Substitute each frame with the Elvis of "Girls Girls Girls", delete two songs and this would have been a real winner. On March 14, 1966 HM the Queen, after Suzzana Leigh told her about her return from Hawaii, asked her when was Elvis coning to Britain. This was as HM welcomed the stars at one of her galas that year.Cryogenic wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 11:38 pmIt's a silly, lighthearted film; which, in a way, lives up to its title (i.e., basically set in paradise). Wish we could see a 4K version to fully appreciate all those gorgeous Hawaii-on-film colours. Surely, just for this film's lush cinematography and the gorgeous vistas, it has something going for it.
As for the songs: Yeah, okay, the soundtrack is a bit uninspired, and perhaps a deflating experience placed against what else was happening in music at the time, and also stacked against Elvis' best, but it has a bit of charm and sparkle in places; even if Elvis should really have moved on to new pastures by this point.
The title track is addictive (and re-used, of course, for the US version of "Aloha From Hawaii"), "Drums of the Island" is a treat, and "This Is My Heaven" is commandingly beautiful in the kind of way that only Elvis could pull off (if annoyingly short). An honourable mention, of sorts, must also be given to the hypnotic and slightly offbeat "Sand Castles" -- an imagistic lullaby that leans slightly into Surrealism (which EP would sink his teeth into a bit more with "Edge of Reality" three years later).
All that said, it is hard not to hear the disenchantment in his voice on much of the album, and hard not to notice his tubby appearance or phoned-in performance in the movie itself. He knew he was above this sort of material and had already tackled better in the same vein on more than a dozen post-army motion pictures preceding this one, and having already done two prior films set in the 50th state in the last four years. Third time here was not really the charm, even if PHS has a few endearing facets of its own and does mark the completion of Presley's cinematic Hawaiian trifecta.
The three men one sees clearly on the photo have no connexion to Elvis, but three of the women there do. In fact, one was driving the car he had gifted her in the winter of 1963, a 1958 BMW 507 which sold at Sotheby's in 2011 for US$1.1m.
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