Girl Happy

Girl Happy
April 14, 1965
MGM
Musical, Comedy
VHS
C+

Almost a decade into his film career, Elvis was cranking these out at a rate of about three per year, although this is the oldest one I own.  (I used to have Kissing Cousins, 1964.)  Some are forgettable, some are moderately entertaining, and some are screamingly hilarious.  This is one of the moderately entertaining ones.  The songs are pretty good, although they do have some of the oddest titles, notably "Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce."  (Confusingly, "Do the Clam" is in this rather than Clambake.)  Despite the movie's title, Elvis romances only two girls, Mary Ann Mobley (looking rather sexy for a Miss America of the time) and Shelley Fabares.  The latter is playing a 21-year-old and was 21 in real life as well but already an acting veteran (The Donna Reed Show in particular).  She would team up with Elvis again.  My favorite "girl," however, is 34-year-old Nita Talbot, who plays the stripper Sunny Daze.  Her professional costume looks like newspapers, but she later wears a dress that she loans to Elvis so he can break out of jail, after breaking in.  (Don't ask.)  I would've given the movie a B- if she were in it more, or if any of the rest of the supporting cast could've come close to her contributions.

Elvis plays a singer in this one and he's got a trio of comic-relief actors who lip-sync to the Jordanaires somewhat convincingly.  Jimmy Hawkins, who's Doc (the naive one), was Tommy Bailey at age 5 in It's a Wonderful Life, and he would be Larry in Spinout.  Joby Baker, Wilbur here, is probably best known as Stinky/Judge in the Gidget movies.  (Gary Crosby, Bing's son, is the third of "the three blind mice.")

Peter Brooks, who plays nerdy Brentwood Von Durgenfeld, was forgettable Clay (with the umbrella) in Gidget Goes to Rome.  Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty was muscleman Biff in Muscle Beach Party and he's Charlie here.  (His next role would be in Easy Rider, which I've never seen.)  Norman Grabowski plays a jock college student here, as he does in the Merlin Jones movies.  Lyn Edgington was in Dear Brigitte.  Jackie Coogan (playing Sgt. Benson here), Jim Dawson, Milton Frome, Kent McCord, and Olan Soule were all recently in John Goldfarb.

Red West was in John Goldfarb and would be in Spinout the next year.  (He was a close friend of Elvis's.)  Gail Gilmore and Chris Noel would do Beach Ball.  Nancy Czar, "Blonde on Beach," would be Gloria "Jonesy" Jones in Winter A-Go-Go, while Beverly Adams, here "Girl #2," would be Jo Ann Wallace in WaGG, but more importantly be sort of the title character in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.   Tommy Farrell, Louis here, would be a reporter in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!  Hank Jones would be in The One and Only...Family Band.

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
March 24, 1965
Fox
Comedy
VHS
C-

While I can't recommend this movie, even as a so-bad-it's-goodie, I suppose some might want to see it to just to say they've seen it.  (Or they have seen it, and can't believe what they saw.)  Briefly, Shirley MacLaine (much much shriekier than in The Apartment, including on the title song*) plays a frigid journalist at Strife Magazine (hardy har) whose editor Charles Lane assigns her to write a story on a harem.  Meanwhile, the title character, played by Richard Crenna, is a sort of combination of pilots Douglas Corrigan and Francis Gary Powers, with the nickname "Wrong Way," and he accidentally lands in the Arabian country of Fawzia while trying to reach Russia.  The King of Fawzia, played by Peter Ustinov, starts a football team for his son, who's been kicked off the Notre Dame team for not being Irish.  (Wouldn't they have noticed right off?)  Oh, and there are various government officials who are trying to spin the situation.

That last aspect was what I liked best, particularly since it involves the sitcom vets Jim Backus as Miles Whitepaper, Fred Clark as Heinous Overreach, Richard Deacon as Charles Maginot, and Harry Morgan as Deems Sarajevo.  Morgan gets the most memorable lines, like the one about the Russians having a case of the cutes, and his reply to Dick "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" Wilson's announcement, "Either Fawz U beats Notre Dame or John Goldfarb goes to Moscow": "Is that an ultimatum or a musical comedy title?"  I'm not saying this stuff is Dr. Strangelove level satire, but it did make me chuckle.  And it's much more palatable than the shrew-taming we get of MacLaine's character, including the "ha ha, the king wants to rape her" subplot.

The script (based on his own book), by none other than William Peter Blatty, later of The Exorcist, is remarkably sexist and anti-Arab, even for its time.  This is not just 21st-century political correctness; contemporary critics hated the movie.  Notre Dame even sued over it!  I realize that I may've made you more interested in seeing the film, so I may as well go on to list some more of its unique cast.

The harem girls include Teri Garr (I don't know under what name); Gari Hardy, who would be "Dumb Blonde" in Speedway; Paula Lane, who was in Dear Brigitte, here playing Polly Benson; Irene Tsu, who was Miss Wu in Take Her, She's Mine and would shortly be a native girl in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini; and Jane Wald, of Take Her and Dear Brigitte.  "Specialty dancer" Nai Bonet would have a more prominent role as a king's belly-dancer in the softcore Fairy Tales (1978).  The football players include James Brolin (as a quarterback); Kent McCord (later of Adam-12), who would do Girl Happy; and Red West, who was in Palm Springs Weekend and would soon be in Girl Happy.

Billy Curtis, who was a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz, is "Little Football Player."  Chick Collins, who was a fencer in Singin' in the Rain, plays a Bedouin here.  Fred Catania, who was Wheeler's bodyguard in The Girl Can't Help It and a used car salesman in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, has a minor role here.  Jim Shane, who was Dave in Palm Springs Weekend, is Chiang here.

Jackie Coogan (yes, Uncle Fester, here playing Father Ryan); Bedouin Jim Dawson; Milton Frome, here an Air Force general; and Olan Soule, who plays the second editor, would shortly do Girl Happy.  Telly Savalas (yes, Kojak) is Macmuid, the harem recruiter, and would be El Sleezo Tough in The Muppet Movie.  

Patrick Adiarte, who plays Prince Ammud, isn't in any of my of my other movies, but I have to note that he was both David in the Hawaiian episodes of The Brady Bunch and Ho-Jon on M*A*S*H.


*The theme pops up repeatedly in the movie, especially during the big football game at the end.  John Williams, yes, that John Williams, was the conductor.