Girls! Girls! Girls! ** (1962, Elvis Presley, Stella Stevens, Laurel Goodwin, Jeremy Slate) – Classic Movie Review 6238

Stella Stevens plays selfish singer Robin Gantner, who offers ship’s captain Elvis a new boat, in the 1962 Presley musical star vehicle film Girls! Girls! Girls! 

Director Norman Taurog’s mediocre 1962 musical star vehicle film Girls! Girls! Girls! stars Elvis Presley, who really swings his hips around as sailor Ross Carpenter, and has so many women (or Girls! Girls! Girls!) after him that he doesn’t know which way to turn. The penniless Hawaii-based fisherman loves Girls!, his life on the sea and the idea of owning his own boat.

Mainly though he just has two girls (or Girls! Girls!) after him in what becomes a love triangle story. Stella Stevens plays selfish singer Robin Gantner, who offers ship’s captain Elvis a new boat, while nice Laurel Dodge (Laurel Goodwin) offers him true love. But it is jealousy that finally hooks the fish.

Luckily for the film, Edward Anhalt and Allan Weiss’s plot ensures that Presley also sings at a nightspot, so he gets to trill the great hit ‘Return to Sender’ (written by Otis Blackwell and Scotty Moore), which reached number two on the Billboard pop singles chart, as well as ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’ (written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) of course. However, the pleasure that these bring is almost cancelled out by his renditions of ‘Song of the Shrimp’ and ‘Dainty Little Moonbeams’.

Also in the cast are Jeremy Slate, Benson Fong, Robert Strauss, Guy Lee, Frank Puglia, Lili Valenty, Beulah Quo, Ginny Tiu, Elizabeth Tiu, Alexander Tiu, Marjorie Bennett, Gavin Gordon, Hal Blaine, Mary Treen, Red West, Stanley White, Edward Sheehan, Rolf Macalister, and June Jocelyn.

Girls! Girls! Girls! is directed by Norman Taurog, runs 106 minutes, is made by Hal Wallis Productions, is released by Paramount Pictures, is shot in Technicolor by Loyal Griggs, produced by Hal B Wallis and Paul Nathan, scored by Joseph J Lilley, and designed by Hal Periera and Walter Tyler.

It is the second of three Elvis films shot on location in Hawaii.

At the 1963 Golden Globes, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical.

It earned $2,600,000 at the US box office, making it number 19 on the list of the top-grossing films of 1962.

It premiered on 31 October 1962 in Honolulu.

The cast are Elvis Presley as Ross Carpenter, Stella Stevens as Robin Gantner, Laurel Goodwin as Laurel Dodge, Jeremy Slate as Wesley Johnson, Benson Fong as Kin Yung, Beulah Quo as Madam Yung, Guy Lee as Chen Yung, Ginny Tiu as Mai Ling, Elizabeth Tiu as Tai Ling, Alexander Tiu as Mai and Tai Ling’s Brother, Robert Strauss as Sam Anderson, Ann McCrea as Mrs. Arthur Morgan, Jack Nitzsche as Piano Player in Lounge Band, Nestor Paiva as Arthur Morgan, Linda Rand as Village Woman, Edward Sheehan as Ed-Man on Dock, Red West as Bongo-Playing Crewman on Tuna Boat, Marjorie Bennett, Gavin Gordon, Hal Blaine, Mary Treen, Stanley White, Rolf Macalister, and June Jocelyn.

Stella Stevens (born Estelle Eggleston; October 1, 1938) died from Alzheimer’s disease in Los Angeles on 17 February 2023, age 84. She starred in such popular films as Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), The Nutty Professor (1963), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963), The Silencers (1966), Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6238

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