Girls! Girls! Girls! is a 1962 Golden Globe-nominated American musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley as a penniless Hawaiian fisherman who loves his life on the sea and dreams of owning his own boat. "Return to Sender", which reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart, is featured in the film. The film opened at #1 on the Varietybox office chart and finished the year at #19 on the year-end list of the top-grossing films of 1962. The film earned $2.6 million at the box office. The film was the second of three films Presley shot on location in Hawaii.
Plot
Elvis Presley plays Ross Carpenter, a Hawaiian fishing guide and sailor who enjoys boating and sailing out on the sea. When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, he seeks to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he built with his father. Ross is caught in a love triangle with two women: childish, insensitive club singer Robin, and sweet Laurel. When Wesley Johnson makes advances on Laurel, Ross punches him out. Wesley owns the boat, so Ross thereby loses it. Laurel, however, is not who she pretends to be. Ross has to choose between her and Robin.
A review in Variety wrote that the film put Presley "back into the non-dramatic, purely escapist light musical vein," adding, "Essentially, Presley plays himself in the breezy sea session. He handles the role capably, though one would hardly expect a hardened fisherman to be as soft, smooth and white as the one Presley depicts. The character has little depth, but he is pleasant." The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote in a fairly positive review that the songs were "strung very pleasantly on a story-line of disarming simplicity and bedded comfortably in a stretch of gently fizzing repartee." Margaret Harford of the Los Angeles Times called it "no better or worse than previous Elvis epics."
Awards and nominations
Golden Globes: Nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical at the 1963 ceremony. The winner that year was The Music Man. Elvis Presley received a 2nd place Laurel Award for the best male performance in a musical for his acting role in this movie.
Box office
Girls! Girls! Girls! earned $2,600,000 at the box office in the United States.
