MovieChat Forums > Gidget (1959) Discussion > Those cradle robbing surfers...

Those cradle robbing surfers...


I was browsing through some other groups discussing the current teen films and was amused to discover that todays teens are appalled by the age differences between leads and their love interests. I did a little calculating and figured that there is an 8 year age difference between Gidget and Moondoggie and a more disturbing age difference between Gidget and Kahuna of 19 years.

I will concede to one fact, Moondoggie was a college man and high school girls were often encouraged to date college guys. Compared to today's teen fare, Gidget is very racy... Any thoughts?

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the Big kahuna was supposed to be older then Gidget. Actually if it wouldn't have been for sandra dee being 'sandra dee' i think they would have given the part to an older actress. Hollywood tends to give the teen roles to men and women in their thirties, maybe their to afraid that a teenager can't handle a lead role on their own.

Girls were often pushed to date college men, because after all if you went to college you must be an all around good guy, please LOL but that was the thing back then.

Either way i thought James Darren was great as Moondoggie.

How is Gidget racy though? Granted i found her a little racy in the hawian one LOL throwing herself at every guy to get moondoggie jealous.

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"Girls were often pushed to date college men, because after all if you went to college you must be an all around good guy, please LOL but that was the thing back then."

It also had to do with the fact that girls were expected to find husbands at an earlier age, and thus dating older men was more the norm. An older guy in college meant he had money (since back then if you were going to college, it meant your parents were pretty affluent) and that his education would mean a good job and a secure future. Most girls back then got married in their late teens, early '20's, so Gidget (in the movie) was fastly approaching that age and thus encouraged to start dating an older college guy.

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Former-teen star Katie Holmes is marrying 40-something Tom Cruise. I think today's stars are *more* open to big age differences, not less.

troy

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Yeah, I saw Gidget for the first time the other day, and while I was, despite myself, enthralled with the adorable movie, I was distressed by how very young Gidget was (supposedly, I guess, 16 or so, but looking some 14 on an old day). She seemed, quite literally, a child. Especially as compared to Moondoggie, Kahuna, etc. I suppose Gidget's innocence is supposed to be part of the movie's charm, but can't she be innocent and still above the age of statuatory rape?

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The ironic thing about Miss Sandra Dee was that in Gidget, she was playing this girl that was sort of the "runt" of her crowd, she was in fact overdeveloped physically. While her character did the bust exercises, she was taping hers down.

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I never really worried about the age difference between Gidget and Moondoggie. We are never really told his real age, except that he is going to college. It is not unusual for Seniors in high school to date college men. I did! I was rather amused with the whole Kahuna age and little Gidget's. Although, it worked with the story and a lot of young people are attracted to their teachers and such.

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8 years? How in the world did you come up with that? There is no way Moondoggie is 8 years older than Gidget. It is stated in the film that Gidget is going into her senior year which should put her at 17. Moondoggie was a college guy and it was never really said what year he was in. All we know for sure is that he was in college before the summer started and he's supposed to go back to college in the fall and he's still in college for the rest of the movies and it is hinted at in Gidget Goes to Rome that he's in his senior year. Going by that he should be going into his sophmore year when he meets Gidget. Most sophmores in college are 19 going on 20. That puts the age difference at about two years. That's nothing. Heck, my parents were four years apart.

I'm a big tough girl. I tie my own sandals and everything.

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meeris, the op was talking about *real-life* ages. go to their imdb pages and do some math. it's kinda freaky.

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they were only 6 years apart in reality . James Darren-1936 and Sandra Dee-1942. I loved GIdget and didn't find it Racy as i would today. there were some parts like at the beach shack that were like wow but nothing major in my book.

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Oh, gracious me, this movie was so racy that I almost burst out and said "My goodness!" a couple of times!

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Gidget, not yet 17 in the movie, was looking to lose her virginity to Kahuna, a man who looked to be in his late 20s. That seems pretty racy for the 1950s.

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I liked Kahuna's beach shack. It was pretty sparse just a bed, tiki head on the wall and a hotplate for heating coffee. The fact that Gidget went there alone to be with a man 19 years her senior is quite racy.

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Haha. I think it was just fine. Nothing wrong with it, unless your very old fashioned. I didn't really like her being alone with Kahuna though.. even I didn't like that. Haha. But I did understand that it was supposed to be funny, so it didn't bother me -that- much. But I did wonder what kind of example it would set for younger girls. LIKE MY LITTLE SISTER (I would never let her watch that part of the movie, because she already got caught inviting a boy over while no one was home!)! But anyways.. I think it was all just fine. What's all this about it being 'racy'? *shakes head* Too funny.

~_Kris_~

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Moondoggie was not supposed to be 8 years older then Gidget. She was 17 and he was about 19 or 20 in college i heard.

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Ha Racy this no way the whole beach shake thing was for laughs and also to teach the youngens a lesson get over it, its a movie and the age diffrence is nothing, well yes Khuna is a bit old but she didnt really like him she was making Moon doggie jealous

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Gidget isn't really as "racy" as some people seem to think. Gidget is supposed to be 17 and going into her senior year of high school. Moondoggie is going into 'another' year of college but it never said (at least in this film) which year he is entering. The characters are only separated by 2 years at least. If one means their actual ages then, yes, James Darren was older than Sandra Dee by a number of years (he was 23 and she was 17). However, Sandra Dee's mother had been lying about Sandra's age for years. In her first movie she was only 13 starring opposite 20 year old John Saxon. Clearly, this was not unusual for Sandra.
As to the age difference of Gidge and the Kahuna - that was the point! She was supposed to be considerabely younger. The scene at Joe's beach shack at the end of the film is a farce. The Kahuna is trying to prove something to Gidget - that she is not ready for this situation.
"Gidget" is a good movie (albeit a little cheesy) but it certainly isn't racy by todays standards. Why even the beach party that is described as an "orgy" is nothing like the parties depicted in the films of today that supposedly represent the parties of today's youth (e.g. "American Pie").

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Gidget is NOT racy and Moondoggie is NOT 8 years older than her. I would say he is probably 19 or 20 tops. Therefore he is probably 2 or 3 years older than her. Big deal I'm 6 years older than my husband.

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The book was much racier than the film, as Gidget was 15, Moondoggie was in college and he spent the summer making out with her (while 'pinned' to someone else back in college). What makes it weirder still is that Frederick Kohner, the author of the Gidget books, modeled Gidget after his own daughter.

Gidget has her 17th birthday in the movie and Moondoggie is about 20, so that's not a stretch.

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Back then 20 year olds were seen as kids and minors. This is why Elvis Presley needed his parents signature to sign with Colonel, he was underage. And many kids back then were far more innocent than kids today in the west.

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It was in fact pretty racy for the time, especially since it was clearly aimed at teens. So was "Where the Boys Are."

I find the undertones of films from that era much more interesting than the open skankiness of most films today (or of the late 60's and 70's, only 10-20 years later.)

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It should be pointed out that in 1960, a year after this film was released, Sandra Dee married Bobby Darin, who was born in 1936, as were James Darren and Troy Donahue; John Saxon was born in 1935. They were all in their early 20s when they worked with her. And depending on which birthdate you go by, Sandra was either 16 or 18 when she got married in real life. It wasn't uncommon in those days for girls to marry at age sixteen.

And just to clarify, Sandra Dee did a screen test with John Saxon for "The Restless Years" in 1957, but that was not her first film. She was loaned out to MGM first to appear in "Until They Sail", then she returned to Universal (where she was put under contract) and filmed "The Restless Years".

It's also interesting to note that both Darren and Saxon had romantic interest in Sandra when they worked with her. Watching "Gidget" now, it's quite obvious that Darren was smitten with Dee, and I've felt the same way watching Sandra's films with Saxon, "The Restless Years" (1958), "The Reluctant Debutante" (also 1958) and "Portrait In Black" (1960). I don't think I'd be assuming too much to say that many of Dee's leading men probably had a crush on her to some degree. And why not? She was adorable!

In the film, Moondoggie is only supposed to be a few years older than Gidget.

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It's also interesting to note that both Darren and Saxon had romantic interest in Sandra when they worked with her. Watching "Gidget" now, it's quite obvious that Darren was smitten with Dee, and I've felt the same way watching Sandra's films with Saxon, "The Restless Years" (1958), "The Reluctant Debutante" (also 1958) and "Portrait In Black" (1960). I don't think I'd be assuming too much to say that many of Dee's leading men probably had a crush on her to some degree. And why not? She was adorable!


Really? John Saxon as well? I saw his interview of their time together for "The Reluctant Debutante" in Sandra Dee's biography, but he seemed too alarmed by how thin she was to be attracted to her. But, if she got his attention, then good for her!

Amazing that Sandra Dee got so much male adoration, yet that awful mother of hers preferred to keep her open for that husband of hers. Or when Sandra did finally get out of her family's hair, it was for someone who wouldn't be a good husband to her. I can't help, but wonder what would've happened to Sandra if she got involved with someone other than Darren.

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In the film, Moondoggie tells Gidget that Kahuna is twice her age. But she was BSing him about having a relationship with Kahuna. At the beach house, Kahuna originally said "thanks for the ride, goodnight" to Gidget, but she asked if she could hang around. He had had a few too many beers, and was just messing with her mind by pretending to get romantic. The moment he realized he was actually thinking about it, he stopped and told her to leave. He never intended to have any sort of romantic or sexual relationship with her. He regarded her as a mascot to the group and a friend. Prior to the last few decades, it was normal for young people and adults to mix socially. Young people aspired to it, to be accepted into the grown-up world. It was not considered inappropriate or unusual. The tribal separation of generations we have today would seem bizarre to people from the 1950s.

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Kahuna did refuse Gidget and send her away but he did so partly because he didn’t completely trust himself and he thought it would be wrong for them to have sex. Gidget, on the other hand, was determined to lose her virginity to Kahuna until some last-minute jitters. She even lamented to her mom the next day that she had failed to do so.

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How does the 6yr age difference of the actors playing Gidet and Moondoggie turn into 8yrs? Besides, Darren is not playing his age, he was playing a 20yr old likely.

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