This month I will be writing about classic summer movies that I’ve picked out on my own or that were suggested to me. These will be movies released before 1970.

Some will be campy, some will be about the cheesiest thing you’ve ever seen, but all will have an element of fun in them.

First up is Gidget (1959) starring Sandra Dee.

This movie had me all kinds of nervous and stressed, let me tell you.

First, they seemed to be rushing very young girls toward sex and romance way too early and that surprised me for a movie from the late 50s.

Second, while much of the scenes were meant to be funny, I just kept thinking about how dangerous many of the situations young Gidget was in were.

I was practically yelling at the TV at one point.

We start with Francine Lawerence in her bedroom and her friends are telling her it’s time she grew up and tried to get a man. She’s about to turn 17 and her friends are taking her to the beach so she can join them in trying to hunt men.

Of course, much of the movie is meant to be silly so when her mother asks why she doesn’t look excited to go, Francine’s friend says it’s because she’s going on her first “manhunt.”

The mom is a little shocked but sort of shrugs it off when Francine’s dad protests that she’s too young for that.

Francine is of the age when young girls look for boyfriends, her mother says.

Again, I was a bit shocked with this declaration but continued on.

On the beach, Francine’s friends undress to their bathing suits and do their best to catch the attention of a group of young men lounging on the beach next to their surf boards.

Francine isn’t as – ahem – developed as her friends so she doesn’t garner much attention.

The boys are also on to the girl’s ploys and mock and ignore them for the most part.

Francine would rather go swimming than catch boys anyhow so she sets out into the ocean and gets herself caught in some seaweed, which leads to her calling for help.

A young surfer named Jeffrey “Moondoggie” Matthews (James Darren) comes to her rescue and once she is rescued his friends mock him and Francine, but one of them offers to take Francine back to their hut and help her learn about life. Eek.

Francine is naïve and clueless about the flirting surfer so she ignores him and instead wants to know how she can get a surfboard too. She’d love to be part of the gang, she says.

They all wave her off and tell her to go home but the next day she is back at the beach to buy a surfboard and meets the Burt “The Big Kahuna” Vail, played by Cliff Robertson  – a man who is close to 30 but spends his days surfing the waves all over the world.

Francine eventually inserts herself into the group and gains the nickname Gidget from them. Moondoggie isn’t too happy with her being in the group because he knows his fellow surfers aren’t the nicest guys and will try to take advantage of her.

At point he has to rescue her from the first guy who suggested teaching her how life works – ahem again – and tells her to go home.

“The lessons you’re going to get here aren’t what you are looking for.”

And they aren’t because the lessons Gidget wants are ones that will teach her how to surf so she can fit in with the guys, especially Moondoggie, who she’s fallen for.

Meanwhile at home, while Dad was once nervous about his little girl becoming a manhunter, he decides he should use her to get in good with his boss by having her go out with the boss’s son who is visiting.

The word pimp came to my mind at this point, I’m sorry to say.

There is a ton of humor in this movie, even if I was cringing at some of the scenes with men trying to take advantage of Gidget’s innocence.

I didn’t like the idea that a girl is expected to start dating men at such a young age, even if it was a different time.

Still, I had some fun with the movie and liked the surfing and beach scenes, even if the surfing scenes were very fake.

I thought it was interesting that Elvis was the first choice to play Moondoggie but he was in the U.S. Army at the time. Luckily he went on to make some dumb beach movies on his own in the future, including Clam Bake, which is one my list to watch for this series.

The movie was based on the book Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas by Frederick Kohner who based the main character on his daughter Kathy. According to Wikipedia, the screenplay was written by Gillian Houghton, who was then head writer of the soap opera The Secret Storm, using the pen name Gabrielle Upton. 

There were a few more Gidget movies made after this including Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Gidget Goes to Rome, Gidget Grows Up, Gidget Gets Married, and Gidget’s Summer Reunion.

Different actresses played Gidget in each movie.

There was also a series called Gidget that ran for one season in 1965 and starred Sally Fields.

The original movie is said to have kicked off the “beach genre” movies, a couple of which I plan to watch.

I didn’t look up a ton of reviews and trivia about this one but did see this excerpt of a review by Craig Butler in Allmovie notes: “Although the very title prompts snorts of derision from many, Gidget is actually not a bad little teenaged flick from the ’50s. Great art it definitely isn’t, but as frivolous, lighthearted entertainment, it more than fits the bill. Those who know it only by reputation will probably be surprised to find that it does attempt to deal with the problems of life as seen by a teenager—and that, while some of those attempts are silly, many of them come off quite well. It also paints a very convincing picture of the beach-bum lifestyle, much more so than the Frankie Avalon–Annette Funicello beach party movies.”

Have you ever seen Gidget or any of the other Gidget movies?

My complete Summer Movie Marathon list (with some additions possible):

Gidget (August 1)

Beach Blanket Bingo (August 8)

Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation (August 15)

Summertime (August 22)

Having A Wonderful Time (August 27)

Clambake (August 29)