego Charger tickets back in those days, Lol. I also grew up watching those Ali-Frazier fights as well as those George Foreman and Mike Tyson fights and guess what? I just hate sport movies in general. They are never very accurate and Hollywood always seems to have a warped view of the sports world. There have been some good sports movies like North Dallas Forty and Rocky, but honestly I was never a huge fan of all those Stallone boxing movies. Most of the time Hollywood tries to find some very good actor with a small build and then tries to convince the world that he is a world class boxer or athlete. At least Elvis was well trained in the martial arts and had some natural athletic ability. He also played informal pick-up football games with some of his buddies like Ricky Nelson during those early years. Mushy Callahan, a junior welterweight champion in 1926, was brought in to train Elvis and put him through the ropes. He must have hit it off with Elvis and always spoke fondly of Elvis's athletic prowess as did legendary heavyweight champion Joe lewis. Here are a couple of quotes taken from the fantastic Kid Galahad Sessions liner notes on FTD. Joe Lewis later told Sports Illustrated that Elvis had the "promise of becoming a better boxer than singer." Mushy Callahan, Presley's trainer, insisted at the event that Elvis had more than promise. "Presley really could have made a good boxer," he declared. "With a little sharpening, he could beat some of the professionals I've fought against. He (Elvis) has very tough hands,. When he was in the Army in Germany he told me he had someone teach him karate and judo. The side of his right hand is all callused and he can split a pretty good sized piece of wood with that karate chop." What I really like most about the movie is the fact that the actual boxing scenes do not go on forever and the subplot of romance between Gig Young's character and Lola Albright are well sketched out and almost more interesting than the one between Elvis and Joan Blackman's characters. Elvis does not dominate the screen, but when he does show up, he seems to play his part well. The scene where Gig Young confronts Elvis over his pending romance with his sister is riveting. Elvis seems to display some real anger and indignation in this scene. I love the gorgeous background scenery in this movie and this remains a top ten Elvis movie for me. Oh wow, I still cannot believe I am saying that regarding a moving about boxing, Lol.
I'm sure it would. But he had no band and had not done a concert since Hawaii. And would not for another seven years. It would not be a comeback otherwise.
Oh absolutely - it's difficult to know what might have happened if he had been given the opportunity to perform more in the 60's. If a concert film had been made in the early 60's it could well have created the appetite for Elvis to tour, which in turn could have led to the Colonel making decisions that would have jeopardised Elvis' health sooner. As you say, the focus on movies created the opportunity to make a comeback in '68 which opened up a new career for him. But still, when you look at Elvis' movie career in isolation, as we have been doing in this thread, it does generate a certain feeling of frustration that he wasn't given all the opportunities to showcase his talent.
Sorry, I can’t comment on the film as I have seen it but can’t remember it, but I did enjoy the soundtrack last week. Having previously not liked it (perhaps I paid too much attention to the lyrics!), I had it on again more as background music and it was good!
I now realize that Shawn and I not only share a lot of similar tastes in music, but apparently our Elvis movie reviews are not that far apart either. While this movie does feature a pretty decent soundtrack in my opinion, I am afraid this is where I too see a noticeable drop in overall quality of the production and writing. The supporting cast was quite a bit weaker than Elvis's previous movie, Kid Galahad, as well. I am very fond of several songs that are featured on the soundtrack. One of Elvis's greatest hidden gems has to be the simply gorgeous and evocative, A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You. I had never even payed much attention to this soundtrack or this particular song, until someone posted A Girl Like Me on a thread about Elvis's most underrated songs or performances. In this case, the poster suggested this sublime alternate take version below. The movie may be a C- as Shawn suggests, but I think the soundtrack is a sold B or B-. Elvis delivers a remarkable vocal and check out guitarist Tiny Timbrels's wonderful trailing coda right after the first verse below.
I think we've reached the point where the movies becomes almost indistinguishable. That is, until they get even worse. I haven't seen triple 'Girls' yet.
I think his 'bad boy Rock 'n Roll' persona was already well in the past by the time this film came out. I don't say his time in the Army was the big blow to his persona, but appearing with Frank Sinatra after he got out of the Army sure gave his 'Rock 'n Roll' image a huge black eye.
Man, I'm totally digging Comin' In Loaded right now...he turns a song about fishing into pure gospel!
