Last Post This Go Around On Paradise, Hawaiian Style

I finished the Elvis Presley movie, "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." I've been through it before so there weren't any surprises, of course.

It was enjoyable. But there's something I noticed at the end, and this is true of the last one I watched too, which was "Girls, Girls, Girls." They cheated us of a romantic scene with Elvis and his love interest in both movies. In "Girls," Laurel is left standing over at the sidelines, waving, while Elvis does the final number. It's very unsatisfying to the romantic.

And in "Paradise," he's just getting ready to kiss Friday (or whatever her name is, Judy Hudson), when some Hawaiian drum beaters hustle him off for the last number. So they never get a big meaningful kiss. They don't get a kiss in the movie because all along she's supposedly married. (She isn't really.)

I might need to do a study of Elvis movies, to see if this is a pattern. Why would they deny us the satisfying conclusion of Elvis and his love interest in a great embrace or a deep kiss? Could there be some interest in maintaining the availability of Elvis to the female viewer of the movie (originally)? I don't know, but it sure is suspicious that in each of these movies, the love interest is left standing on the sidelines.

Another thing that's unusual but unrelated to the above subject, is how much time Jan (Donna Butterworth) gets to sing. This is sort of hard to figure out too. What were they getting at there? Was she an up and coming child singer? "Queenie Wahini" and "Datin'" are both duets with Elvis and Jan. Then there's a big event toward the end, and the scheduled entertainer at it is Jan (!) doing "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?" Is that considered some kind of Hawaiian song? And of all the people to get for the event, why would the sponsors pick a young, presumably unknown local girl? It seems like a weird moment.