Excellent adaptation.

best movie i've ever seen.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Seems I'm one of the few here who are prepared to write that they dislike this picture. It doesn't have any particularly great songs to off set the staid nature of the plot and crude construction of the film. Basically we have Presley as Ross Carpenter, a guy who loves life working out on the sea. But when his boss announces that he's opting out of the business, Ross must find a way to buy the boat that is so dear to him. All that and he's caught in between two lady suitors from different ends of the social spectrum.Nope, that's about it, I wish I could fire up some words of praise like I can for Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. Stella Stevens sleepwalks thru the film {even tho she's underused}, Laurel Goodwin just can't act, whilst the King looks a trifle embarrassed to be part of this mockery of his standing. Right I'm off to watch Creole to put me back on Elvis's side....3/10

Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) ** (out of 4) Weak Elvis vehicle has him playing a wannabe captain who dreams of one day owning the boat his loves. Problems happens when a new owner takes over the company and not to mention the young sailor has to chose between two girls. There's really not too much that happens from start to finish, which seems to become the norm for an Elvis movie. It seems that the screenwriter was either hooked to a bottle or perhaps they didn't hire one. It's really amazing that Elvis himself wouldn't stand up and demand better material but whatever. This film contains some pretty bad moments song-wise and that includes the mind numbing "Song of the Shrimp" and "Earth Boy", which made me want to cry in pain. There's another ridiculous number inside an apartment building, which follows perhaps one of the better moments in the film where Elvis must put out an oven fire and throw a few jabs at the girl who can't cook. The highlight of the film is Elvis singing "Return to Sender", which was certainly one of his better tunes. Taurog's direction is all over the place as usual but I'm sure his main goal was to make the star look cute for the girls. It's rather shocking when you think about it how poorly made the musical numbers are. I'm not saying they should have gone all out like a MGM musical but a little more effort would have been nice. Just keeping the camera on Elvis might work for television but it comes off rather lazy in a movie. As for Elvis and his performance, it's not too bad but I can't help but think he looks rather bored.

Elvis plays a poor seaman who has his heart set on buying the boat that he and his late father built together. The cast was good and Elvis really put some heart into the acting. The music was average though with silly songs like "Walls Have Ears" and "Three Little Crawfish"; however the songs "Return to Sender" and "A Boy Like Me And a Girl Like You" make up for the sillier songs. I really think the story is touching in view of the fact that Elvis' character cared so much about his father that he was willing to do anything to but the boat to remember him by. Young people don't have much respect for their parents in modern society, and they sometimes scoff at their parents' achievements. I like this movie because it is a picture of a devoted son who really honored his father. There was some mildly suggestive dialog throughout the movie, but it was just suggestive and not too obvious. A good movie for teens!

About the only positive recommendation I can make for this film is the unintentionally amusing opening scene.An oldish man is struggling from the back of a boat to land a fish. Hardly surprising, as it is a huge marlin, twelve feet in length and weighing about half a ton.Elvis steps in and lands the thing in about eight seconds flat, although he does have to turn the reel three times.What a man!