Gidget (1959)

The first beach flick with surprising mindfood minus the goofiness

RELEASED IN 1959 and directed by Paul Wendkos, "Gidget” is a beach drama about a 16 year-old tomboyish girl (Sandra Dee) who gravitates toward a group of surfing males in Southern Cal, specifically Malibu. Kahuna (Cliff Robertson), a surf “bum” and leader of the group, becomes her figurative big brother as she tries to attract the attentions of Kahuna’s mentee, Moondoggie (James Darren).

The film is iconic and influential, leading to two sequels and a TV series, not to mention scores of 60’s beach flicks, most inferior because they lack the depth and went the zany route. Dee was only 16 during shooting, but seemed more mature than her years and is remarkably strong as the petite protagonist. She’s a combo of youthful energy, honesty and unexpected insight & understanding. The film scores high marks in the female department in general with curvy Yvonne Craig (aka Batgirl) notable in the first act, but there are several others in the periphery.

The movie’s iconic because it’s about way more than girl-meets-boy frolics, although there’s some of that. For instance, Kahuna says "Who says so?" in response to how we 'have' to live our lives. Later, he recognizes "everything has a price" or, put differently, everything has a tradeoff. He desperately seeks total freedom, but realizes it doesn’t really exist in our present world, but he instinctively seeks it. His epiphany leads to an important decision.

Then there's Moondoggie who admires Kahuna and intends on following in his footsteps as an alternative to his staunch father's more conventional path to status. Yet it's still about status for Moondoggie and not a lifestyle choice for its own sake, as it supposedly is with Kahuna.

What happens to Flyboy (the pet bird) sets up a weighty conversation between Kahuna and Gidget, which offers insights about Kahuna's past, including his time in the Korean War and how it affected him. Perhaps he was working out a case of PTSD. Five years of dropping out of mainstream life and living on the beach was what he needed to get it out of his system and, by the end of the movie, he seems back for the attack. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple computers, had a chapter in his life of living on the street and doing drugs, asking the big questions, etc. He now says it was an instrumental part of his life.

Even the whole Kahuna almost having sex with the under-aged Gidget was ballsy for 1959. Kahuna genuinely didn’t intend to, and actually wanted to teach Gidge a lesson, but he wasn’t above doing it since he was a little drunk and she was sorta insisting. Shortly later, Moondoggie reprimands Kahuna for it.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 35 minutes and was shot in Leo Carrillo State Beach, Malibu, California. WRITERS: Frederick Kohner (novel) and Gabrielle Upton (screenplay).

GRADE: A-