The Gidget franchise gets its start with this 1959 starring Sandra Dee as the original Gidget. Dee never got to repeat the role which probably more than anything else established her image as the squeaky clean teen dream of the era.
In fact Francie Lawrence as she's originally known is something of a tomboy, but she's slowly discovering an opposite sex is useful in more ways than beating them in sports. Her friends persuade her to go to the beach and see if they can attract some of the opposite sex. But young Francie Lawrence takes up with some surfer kids after one of them, James Darren, saves her life. She becomes a mascot for them and in the process learns how to surf, how to love surfing, and what boys are really for.
She even picks up the nickname of Gidget where forever afterward she will be known except when her parents Arthur O'Connell and Mary Roche in this film are mad at her.
Presiding over the surfing kids is surfing bum Cliff Robertson known as Kahuna. I'm wondering if it was in that film that the term Kahuna entered the English language to denote someone who was the kingpin in whatever field, besides surfing. He and Darren have a bit of a rivalry over Dee.
The same things that made America for a generation check out Baywatch is present in abundance in Gidget. Nice Malibu scenery, gorgeous beach and scantily clad young and nubile females. Especially young and nubile Sandra Dee. We've grown up a bit since Gidget, but the film and its successors are still good, light, very light entertainment.
In fact Francie Lawrence as she's originally known is something of a tomboy, but she's slowly discovering an opposite sex is useful in more ways than beating them in sports. Her friends persuade her to go to the beach and see if they can attract some of the opposite sex. But young Francie Lawrence takes up with some surfer kids after one of them, James Darren, saves her life. She becomes a mascot for them and in the process learns how to surf, how to love surfing, and what boys are really for.
She even picks up the nickname of Gidget where forever afterward she will be known except when her parents Arthur O'Connell and Mary Roche in this film are mad at her.
Presiding over the surfing kids is surfing bum Cliff Robertson known as Kahuna. I'm wondering if it was in that film that the term Kahuna entered the English language to denote someone who was the kingpin in whatever field, besides surfing. He and Darren have a bit of a rivalry over Dee.
The same things that made America for a generation check out Baywatch is present in abundance in Gidget. Nice Malibu scenery, gorgeous beach and scantily clad young and nubile females. Especially young and nubile Sandra Dee. We've grown up a bit since Gidget, but the film and its successors are still good, light, very light entertainment.