Gidget

Gidget
April 10, 1959
Columbia
Comedy, Drama, Musical
VHS
B-

Almost 17-year-old Sandra Dee* plays the turning-17 title character (girl + midget).  This is the granddaddy of surf/beach movies, so we first see the-leads-surfing-against-rear-projection-waves mixed in with stunt surfers in long shots, and first hear a lot more talk about than practice of sex among the beach crowd.  This is based on the first of the Gidget books (which were in turn based on the author's daughter).  I've read only one of the books, and my review is here: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/07/affairs-of-gidget.html.  The movies are apparently very different than the books, and I suspect the moral lessons that the mother gently passes on were not in the first novel.  When I first saw the movie in my early teens, I could relate to the pressure to have a boyfriend, and it wasn't till years later that it occurred to me that Gidget's boyish friend Betty Louise's initials may've stood for something else, fraternity pin or not.  Watching it now, I find Cliff Robertson a hell of a lot more attractive than cold fish James Darren, even when the latter is singing love songs.  Darren nonetheless would return as Moondoggie in the sequels, though the Gidgets would change.

Joby Baker is the only other member of the cast who would do the two film sequels, although his character's nickname would change from Stinky to Judge.  Paul Wendkos would stay on as director.  This film also features a 21-year-old Yvonne Craig (Batgirl) as one of Gidget's more buxom pals; and future Billy Jack, Tom Laughlin, as Loverboy.  Mary LaRoche, Gidget's sympathetic mom, would be in The Swinger.  (I don't own Bye Bye Birdie, but that's a very different Ann-Margret film she did.)  Four Preps member Bruce Belland would write "He's Gonna Make It" for The Barefoot Executive.  And, yes, orchestrator John Williams, Jr. is that John Williams.


*Dee's mother may have lied about Sandra's age, making her 15 in 1959.  In any case, she looks much younger than everyone else.