Girl Happy

Girl Happy

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Boris Sagal
Produced by Joe Pasternak
Written by
Starring
Music by George E. Stoll
Cinematography Philip H. Lathrop
Edited by Rita Roland
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1965, original) Warner Bros. (2007, DVD)
Release dates
  • April 7, 1965 (1965-04-07) (USA)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $3,250,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[1]

Girl Happy is a 1965 American musical romantic comedy and beach party film starring Elvis Presley in his 18th feature. The movie won a fourth place prize Laurel Award in the category Top Musical of 1965. It featured the song "Puppet on a String", which reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the Adult Contemporary chart and in Canada, and was certified Gold by the RIAA.

Plot

Nightclub singer Rusty Wells (Elvis) and his band have just closed their engagement at the club where they work in Chicago, and are just about ready to leave for their annual spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida—that is, until the club's owner, Big Frank (Harold Stone), extends their stay at his club, foiling the band's plans for some sun and fun in Florida.

At the same time, Big Frank's daughter, college student Valerie (Shelley Fabares) also takes her spring break in Lauderdale with her friends, which worries her father to no end. So at the suggestion of Rusty (who sees this situation as an opportunity for him and the guys to make Lauderdale after all), Big Frank hires Rusty and his band to make the trip to Lauderdale to look after Valerie to make sure she stays out of trouble. But the task isn't easy, as Rusty and the guys struggle to keep sex-crazed Italian exchange student Romano (Fabrizio Mioni) away from Valerie, while at the same time Rusty has to keep explaining the situation to his date, a good-time girl named Deena (Mary Ann Mobley), who has no patience for guys who stand her up or keep her waiting.

Rusty's watch over Valerie eventually leads to the two of them falling in love (after Rusty walks Valerie to her motel room, serenading her with "Puppet on a String"). However, after Big Frank reveals to Valerie that he is paying Rusty to be her chaperone, Valerie becomes angry and devastated to the point of going to a local nightclub, getting drunk, and starting a riot, landing everyone there in jail.

When Big Frank arrives in Lauderdale to spring Valerie from jail, he is angry with Rusty at first. But after he sees that Valerie has fallen in love with Rusty, Big Frank makes amends with Rusty, allowing Rusty and Valerie to once again rekindle their relationship.

Primary cast

Production notes

Although MGM presented Girl Happy as a beach party film ("Elvis brings his beat to the beach!" "Elvis jumps with the campus crowd to make the beach 'ball' bounce!") and while Presley had previously appeared shirtless in films prior to this, he never appears without a shirt at any time throughout his many scenes at the pool and on the beach in Florida, wearing long sleeves for most of the film - even while water-skiing

Even though the film is set in Fort Lauderdale, Elvis did not film any scenes in the city. Primary shooting was done at the MGM studios, while the beach scenes were filmed in southern California. Only second unit filming was done in Fort Lauderdale.

Alternate titles considered were The Only Way to Love and Girl Crazy. Joe Pasternak had produced the similar spring break movie Where the Boys Are, which was also set in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1960.

Shelley Fabares, Mary Ann Mobley, and Chris Noel had each appeared in a beach party film movie prior to Girl Happy: Fabares in Ride the Wild Surf, and both Mobley and Noel in Get Yourself a College Girl. Shelley Fabares sings "Spring Fever" in a duet with Elvis, and Nina Talbot sings the song "Read All About It". This would the first of three movies in which Fabares would co-star with Elvis. Dan Haggerty, who plays Charlie, would later appear in the The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams movie and TV series.

Soundtrack

Main article: Girl Happy (album)

Home media and DVD reviews

The film made its home video debut in 1988, being released on VHS. When it was reissued on VHS in 1997, the song "Startin' Tonight" was deleted. It was eventually reinstated back into the film when it made its DVD debut in 2007.

DVD reviews

See also

References

  1. ↑ This figure consists of anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Big Rental Pictures of 1965", Variety, 5 January 1966 p 6 and Tom Lisanti, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969, McFarland 2005, p193

External links

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