Movie Review: Gidget (1959)

Genre: Coming Of Age Beach Dramedy  

Director: Paul Wendkos  

Starring: Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson  

Running Time: 95 minutes  

Synopsis: In the Malibu area of Los Angeles, Francine (Sandra Dee) is about to turn 17, but worried that she is physically underdeveloped compared to her girlfriends and still not romantically interested in boys. But all that changes when she discovers a passion for surfing and develops a crush on "Moondoggie" (James Darren), who is part of a surfer group led by aging beach bum "The Big Kahuna" (Cliff Robertson). The surfers assign her the nickname Gidget, and she tries to use jealousy to win Moondoggie's heart, resulting in complications with Kahuna.

What Works Well: One of the earliest movies to move away from portraying teenagers as dangerous outcasts, here both the girls and the guys are more interested in having wholesome fun, flirting, and grappling with hormones. Summer is all about frolicking on the beach, surfing is cool, and Sandra Dee is a winning presence navigating the seemingly impossible path from girlhood to adulthood. Gabrielle Upton's script (based on Frederick Kohner's book) surprisingly also explores some dark manhood issues through Kahuna, who is hiding from himself as a professional beach bum.

What Does Not Work As Well: This roughly edited low-budget production is confined to a few filming locations, with plenty of screen time consumed by distant silhouetted surfers filmed from the beach. Although the romance does find a clever resolution, the third act is particularly clumsy, and a late-in-the-day fistfight injects traditional macho posturing in direct contradiction of hang loose surfer ethos.

Key Quote:

Gidget: What'll happen to your future? I mean, doesn't everybody have to have a goal or something?

Kahuna: Who said? There's your answer, little one. Who said?



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Movie Review: Imitation Of Life (1959)

Genre: Drama

Director: Douglas Sirk

Starring: Lana Turner, John Gavin, Juanita Moore, Sandra Dee, and Susan Kohner

Running Time: 125 minutes

Synopsis: In 1947, single mothers Lora (Lana Turner) and Annie (Juanita Moore), who is Black, meet at Coney Island. Lora is poor and lives in a cramped apartment with her daughter Susie, but welcomes Annie as a housekeeper along with her daughter Sarah Jane, who can pass as white. The two women become lifelong friends. Lora is romantically pursued by photographer Steve (John Gavin) but sacrifices personal happiness to pursue her dream of becoming a star actress. A decade later, Susie (Sandra Dee) has to contend with a celebrity mother, while Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) wants to pass as white and is embarrassed by her Black mother.

What Works Well: Douglas Sirk's final film is a notable achievement, tackling multiple progressive themes with admirable sensitivity. The travails of single mothers, balancing professional ambitions with motherhood, and the real pressures on a mixed-race daughter fuel the drama, while the core friendship between Lora and Annie sustains the narrative. Brisk pacing enables coverage of impressive domestic and career material within two hours, complemented by handsome set designs and lush cinematography.

What Does Not Work As Well: The emotions are over-torqued, including an over-the-top finale, befitting performances more theatrical than cinematic.

Conclusion: An attractive social drama, anchored by serious issues and brimming with memorable characters.



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Movie Review: A Stranger In My Arms (1959)

A sudsy melodrama, A Stranger In My Arms features enough talent to survive a torrid story of misplaced passion.

Test pilot Major Pike Yarnell (Jeff Chandler) is approached by widow Christina Beasley (June Allyson) with an invitation to attend a memorial service for her deceased husband Donald (Peter Graves). Towards the end of the Korean War, Pike and Donald drifted for days in an ocean survival raft before Donald expired. Now the dead man's domineering mother Virginie (Mary Astor) is intent on building a case for posthumously awarding her son the Medal of Honor, and needs Pike's testimony to support her lobbying.

Pike knows Donald is far from deserving of any medal, and reluctantly travels to the small Georgia town dominated by the Beasleys. He is interested in pursuing a romance with Christina, but also finds himself targeted by the flirty Pat Beasley (Sandra Dee), Donald's younger sister. Virginie and her father-in-law Vance (Charles Coburn) are soon working on Pike to spin the right story, but from the desperate days on the raft Pike knows enough secrets about the family to resist their crass pressure while still trying to win Christina's heart.

An adaptation of the Robert Wilder novel And Ride a Tiger, A Stranger In My Arms is ambitious but also vaguely under-resourced. Filmed in CinemaScope but in black and white, featuring a healthy number of intriguing characters but a less than stellar cast and clocking in at just 88 minutes, the production appears in conflict with itself. Nevertheless director Helmut Kautner conjures up a passable drama centred on a mother in love with herself and the phantom idea of an ideal son, with all those around her acquiescing to her warped reality and afraid to confront her with the truth.

Mary Astor bites into the role of Virginie Beasley with some venom, her manipulative antics a hot pepper amidst all the hot sauce emotions. June Allyson and Jeff Chandler are supposed to be the main characters but both are relatively bland. Sandra Dee delivers the other notable role, Pat not allowing her self-awareness and precocious maturity to stifle a purring sexuality.

Kautner would have had an even shorter film on his hands had the clenched-jawed Pike revealed exactly what happened on the raft the first time he met Christina. Instead the revelations are stretched out in flashback snippets, the running time occupied with stand-ins riding muscular horses in pretty landscapes, until a rather tepid climax in which a key letter is not even read out. A Stranger In My Arms generates heat but does not always quite know what to do with it.



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