8mm Forum: Blue Hawaii

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on December 26, 2006, 02:11 PM:

Blue Hawaii , 1962
Color, 120 mins, 2400ft
Paramount Pictures
Viacom S8 print

Elvis Presley’s best musical picture. Filmed in Hawaii, this is a typical Presley travelogue with a forgettable plot. The main attractions of this film are some great songs, some great location shots, and some great looking girls. The thin story concerns the return of Chad Gates (Elvis) from the army to his Hawaiian home, where his father (Roland Winters) runs a pineapple processing business. Chad wants no part of the business and decides to earn a living for himself operating a tourist service around the islands. He meets up with a quartet of gorgeous schoolgirls (NOT your St. Trinian’s type!) lead by the precocious Jenny Maxwell, and chaperoned by Nancy Walters. This leads to some conflict with his mother (Angela Lansbury with a Dixie accent! ), but all is happily reconciled by the end of the film when Chad marries his girlfriend Maile (Joan Blackman), in a spectacular Hawaiian wedding ceremony. The songs and musical numbers are excellent with the beautiful 'I Can't help Falling in Love' being the standout classic. Presley spent the rest of his film career replicating 'Blue Hawaii', never again achieving the success of this film.
The super 8mm print is by Viacom, and what a superb print it is, with pin sharp focus throughout. My print has faded slightly, but the colors are still vibrant on most of the scenes. I imagine the color of the print when new must have been absolutely breathtaking. Incidentally, all the Elvis Viacom prints I have seen all seem to have superb print quality. The mono sound is very good, but of course the film benefits tremendously from re-recording in stereo from the DVD track.

Print A
Sound B+

[ December 26, 2006, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on December 28, 2006, 06:42 AM:

Thanks for that review Paul.

I come across a 400 foot digest of this every now and then. I thought about getting it. Has anyone seen the digest that could add a small review?

Thanks! [Cool]

Nick.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on December 28, 2006, 10:23 AM:

Hi Nick,
I also have the Ken 400ft digest of Blue Hawaii. It is not very well edited, very choppy. There are no complete songs, only a few seconds of each, and the plot line is pretty impossible to follow. It would have been much better if they had just focussed on including the best songs in their entirety. Most annoying of all is the truncation of the hit song of the picture 'Cant Help Falling in Love with You'. Also, unlike the feature, the print quality is poor, with soft focus, at least on my print. And the sound was very 'thin' and overrecorded.
Altogether, a big disappointment.

Posted by Michael De Angelis (Member # 91) on December 28, 2006, 12:58 PM:

Paul,

Thank you for the review.
I always loved Blue Hawaii.
The opening number over the
titles sets the mood and feel
of life in Hawaii.

It would be great if this
was re-released with all of
the complete musical numbers and
an edited dramatic story line to thread
together the music and plot.

Last but not least, I also
love the Hawaiian Wedding Song.

Michael

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on December 29, 2006, 06:12 AM:

Thanks for the heads-up Paul [Wink]

.

I think I'll skip the 400 footer of this one in that case.

Were any of the Elvis 400 foot digests by Ken any good?

Nick.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on December 29, 2006, 09:59 AM:

Yes, 'Girls,Girls,Girls' is excellent, with superb print quality and best of all it includes the complete rendition of Elvis' hit song Return To Sender' which is really great. And Stella Stevens offers some great eye candy. [Big Grin]

Next best is 'G.I. Blues', which also has superb print quality and has the complete rendition of 'Tonight is so right for Love with Elvis singing to Juliet Prowse in a German tavern.
'Fun in Acapulco' is a little less satisfying, kind of like the chop job they did on 'Blue Hawii', but print quality is very good, and it does include the complete rendition of Elvis singing and gyrating to ' Bosa Nova Baby'
Somehow 'Blue Hawii' has the worst print quality of the digest series, even though the feature length S8 print is stunning. Maybe I just got a bad print.

Posted by James N. Savage 3 (Member # 83) on December 29, 2006, 10:48 AM:

Thanks Paul!

I'll look for a 400 foot G.I. Blues or Girls Girls Girls.

Nick.

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on December 30, 2006, 03:13 AM:

Great Review Paul;as always.Does the 400ft of G.I.BLUES have Wooden heart in it?.Its one of my fav/rave songs from King.Andy.

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on December 30, 2006, 09:42 AM:

Whilst not a huge Elvis fan, I do like the condensations. Girls, Girls, Girls is a favourite and I am a big Stella fan too.

Posted by Tom A. Pennock (Member # 202) on December 30, 2006, 07:26 PM:

I have all the Viacom Super Eight feature film's that were released in the 1970's. What would these Elvis feature films be worth today? Also have "King Creole" on color stock and "Last Train From Gun Hill" and lastly "All In A Night's Work".

1. "Roustabout" (1964) Paramount
2. "Blue Hawaii" (1961)Paramount
3. "Fun In Acapulco" (1963)Paramount
4. "G.I. Blues" (1960) Paramount
5. "Paradise, Hawaiian Style"(1966) Paramount
6. "King Creole" (1958) Paramount
7. "Girls, Girls, Girls" (1962) Paramount

All Produced By Hal Wallis

I have other Viacom prints too but have too many to list now for value.

Thank's, Tom

Posted by Keith Ashfield (Member # 741) on January 03, 2007, 12:20 PM:

I have a copy of the "Blue Hawaii" 400' digest and have to agree with Paul on the not so-good editing. However the print quality on my copy is very good. It has retained its color and is pin sharp on focus.Sound is also fine on my copy.
By the way Andy, I beleive that G.I.Blues does contain "Wooden Heart" although not whole song, as is usual with the digests. Keith

Posted by Brian Hendel (Member # 61) on March 06, 2010, 02:23 PM:

Was "Blue Hawaii" ever released in Scope as a feature or a digest?

Posted by Keith Ashfield (Member # 741) on March 06, 2010, 03:07 PM:

Brian - Cineavision released a "Scope" 400ft digest, but I don't think it was ever released as a feature in "Scope".

[ March 11, 2010, 04:01 AM: Message edited by: Keith Ashfield ]

Posted by Michael Hyde (Member # 748) on March 07, 2010, 09:52 AM:

I fully agree Blue Hawaii was by far the best of the bunch music wise,i have the full lenght print too still with good colour and sound,but i found that if i didnt want to sit thru the boring story line,i purchased a second copy full lenght from Paul Foster,albeit with faded colour,and took all the songs,edited them onto a 1200` reel,and enjoy a "promo" reel just as Derann did with Calamity Jane,it works well for me.I also purched the dvd several years back with the songs enhanced into 5-1 dolby.very poor i thought.

Posted by Brian Hendel (Member # 61) on March 10, 2010, 08:15 PM:

I just received the "Blue Hawaii" scope digest and it's AMAZING. I forgot how much I loved Elvis in his prime... it brought back so many memories of watching his movies when I was a teenager and loving them. Now I want to collect all of the digests ... like I need another obsession in my life... but I wish they were all released in Scope... Did Cinevision only do "Blue Hawaii" - that is a shame... the scenery and shots look gorgeous in widescreen.

Oh, Does anyone have the Viacom artwork for "Blue Hawaii" that they can scan for me... my digest came in a plain white box... I'm going to go watch it again now. I see the problem with the songs being cut short but ... I still LOVE it!

Posted by John Hermes (Member # 1367) on March 11, 2010, 06:33 PM:

Back in my 35mm days, I had a IB Tech/Scope print of "Blue Hawaii". It remains my favorite Elvis movie. I had ten Elvis films in 35mm. Before my 35mm interest, I remember how exciting it was for a fan like me when the Viacom prints came out in the 1970s. I remember having "Girls! Girls! Girls!" and "Roustabout" in Super 8, both of which I had later in 35mm IB Tech, with the latter in scope as well. I have all the Elvis movies on DVD now and a nice video projector setup, but I think back to the films days and how exciting it was to get a print.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 11, 2017, 04:32 PM:

Just ran my Ken Films 400ft digest of Blue Hawaii. Unfortunately the title of the film now needs to be renamed Red Hawaii. [Frown]

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on November 12, 2017, 02:38 AM:

I only have the 400ft version and agree that the editing on this one was very choppy to say the least. They would have been better doing this with perhaps just two or three sons in full instead of so many songs which last just seconds.
The upside for me is that my own print still has good colours and the blue Hawaii title is deep blue so there is still many years left in it, (hopefully), the focus is not as pin sharp as the feature by the sound of it. Those viacom features are superb.

Posted by Mark Mander (Member # 340) on November 12, 2017, 02:57 AM:

Paul
My features pinky and I have a really faded print too but the 400 footer still has good colour,you think that some titles would still be the same as you last saw them,I bought the Sting 2x400 about 6 years ago with absolutely perfect colour,watched it recently and shows more fade than it should which surprised me as I store my films in a cool room all year round,Blue Hawaii is still one of the better films though and you should be able to pick up another better colour copy,Mark

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 12, 2017, 10:19 AM:

Tom your 400ft digest is exactly how mine used to look, soft focus but very good color.
The Viacom feature print is pin sharp with very good color.
Unfortunately all my Elvis digests are now all red.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on November 12, 2017, 12:16 PM:

Keep your eyes on those lists Paul, these do come up from time to time although i guess it will be a lottery with the colours now.

Posted by Robert Tucker (Member # 386) on November 12, 2017, 05:00 PM:

Best to find yourself a 16mm LPP print, i once had a 16mm IB Tech widescreen print. But now have this in 35mm in scope and IB Tech of course.

Strangely i still have a fondness for these old Super 8 digests.

Posted by David Guest (Member # 2791) on November 12, 2017, 05:11 PM:

best Hawaii was the best of the elvis films I have this one and girls girls girls on 16mm all stunning colour I also had a stunning colour of roustabout in scope which I sold about 6 months ago

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on November 13, 2017, 09:15 AM:

Derann also released some of those titles in the UK as features, they also released about four 200ft extracts 'Elvis Sings' I have the wedding song one.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on November 13, 2017, 01:37 PM:

Would certainly like Girls Girls Girls on 16 or a good colour 400 Super 8. [Wink]

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