Dear Brigitte

Dear Brigitte
January 8, 1965
Fox
Comedy
VHS
C+

Although this has the same director, screenwriter, and studio as Take Her, She's Mine, I think it's a weaker film.  I don't know how much of this can be blamed on the book it's based on, Erasmus with Freckles (1963), but the movie feels as if it was both immediately dated and too early.  Billy Mumy (now 10 but still passing for 8) plays Erasmus, who's a mathematical genius with a huge crush on Brigitte Bardot.  She shows up late in the film (not at all worried about stalkers, although they were a real life problem for her), and is as lovely as ever, but I always got the impression she was more of a '50s star, and of rather racy movies at that, and it seems odd that a boy as young as Erasmus would have a crush on her, as opposed to, say, Sandra Dee.

Speaking of Gidget, Cindy Carol again follows in Dee's footsteps, this time as Jimmy Stewart's teenage daughter.  Carol is just as whiny, and as poor an actress, as she was in Gidget Goes to Rome, and there's an odd moment when she calls her father a "square" because he's not obsessed with money like she is.  Part of the weirdness of this movie is that Stewart is playing a proto-hippie-- a poetry professor who lives on a houseboat, hates math and science, and is worried about the nuclear generator on campus, as well as about what "this campus will be like in five years"-- and it's not only strange casting, but it seems like it would have worked better in a '70s or '80s movie.

Oh, and there's also a gambling subplot, with the usually upright John Williams as the unscrupulous Peregrine Upjohn.  Glynis Johns, as Stewart's wife, is given a bit more depth than she got in Mary Poppins, while Ed Wynn again supplies whimsy, this time talking to the camera, "like in that movie Tom Jones."  (In case you were wondering why Frankie Avalon keeps doing it in the Beach Party movies.)  Fabian plays Cindy Carol's boyfriend, but, no, he doesn't sing.  (The idea of him crooning "Dear Brigitte" as a title song, a la all those James Darren "Gidget" songs, is not without appeal.)

The always versatilely accented Jack Kruschen plays the Austrian (I think) psychiatrist Dr. Volker.  Louise Lane, who plays the saleslady, was "Jazzy Dame" in Auntie Mame.  Harry Carter, who was "Man Departing Plane" in Take Her is a reporter here; James Brolin again plays a college student; Pitt Herbert, who was a police sergeant there, is the bank manager here; Gene O'Donnell, Frank there, is Police Lt. Rink here; and Charles Robinson, who was Stanley, is now George.  As in Pajama Party, Jesse White plays a crook, this time bookie Cliff Argyle.

Paula Lane and Jane Wald would shortly be in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!  Lyn Edgington would soon do Girl Happy.  Richard Lane, who's the racetrack announcer here, would be the roller rink announcer in The Shaggy D.A.  (As far as I know, none of these Lanes are related.)

"Technology is a great threat!  Oo, nifty instant photo!"

Palm Springs Weekend

Palm Springs Weekend
November 5, 1963
Warner Bros.
Comedy, Drama, Romance
VHS
C+

This is never as much campy fun as it could be but if you're patient you may find it worthwhile.  Mostly I watch it for the cast, particularly scene-stealing nine-year-old Billy Mumy as Boom Boom.  The more recognizable "teenagers" in the cast include Jerry Van Dyke, 36, providing most of the comic relief, such as it is, and playing the banjo; Robert Conrad, 28, as the spoiled rich villain; Troy Donahue, 27, as the hero (and singer of the title tune); Connie Stevens, 25, as an 18-year-old pretending to be 21; Stefanie Powers, 21, as Bunny, who despite the name comes across as proto-feminist in one scene where she criticizes the double standard.  (She also is, perhaps coincidentally, in a similar situation to Trudy Kockenlocker's in Miracle of Morgan's Creek, in that she works in a record shop and has a protective policeman father, although she decides not to give in to her own or Troy's "biological urges.")

The script is by Earl Hamner, Jr., later of Waltons fame, and among the un-Walton-like elements are

• A patio and swimming pool completely covered in laundry-detergent bubbles
• The policeman's wife trying to put tranquilizers in his orange juice
• Van Dyke trying to give Boom Boom a "milky Finn"
• A house-wrecking brawl
• A Nanette-Fabray-style makeover
• A gigantic Bugs Bunny doll
• A young man who hiccups when he thinks about sex
• A couple drag races 
• A weekend that lasts a whole week (Spring Break/ Easter vacation)
• A folk band in a casino

Hamner obviously isn't responsible for the most unintentionally funny aspect of the film, the repeated shots of the cyclorama of the desert by the casino, with the studio lights clearly visible in several shots!  (And it's not even like I have a big TV.  It's really obvious.)  Trying to make sense out of all this nonsense is Norman Taurog, who had been directing since the '20s (and apparently was one of the several directors of The Wizard of Oz), but in the '60s he started getting "teen movie" assignments, including a few for Elvis, so we'll be seeing his work again.

Jack Weston, who was the playwright/cabbie in Please Don't Eat the Daisies, plays the health-food fanatic basketball coach.  Sam Harris has been in several of my movies, dating back to the '30s, the most recent before this being Auntie Mame; next would be Mary Poppins.  Dorothy Abbott was in The Apartment.  Roger Bacon was in Beach Party and would appear in Pajama Party.  Red West would be in Girl Happy, Jim Shane and Louie Elias in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!, and Jack Shea in I'll Take Sweden.  Lesley-Marie Coburn, listed at IMDB as "Beatnick [sic] Babe," would do Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

"And I think that's the commissary over there."

Oh, and the trailer is a lot more fun than the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWB_tDhLLwU