gidget

Watching Gidget (1959) in the modern era of women's rights issue and hourly sexual harassment scandals is a genuinely harrowing experience. What was most certainly an enjoyably empowering adventure about a 16-year-old tomboy blossoming into womanhood is now inescapably creepy. Male viewers will almost feel compelled to cover their eyes on the off chance they're held complicit with the film's multiple sexual predators competing for the affection of an obviously underage girl. Seriously.

Of course any film produced in 1959 is bound to have its share of anachronisms. But this comic coming-of-age story, based on a string of popular books that also hit the small screen starring Sally Field, has incredibly bad timing, premiering on a 3000-copy limited edition blu-ray just when society has reached the breaking point when it comes to inappropriate, unwanted male-female relationships. And Gidget is full of them!

Young Francie Lawrence (Sandra Dee) would much rather surf than smooch. So after a failed romantic escapade with her "man hungry" friends, she winds up winning over a local tribe of surf bums who take her under their wing as a pint-sized mascot, christening her "Gidget" (blending "girl" and "midget" together for a doubly-offensive nickname). Led by Kahuna (Cliff Robertson), a Korean War vet committed to a life of no responsibility, the gang finds Gidget to be a quick study, but still hesitates to include her in all their reindeer games.

Particularly Moondoggie (James Darren), a professional surf bum in the making who struggles with his attraction to a girl several years his junior. But that doesn't stop Gidget from pulling out all the stops to land her man, even using Kahuna as bait to make Moondoggie jealous, a stunt that threatens to drastically change the future for all three of them.

Julie Kirgo's liner notes make an excellent defense for Gidget's place in film history, pointing out the burgeoning youth movement that latched onto the "Who said?" attitude of ditching the economic responsibilities forced on them by the preceding generation. Even Gidget's misfit status among her manhunting friends can be viewed as an anticipation of domestic changes to come. But the film's conservative final denouncement - embodied by a cross-stitched family heirloom that reads "To be a real women is to bring out the best in a man" - is a real groaner no matter how your chromosomes are arranged.

With a social-political appendectomy, director Paul Wendkos' film is good, clean fun. Sandra Dee is transcendentally vibrant in the lead role with her squeaky incessant jabbering walking a fine line between endearing and annoying. James Darren croons a couple of second-tier hits, including the ludicrously goofy main title. But Cliff Robertson grounds the film with a surprisingly nuanced performance as the conflicted Big Kahuna, keeping his self-doubt hidden from his worshipful tribe of lost boys waiting for the next wave.

Twilight Time’s hi-def transfer is a widescreen wonder, providing a colorful Cinemascope view of the shot-on-location Malibu shore (except for those wonderfully corny rear-projections shots, of course). Extras include the aforementioned liner notes along with an isolated music track and theatrical trailer.