Review of Girl Happy

Girl Happy (1965)
5/10
"Dig right in and do The Clam..."
3 December 2008
This fun 1965 movie starring Elvis Presley and Shelley Fabares should be put in a time capsule for a movie representing the carefree mid-1960's in America. Kids were still fairly innocent, the Vietnam War hadn't jaded the country and the drugs that pervaded the late 1960's weren't as prevalent the time this movie was made.

Elvis plays Rusty Wells, a musician hired by a mobster Big Frank (Harold Stone) to guard his daughter Valerie (the lovely Miss Fabares) who has gone with some girlfriends to Ft. Lauderdale on Spring break. Valerie doesn't know her overprotective father has hired Rusty and his group of rag tag musicians to watch her, and of course, she and Elvis fall in love.

The movie is similar in some ways to "Where the Boys Are", but is not as serious. Of course, with it being an Elvis picture, we have to have the Pelvis sing in several cheesy but fun song and dance numbers. The songs "Girl Happy" and "Do the Clam" are classic cornball songs, but fun to watch. This movie was one of my favorites from my childhood and it is amazing to me how I can still remember the lyrics to these songs after all these years! Elvis never was a great actor, and over the years his movie roles kept getting sillier and sillier, but this movie, silly as parts of it are, is still a lot of fun to watch. And boy was Elvis hot when he was young!
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