I just saw this movie recently and thought it was the cutest thing! I've started liking older movies and this has got to be one of my favs! Does any one have any suggestions of older movies I would like also?
My mother rented this for me one time when I was a kid. ^_^ I love it. And recently, I've been thinking about it. So now, I want to rent it again. Lol.
"There's a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known."
Hi! I live in Ireland and this movie crops up on Saturday or Sunday afternoon t.v every so often and I love it! It was on yesterday and I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours eating icecream watching it. I remember a few years ago one of the cable channels here showed the series they made with Sally Field but I definitely prefer the movie.
You might try Doris Day/Rock Hudson films. My personal favorite old movie is Pillow Talk. I'm sure in it's day it was pretty edgy. Lover Come Back is another one of theirs; it's good too. The Producers is a highly entertaining as well. That's all the suggestions I can think of right now.
I adored Rock Hudson when I was growing up -- I thought him the handsomest, most masculine man -- then was so surprised and shocked to learn upon his death that he was gay == they said it was the most well-kept secret in Hollywood -- in those days, homosexuality was never advertised -- I also believe Cary Grant was gay, for all he married Dyan Cannon and had a child with her.
To many of us, there's a difference between being homosexual and being gay. Being gay requires that one accept and embrace one's homosexuality, and publicly declare it.
It takes less courage to do that today than it took in the 1950s. There's little question that both Hudson and Grant had homosexual lovers, but they each married, and the evidence is that the marriages were based on love, rather than acquiring a beard. That would make them both bisexual, and neither of them gay.
Initially in the movie, Gidget professes some concern that she's not as interested in boys as her friends, and she's repeatedly referred to as a tomboy. In the end, she finds herself attracted to Moondoggie. This plays along well with the 1950s notion that homosexuality was caused by bad mothering, and it could be cured. Fortunately, it also plays along well with today's notion that kids develop at different rates, and you'll probably end up being whoever you are, no matter how long it takes you to get there.
You're aware that Gidget is not entirely fictional? Kathy Kohner Zuckerman's father, Frederick Kohner, wrote "Gidget, The Little Girl With the Big Ideas" largely based on her experiences. He also wrote "Kiki of Montparnasse" and "Cher Papa", which also feature precocious teenage girls.
In real life, Gidget was a Jewish 16-year girl, daughter of a Czech immigrant. Did she marry Moondoggie? Nope. Mr. Zuckerman is a Yiddish scholar who has never been surfing. Her first board was not a plain wood board for $25; it was a blue board with a totem pole on it, bought for $35 from Mike Doyle. Before that, she'd bring baskets of homemade sandwiches to the beach in her Model T (not that new Plymouth) and trade them to Tubesteak for use of his board.
"God was it ever stupid to see Sandra Dee play my role." - Kathy Kohner's diary, June 30, l958 Even though the movie is much darker than Sally Fields' TV series, the reality is darker still. Someone painted a swastika on the beach hut that summer. Nobody seems to know who it was....
So maybe Kathy Kohner wasn't Gidget after all - she inspired the book, which inspired the movie, which inspired an entire industry. Call her Gidget's mother, perhaps....
I liked Gidget. It's perfect for a cold, rainy(or cloudy) day when one's dying for the beach and some sunshine. I can see why Sandra Dee was so popular at the time.
BTW, what's the name of the actress who plays one of Gidget's friends? She's a brunette who looks ultra sexy in a white bikini.
For Sandra Dee, I would recommend these movies: * Reluctant Debutante (remade as "What A Girl Wants" (2003) * I'd Rather Be Rich (very hard to find) * Tammy Tell Me True w/ John Gavin (rrrr!)
For Gidget: * Gidget Goes Hawaiian w/ Debra Walley (she's so cute) Note: IMHO, this is the only Gidget sequel worth watching.
For Awkward Girls: * Two Weeks in Love w/ Jane Powell * Meet Me in St. Louis w/ Judy Garland * On Moonlight Bay w/ Doris Day
I love this movie too. Sandra Dee is one of my favorite actresses. Another old movie that you might really like is called "That Touch of Mink" starring Doris Day.
Gidget was my absolute favorite back in the day. I was too young to see it at the theater because I would have been six. But later on TV. What I loved much later in life is that I got it for my daughter (now 28) who loved it just as much.
How about "A Summer Place". Now I remember when that was on TV and my mother wouldn't let me watch it. It seems all so innocent in today's times.