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!"

Gidget Goes to Rome

Gidget Goes to Rome
August 7, 1963
Columbia
Comedy
VHS
C-

Released the same day as Beach Party, this is far inferior to not only the AIP series-starter, but to the previous Gidget movies.  The best thing about the movie is Don Porter in the first reel.  (He would also play Gidget's father, now a widower, in the Sally Field TV series a couple years later.)  Also, I do appreciate that they did extensive location shooting, and Rome does look good.  Unfortunately, there are these teens and post-teens cluttering the screen, too.

In the '90s comic Greg Proops would say of Luke 90210 Perry that he was "older than James Darren in the Gidget movies."  Darren was 27 by this point, and his character still has a year to go in college.  Gidget is now 18 and about to start college.  She remarks late in the movie that after visiting Rome she's "not the same person."  That's for sure!  Cindy Carol is the latest Gidget and, thanks to a script that Flippen unfortunately cowrote (rather than her soloing on Goes Hawaiian), and disappointing direction by Wendkos, C.C. plays the girl-midget as a sulky, sometimes crazy know-it-all who keeps getting into fixes that end up at the American Embassy.  (JFK's picture is on the wall, and the New York airport is still called Idlewild, a few months before the assassination.)  The two "steadies" have some moments together as a couple early on, but Jeff wants her to stop calling him Moondoggie.  (As if it wasn't a nickname from his surfer friends, rather than her!)  Soon though, he's flirting with their "Italian" (half-French) guide and dumping Gidget two years [sic] after pinning her.  He only goes back to her when the guide rejects his marriage proposal.  Meanwhile, Gidget "falls in love" with an older man, Paolo Cellini, not realizing that he's an old friend her dad asked to look after her.

The other characters aren't given much to do, although they seem to be trying really hard, especially the guests at the "international set" party.  If you feel the need to see this movie out of a sense of completeness, well, it's not too painful.

Peter Brooks, who plays Clay (the forgettable guy with the umbrella), would be in Girl Happy, as would Joby "Judge" Baker.  Cesare Danova, who's Paolo, would be Pepe Pepponi in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!  Eddra Gale, who is "Fat Party Guest," would be in The Graduate.

"Yeah, and she hears voices and has delusions, too."