Fun in Acapulco

Fun in Acapulco

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Written by Allan Weiss
Starring
Music by Joseph J. Lilley
Cinematography Daniel L. Fapp
Edited by Stanley E. Johnson
Production
company
Hal Wallis Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • November 27, 1963 (USA)
Running time
 97 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $3,100,000 (US/ Canada)[1]

Fun in Acapulco is a 1963 American musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley and Ursula Andress. While exterior filming was undertaken involving every other member of the crew at various places in Acapulco, Mexico, Elvis's own shots had to be taken at the Paramount studios in Hollywood, in March 1963, as he had been declared "persona non grata" by the Mexican authorities following a series of incidents which took place at the trendy "Las Americas" movie theatre in the Mexican capital during the openings of at least two of its earlier films, most notably "King Creole" ( an entire chapter in a book by noted Mexican counter-culture writer Parménides García Saldaña entitled "Rey Criollo", and finally published in 1970, deals on this subject which took place in 1959) and "G.I.Blues", which opened under the title "Cafe Europa", in the summer of 1962. A double was hired to dovetail his long shot scenes with the rest of the crew while location filming was taking place. The movie featured the Top 10 Billboard hit "Bossa Nova Baby" and reached #1 on the national weekly box office charts a week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. The film would be Presley's last release before the arrival of Beatlemania and was the top grossing movie musical of 1963.

Plot

Elvis Presley with Ursula Andress and Elsa Cárdenas in a promotional picture of the film.

Mike Windgren works on a boat in Acapulco, Mexico. When Janie Harkins, the bratty daughter of the boat owner, gets him fired, Mike must find new work. A Mexican boy named Raoul helps him get a job as a lifeguard and singer at a local hotel. Clashes abound when Mike runs into a rival lifeguard, who is the champion diver of Mexico. He is angry at Mike for taking some of his hours, and for stealing his woman.

However, after Mike sees the lifeguard perform a number of dangerous dives, including flips and head-first dives into a section of the pool surrounded by a ring of fire, he decides to get even with him and eventually sets himself up to perform a death-defying dive off the 136-foot cliffs of La Quebrada in front of thousands of people. Mike dives off the cliff, and successfully lands in the water, earning the lifeguard's respect.

As the crowd and the lifeguard applaud, Mike performs one more song and leaves with Margarita and Raoul.

Cast

Teri Garr was an uncredited extra.

Soundtrack

References

  1. ↑ "Top Rental Features of 1963", Variety, 8 January 1964 p 71. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.

2. See writer's biography in Wikipedia's Spanish language page.

External links