Three movies with that beach loving California teen baptized Francine Lawrence, but known to one and all as Gidget were made in the Eisenhower/Kennedy years. And with three different Gidgets. Gidget Goes Hawaiian, a title which explains all, has Deborah Walley introduced as the surfing crazed teen dream.
In the first Gidget film Gidget learns to surf and gets involved with James Darren, AKA Moondoggie who was also in the crest of his teen idol years. Parents Carl Reiner and Jeff Donnell surprise Gidget with a family trip to Hawaii which should have been a dream come true for one into surfing. But she's less than enthusiastic because she'll have to leave her Moondoggie. Then they fight and Walley goes off with her parents.
Reiner and Donnell buddy it up with Eddie Foy, Jr., and Peggy Cass and their daughter Vicki Trickett who is a vixen with a jealous streak. She's a teen queen in her own right and doesn't like Walley moving in on all the available boys which includes Michael Callan. She spends the rest of the film scheming against Walley. Eventually Darren being the surfer dude he is goes to Hawaii and I think you know where this is all going.
Gidget Goes Hawaiian is all good clean teen fun circa 1961 with a couple of songs for Darren, a couple of dances for Callan and lots of curves and waves on the beach. You can't make a bad picture in a Hawaiian location I've always maintained, some are just better than others.
