Blue Hawaii

Blue Hawaii Review

Please note I saw this movie on TV so I can't speak to the quality of the video transfer or its features.

This film got its start when Hal Wallis thought the original movie, Waikiki Wedding, starring Bing Crosby from 1937, could be remade with Elvis as the star to attract a younger crowd into the theater. It was 1961 and the Beatles hadn't yet made their debut in America, and Elvis was at the top of the charts and his films were still top grossing box office hits.

Years latter, the film was satirized in the comedy/satire play, "The Perilous Predicament of Priscilla's Pineapples," which I saw just by chance back in the 90s before I realized the connection to the current movie.

Elvis plays a rich kid who wants to get out from under the thumb of his wealthy parents who want him to settle down and join the father's pineapple company. Elvis has other ideas, though, and is determined to make it on his own. His parents are played by Angela Lansbury and Roland Winters. The film also stars a young Joan Blackman.

Lansbury's carreer was in the doldrums at the time, and she hadn't yet scored big-time in Mame on Broadway or The Manchurian Candidate, probably her most spectacular and well-known role. So she was happy to find the work.

Elvis is not a bad actor himself actually, and this film is as much a musical tour de force showcasing his singing talent and many of his songs, including Falling in Love with You, which wasn't expected to be the hit song in the movie that it was.

The film has top production values and was shot all over the island of Oahu. Despite the cost of shooting, Elvis's draw as a star made his movies profitable box office hits. Eventually movie tastes changed and Elvis's fun-filled and romantic cinematic romps faded from the scene, but Blue Hawaii was the height of his movie career. It's a light-hearted and harmless piece of fluff from a more innocent age.

Blue Hawaii Overview

Elvis, playing an ex-G.I. beachcomber in Hawaii, goes against his mother's wishes to get a corporate job and takes a job as a tour guide, which provid

Blue Hawaii Specifications

Elvis Presley's seventh film was the first of his "Hawaii trilogy" (including Girls! Girls! Girls! and Paradise, Hawaiian Style). While its story is daft--the King has just been released from his Army posting in Italy and returned to the islands, where he's trying to avoid working in his father's fruit business--the music is not: "Blue Hawaii," "Almost Always True," and the beautiful "Can't Help Falling in Love." Angela Lansbury plays Elvis's mother, who can't seem to get through to him. Directed by the star's frequent collaborator, Norman Taurog (G.I. Blues). --Tom Keogh

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Hawaii Five-O - The Complete Ninth Season

Hawaii Five-O - The Complete Ninth Season Review

Nothing lasts 12 years without having something going for it. In the case of Hawaii Five-O, it easy to dismiss it as a typically television crime drama that got lucky by finding its audience and keeping it. The same could be said for Law and Order. Except, in television years, luck usually runs out after two or three years. Gimmicks get old, the formula is figured out, and sharks are jumped so often they don't even complain.

But shows that last five years, much less 12, have to have something besides luck, gimmicks, and great scheduling. Hawaii Five-O had a number of things going for it. First of all, let's be honest. The setting was, and still is so lush and exotic that it is easily intoxicating. Hawaii is beautiful, and most people either live there or want to live there. Filming on location has always been a blessing when it's been done, and probably no more so than on this series.

Next, Jack Lord, playing Five-O chief Steve McGarrett, was one of a long line of no-nonsense law enforcement figures. The strength, integrity, and dedication of these kinds of characters cannot be overstated, and these characters will always have lots of fans rooting them on, not unlike Law and Order's Jack McCoy.

Finally, watching shows like this is always a treat because you see so many stars that were either big stars enjoying a working Hawaiian vacation, or lots of up and coming stars before they got their big break. Hawaii Five-O was a natural draw for both categories, and it's fun to watch them and remember when.

It's also fun to remember when you could look forward to hearing one of the best and most recognizable theme songs in television history. Not a small thing when you add it with the other factors. Hawaii Five-O had a lot going for it then, and it has a lot going for it now.

Hawaii Five-O - The Complete Ninth Season Overview

Filmed entirely on location in Hawaii, the show followed Jack Lord as he played Steve McGarrett, head of an elite state police unit investigating "organized crime, murder, assassination attempts, foreign agents, felonies of every type." James MacArthur played his second-in-command Danny ("Danno") Williams, with local actors playing members of the Five-O team.

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