After several appearances in dramatic roles, Elvis Presley returned to musical comedy in this movie set against the exotic backdrop of Hawaii (which had just become the 50th state of the USA two years earlier, in 1959).
Chad Gates (Elvis) returns home to Honolulu after a stint in the service but shows little interest in working on his overbearing parents’ pineapple plantation.
Instead, Chad finds a job as a tour guide for his girlfriend’s travel agency and gives himself a chance to dance with – and sing to – a variety of Hawaii’s most beautiful women.
Though one of Elvis Presley’s biggest ever successes, this movie was directly responsible for turning him from the new James Dean into the king of pap.
Confronted with the huge box office grosses (the film made $15 million in the US in 1961), Elvis’s controllers – venal manager Colonel Tom Parker and film producer Hal Wallis – decided that every movie their boy made from then on would be the same mix of girls, songs and exotic locations.
Thirty films later, they’d sacrificed both their audience and Presley’s screen credibility.
For all that, this is colourful, amiable fluff, with some nice near-jailbait, Angela Lansbury as Elvis’s mum (she was only ten years older than her on-screen son), and such beautifully performed songs as Rock-A-Hula Baby, Hawaiian Wedding Song, Island of Love, and the immortal Can’t Help Falling in Love.
Scenes were shot at the Coco Palms Resort Hotel in Kapaa, on the Coconut Coast, and at Hanauma Bay Beach Park. Additional filming took place in Honolulu, on Kamehameha Highway in O’ahu, and on Kuhio Highway in Kapaa, and at the Polynesian Cultural Center in O’ahu.
Chad Gates
Elvis Presley Maile Duval
Joan Blackman Abigail Prentace
Nancy Walters Fred Gates
Roland Winters Sarah Lee Gates
Angela Lansbury Jack Kelman
John Archer Mr Chapman
Howard McNear Mrs Manaka
Flora Hayes Mr Duval
Gregory Gaye Mr Garvey
Steve Brodie
Director
Norman Taurog
Video
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Though one of Elvis Presley’s biggest ever successes, this movie was directly responsible for turning him from the new James Dean into the king of pap.
