It Happened at the World's Fair

Plot synopsis:
Pilot Mike Edwards finds himself in a dilemma, his partner and friend Danny, gambles away the money Mike had set aside to pay their debts. Since they lost their money and a $1,200 debt, the local sheriff takes possession of their plane, Bessie, a Boeing-Stearman Model 75 cropduster. If they cannot come up with the money in twelve days, Bessie will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Mike and Danny become reluctant hitchhikers, looking for a lift to anywhere. They are picked up by apple farmer Walter Ling and his niece Sue-Lin. They end up in Seattle, Washington, location of the 1962 World's Fair. When the uncle is called away on business, Danny persuades Mike to take Sue-Lin to tour the local World's Fair. It is during a visit to the doctor at the fair that Mike falls for Diane Warren, an attractive but stubborn nurse who resists Mike's advances. He gives a quarter to a boy (a very young Kurt Russell) who kicks him in the shin, so that he can be treated by her. Diane's supervisor then convinces her to give Mike a ride back to his apartment, convinced his leg is injured. Mike and Diane dine at the top of the fair's Space Needle. However, he also courts Dorothy Johnson.
Complications then arise. Walter inexplicably fails to come back the next day to get Sue-Lin, leaving her with Mike. Sue-Lin feigns illness so that nurse Diane will come to their apartment and examine her and see Mike again. When Diane discovers that Mike has no kinship to Sue-Lin, she wants to inform the Welfare Board so that Sue-Lin can be removed from Mike and Danny's apartment. There is a mysterious nightfall plane delivery for Mike's and Danny's friend Vince, who is smuggling valuable furs. The film ends with Mike and Diane in love.

Tags: cult

Review:
As someone else mentioned, 1963 is still early enough that Elvis Presley looks like he's enjoying himself in "It Happened at the World's Fair," which also stars Gary Lockwood, Joan O'Brien and Vicky Tiu. Pilots Mike (Elvis) and Danny (Lockwood) find themselves without a plane after it's confiscated for debts due to Lockwood's addiction to gambling.
They hitch a ride to Seattle with a man and his 7-year-old niece Sue-Lin (Tiu), and Mike ends up taking the little girl to the 1962 World's Fair.
In order to see her again, he gives a little boy (Kurt Russell) a quarter to kick him in the shins.After he return Sue-Lin to her uncle, she finds Mike again when her uncle doesn't come home from making a delivery.
Mike now has to cope with a not very helpful partner, trying to think of a way to get his plane back, romancing Diane and taking care of a 7-year-old girl.This is the usual Elvis travelogue, but more interesting than others because it's shot on the grounds of the Seattle World's Fair and has that iconic moment when future brilliant Elvis impersonator Russell lets him have it in the shins.
Elvis Presley, lots of gloriously silly early sixties fluff and footage from the 1962 Seattle World fair.
For me, this is one of Elvis' more enjoyable early-'60s "formula" films, partly because at this point it was still early enough that Presley still seemed to pretty much have his heart in it and is not yet bored by it all.
He's an out-of-work pilot named Mike Edwards who finds himself saddled with babysitting a sweet little girl (Vicki Tui - very cute and a fine little actress) at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair when her dad drops her off and then disappears.
While seeing the sights, Elvis makes the acquaintance of a lovely nurse whom he keeps trying to snare, and this necessitates a hilarious and oft-cited scene with a very young Kurt Russell as a kid at the fair who agrees to kick Elvis hard in the shin for a quarter; it's a short sequence but it's a lot of fun, and quite ironic since Russell would wind up playing Presely himself in a 1977 TV movie.
ELVIS PRESLEY gets to sing several non-memorable songs, the best of which is "One Broken Heart for Sale", but IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD'S FAIR is strictly standard Presley stuff wherein the guy has his eye on a pretty gal (JOAN O'BRIEN) and makes a pitch, the sort that turns her off at first.
Predictably, after a few misunderstandings involving a small girl abandoned at the fair, a happy ending is soon in sight.The music by Leith Stevens is pleasant enough and the fair grounds at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair make colorful backgrounds for the slight story.
GARY LOCKWOOD is Elvis' pilot pal, both of them down on their luck but seeming to spend plenty of money on the fair and decent lodgings.
The sub-plot involving both bachelors entrusted with the care of a seven year-old by a complete stranger is more than a little improbable, especially given today's public awareness of children being taken advantage of by adults with criminal behavior.Presley shares some effective scenes with the little girl but has his standard "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl" routine with leading lady O'Brien, a pert blonde who plays a nurse who suspects him of feigning illness as a part of his wolf routine.
Naturally, the little girl is responsible for bringing them together again after a few silly misunderstandings keep them apart.Nothing special, but passes the time pleasantly whenever Elvis sings, which is pretty often..
Enjoyable but standard Elvis fare with Elvis girl-hunting and babysitting at the World's Fair in Seattle.
The 1962 World's Fair is the eye filling backdrop for this typical Elvis Presley project.
Elvis befriends a little 7 year old girl that wants to go to the fair.
Elvis uses the girl and a little boy (Kurt Russell) to aid him in romancing the infirmary nurse (Joan O'Brian).
Taking advantage of the Seattle World's Fair, frequent Presley director Norman Taurog does his best to spice up an otherwise routine programmer in which Elvis ends up the reluctant guardian of a cute little girl who has been separated from her folks.
Enjoyed this Elvis Presley film where he plays the role as Mike Edwards who is down on his luck and meets up with a sweet little girl named Sue-Lin, (Vicky Tiu) who likes Mike and he agrees to watch her while her uncle takes care of his business affairs.
Mike takes Sue-Lin to the Seattle World's Fair and they take in all the rides and Sue-Lin also wins a huge doll which is larger than she is.
Elvis performs various songs which were not very popular and this was not necessarily a great Presley film, but the story was very cute and if you missed the Seattle World's Fair, you will enjoy all the photography taken at the fair..
It was late 1962 when Elvis Presley started filming at the World's Fair in Seattle, It Happened at the World's fair follows the exact same formula that producer Hal Wallis developed for Elvis on Paramount, beautiful scenery, beautiful girls, lots of songs and occasionally some children to showcase Elvis new found maturity.As with most Presley movies, this has an innocent plot, a few fights, lots of movie songs, and a pretty gal to win his heart.
Enjoy the Seatle fair as it was in 1962 and Elvis being on the receiving end of two painful kicks by child actor Kurt Russell.
And there's some very heart warming moments as well as a few chuckles here and there.This is a great light-hearted movie with a couple of well known Elvis songs, such as One Broken Heart For Sale.
Elvis talks, sings, fights, loves, flies, fights again, and endearingly looks after a little girl.Get away from reality and escape into Seattle's fair with Elvis - just for those ninety minutes.
The scene with Yvonne Craig leaves me in cold sweats every time, and then Joan O'Brien's mature, classy beauty helps carry the rest of the movie.It's a great snapshot of a moment in time, the early 1960s, when world's fairs showed us an exciting future and there was great enthusiasm about the space program.The songs are all fairly good, and mesh in well with the plot.
And it's intriguing to see Gary Lockwood in such a light-hearted role a few years before his much more serious performance in 2001: A Space Odyssey.No it's not Grand Illusion or Tokyo Story or The Battleship Potemkin, but it's a great example of Hollywood Elvis at his peak in the early 1960s..
Mike(Elvis) and Danny start off this movie with Danny gambling away all of their money, and in too much debt, the Sheriff takes away their plane, Bessie.
Mike repairs Sue-lin's ukulele, and then explains what the World's Fair is to her through a song.
But, thankfully, Gary Lockwood is on hand to offer solid support as Elvis’ sidekick who has a gambling addiction; it’s ironic that the film ends with Elvis signing up for a NASA space program when Lockwood himself would go on to obtain screen immortality with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)!The subplot involving the abandoned Asian child often threatens to descend into bathos but she wins over the audience with her cute and amusing antics to get sick in order to bring Elvis and nurse O’Brien together again after a quarrel.
Also notable is the scene featuring a very young Kurt Russell (who would eventually portray Presley in a 1979 TV biopic directed by, of all people, John Carpenter!) which involves yet another scam by which Elvis is able to ensnare O’Brien into falling for him.Unfortunately, at a running time of 105 minutes, the film does slightly outstay its welcome and some of the other subplots – those involving the child welfare board’s attempts to take the kid out of the jobless Elvis’ custody (leading to a chase inside the grounds of the Seattle Fair) and Lockwood falling in with crooks (climaxing in an admittedly energetic fistfight in a hangar) – could have been jettisoned without sacrificing the film’s entertainment value..
I also liked that Elvis was a very kind and loving man to a lost little girl.
Elvis Presley (as Mike Edwards) goes to Seattle for their 1962 "World's Fair" (set mainly in Culver City, though).
Along the way, they pick up cute little Vicky Tiu (as Sue-Lin); and, they agree to take her to the fair, for her uncle.
Mr. Presley and Mr. Lockwood succumb to weaknesses for women and gambling, and lose little Miss Tiu. Presley sings ten songs; he ogles shapely women, and falls for one Joan O'Brien (as Diane Warren)...Truly a FAIR film; "It Happened at the World's Fair" is more disappointing in that it does, after all, star Elvis Presley, a man capable of so much more.
At the fair, young Kurt Russell kicks Presley in the shins a couple times, after asking him, "Are you drunk?" Not enough happened at the world's fair to justify the length of this movie.**** It Happened at the World's Fair (4/3/63) Norman Taurog ~ Elvis Presley, Joan O'Brien, Gary Lockwood, Vicky Tiu. Someone set off a Stink Bomb at the World's Fair.
He comes on like a creep and she hates him (as if she had any better prospects), but when the little seven year old girl is (temporarily) orphaned the next day, she naturally seeks out Elvis whom she's only known two days now to come live with, and the ensuing nonsense from this most unbelievable of stories brings Elvis and Miss Yawnsville together.
No one knows they've gone to Seattle so why it is Elvis doesn't just beat this creep to death and dump his body in the Sound is the greatest mystery of the entire film.The entire nuance of this unfortunate film can be summed up in the World's Worst closing number "Happy Ending", in which all of the film's potentially disastrous events are miraculously wrapped up in a mess of fairy dust, and Elvis and Miss Yawnsville march through the fair grounds singing Happy Ending accompanied by a marching band that appears out of nowhere and is apparently present to follow around tuneful fair-goers (???).
That's what I did and I love it., its a roller-coaster ride of entertainment by none other than Elvis.what more can a person need.Great acting by others in the film.Although Elvis wasn't to bad himself It's certainly fair anywayPlus for a bonus he has beautiful women in it tooLovely.
"It Happened at the Worlds Fair" is my favorite Elvis movie..
Girls!' (when his films became much less consistent), are actually pretty good and a few of them close to great.
A few of the songs are great, the big one being "One Broken Heart for Sale", with "They Remind Me Too Much of You" and "How Would You Like to Be" on the same level.Elvis is good natured and charismatic with his singing beautiful and distinctive as ever.
Vicky Tiu is adorable and never gets on the wrong side of annoying, Gary Lockwood is charming and Kurt Russell makes an interesting screen debut with two of the film's best scenes.However, 'It Happened at the World's Fair' is overlong and rather slight, with a couple of subplots either needing elaboration, in need of a trim down or excision.
Joan O'Brien is flavourless window dressing, and Norman Taurog's direction is routine at best.To conclude, a decent if patchy middling Elvis film.
I watched this movie with my best friend, a HUGE Elvis fan.
Truthfully, It Happened At The World's Fair, was my first Elvis flik, and I'm sure, just positively sure, that Elvis has movies in his repertoire that are actually entertaining.
All in all, the movie's greatest contribution was its footage of the world's fair circa early 1960's and the on screen appearance of a couple of members of his real life entourage.
Elvis (heavily made-up) plays an airplane-crazy crooner--with the hilariously generic name of Mike Edwards!--who finds love at the Seattle World's Fair.
The two standout scenes are small ones involving juvenile Kurt Russell (who later played Elvis in a television movie) giving the King a kick in the shin.
As far as Elvis musicals go, "It Happened At The World's Fair" isn't one of the better ones, but not among his worst, either.
While Danny tries to earn money playing poker, Mike takes care of a small girl, Sue-Lin, whose father has disappeared.
The only good song in this "musical" is One Broken Heart For Sale, and that comes pretty late in the film.
What ensues leaves Elvis caring for a small Chinese girl that gets separated from her Uncle and attempting to woo a nurse from the fair's first aid station.
No big song hits came out of this film as they did for Judy Garland in her film, but Elvis Presley does sing quite a few numbers here and some of them should have been better known.It Happens At The World's Fair casts the King and Gary Lockwood as a pair of crop duster fliers who can't seem to get out of debt no matter how hard they work.
Joan O'Brien who works in the World's Fair Infirmary and little Vicky Tsu who comes into his custody when her uncle Kam Tong goes missing.
So the rest of the film Presley and Lockwood are trying to deal with their financial mess and in Elvis's case court Joan O'Brien and take care of the little girl he now has custody of.Elvis sang a goodly amount of songs here and two of them, Happy Ending and A World Of Our Own should have become bigger hits for him.
I'm also surprised that Joan O'Brien didn't get to sing a bit more, she does join Elvis in the Happy Ending finale for a couple of bars.
But Joan was a singer and hardly utilized in her brief film career.This film has also something of a cult status with fans of the King because young Kurt Russell who grew up to play Elvis Presley has a couple of scenes with him.
Although not one of Presley's best, It Happened at the Word's Fair is an enjoyable, if formulaic, story set against the Seattle World's Fair.
One of the first films to include the Space Needle, it provides a glimpse into Seattle's not too distant past.The film finds Elvis as Mike Edwards, an out-of-work pilot, who finds himself stuck babysitting a young girl (Vicki Tui, now the first lady of Hawaii) at the fair.
Thankfully it is still early in his film career and Elvis appears fresh and in good form  not bored to distraction with playing the same basic character as we find in his later films.Noteworthy in this film is the steamy (okay maybe a little more schmaltzy than steamy, but it was the early sixties after all) scene early on with Yvonne Craig.
The future Catwoman plays cat and mouse with Elvis while he sings the appropriately titled song "Relax." Elvis seems to have more chemistry here than he does with Joan O'Brien, the main love interest.The music  although not as great or catchy as Blue Hawaii or Jailhouse Rock  is appropriate and not over done.
And, of course, the screen debut of Kurt Russell (he'd later go on to play Elvis) in which he kicks the King is worth seeing just for the irony..
With the help of a 6 year old Vicky Tiu whom Elvis and his troublesome friend Gary Lockwood are "minding" following the disappearance of her Uncle, Elvis of course manages to get the girl and make it a "Happy Ending"...little Vicky Tiu produces a memorably cute performance throughout.
'It Happened at the World's Fair' is an enjoyable, fast flowing movie that unlike it's predecessor "Girls!
Girls!" maintains the interest level throughout, and produces a few great songs "Happy Ending" and "One Broken Heart For Sale" but the best song by far, is the under rated "They Remind Me Too Much Of You" and the brilliant "video" within the movie that accompanies it.
Even if you don't watch 'It Happened at the World's Fair' check out "They Remind Me Too Much of You" and the video from the movie on YouTube..
Crop-dusting pilot Presley and his ne'er-do-well partner Lockwood find themselves without two dimes to rub together and hitchhike, for no real reason, to Seattle where the World's Fair of 1962 is taking place.
Presley looks pretty good and sings a plethora of songs nicely, though few of them are memorable or add anything much to the film.
Russell, who would later play Elvis in a much-lauded TV-movie, has a small role as a child who comes across Presley twice at the fair.
Fans of Presley enjoy watching him in practically all of his films, but the chief attraction here for most people is the chance to see some stunning footage of the 1962 World's Fair.
It Happened at the World's Fair (1963): Dir: Norman Taurog / Cast: Elvis Presley, Joan O'Brien, Gary Lockwood, Vicky Tiu, Yvonne Craig: Boring drivel about life experiences such as making a film this stupid.
Elvis Presley and Gary Lockwood play a couple of morons who owe a large dept and must get their plane back after the police take it.
They turn out to be Elvis Presley and Gary Lockwood but who cares.
Joan O'Brien plays a nurse who ends up the victim of Presley's antics particularly when he pays a kid to kick him in the knee to fake an injury.
Fans are advised to celebrate the music of Presley because it is obvious that the one thing that didn't happen at the world's fair is doing a film that is any better than horse sh*t.