Gidget a Roma

The casting director for Elvis movies in the sixties must have been impressed by this movie!

The next year, 1964 Cesare Danova was featured in Viva Las Vegas as Count Elmo Mancini. The race car driver/ playboy competing in the race and off the track for Ann Margret.

Peter Brooks and Joby Baker appeared in Girl Happy the next year. 1965. Brooks as a nerd around the motel (who morphs into Nita Talbot's date in the finale). And Baker is a buddy who played in Elvis's band. And shares in the hijinx.

The Gidget movie was intended to show the character as more mature and growing into a young adult. Beach scenes and family interaction were quickly disposed of in the first ten minutes. And the teenage romance/courtship dynamics of the earlier films was pretty much suspended as each lead pursued other potentially romantic partners for the bulk of the story.

The reunited ending was totally predictable. What else could it have been given the light comedic theme of the plot.

James Darren was in his prime then. On the charts in the early sixties he had a number of hit singles. Including Goodbye Cruel World and Her Royal Majesty amongst many others. He was in a handful of teen oriented films. And in a couple of years would star in the Time Tunnel sci Fi TV show.

All in all it was a nice enough bright, vivid time capsule of an early sixties milieu. And a view of a fun stereotypical tourist first visit to Rome. Hardly a memorable or captivating movie, but it did what it was intended to. Move Gidget off the beach and appeal to a familiar demographic.

Simple, innocent fluff that does build on the earlier Gidget mythos. The TV series actually is the best representation but has more time to expand on character and stories.

And as a footnote. Noreen Corcoran had just finished playing the teen daughter in the sitcom Bachelor Father.

This film essentially begins with a teenager named "Frances 'Gidget' Lawrence" (Cindy Carol) begging her father, "Russell Lawrence" (Don Porter) to allow her to fly to Rome with her friends. After some consideration, her father finally relents but only after ensuring that a suitable chaperone is provided. Yet even after learning that one of the other teenager's aunts named "Albertina Blythe" (Jessie Royce Landis) has agreed to chaperone them, Russell remains somewhat concerned and subsequently calls an old friend living in Rome named "Paola Cellini" (Cesare Danova) to secretly check up on them from time to time. For her part, Gidget is only too happy to spend more time with her boyfriend "Jeff 'Moondoggie' Matthews" (James Darren) who is also going on the trip. Problems develop, however, when the group's tour guide turns out to be a beautiful Italian woman named "Daniela" (Danielle De Metz) who all of the teenage boys immediately become enamored with--especially Moondoggie. Needless to say, this takes a serious toll on Gidget's emotions. Her sadness quickly vanishes, however, when she meets an older gentleman who suddenly takes a great interest in her--Paola Cellini. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay comedy for the most part, which started off slow, but picked up rather nicely toward the end. And while I thought James Darren seemed a bit too old for his character, I thought that Cindy Carol performed extremely well in the lead role. I also liked the performances of Cesare Danova and Danielle De Metz--who was absolutely gorgeous. In any case, while this wasn't a great comedy by any means, it seemed to pass the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

This is the third film in the Gidget movie series and again Gidget and her parents have been recast. This might be my second favorite actress who played Gidget, Cindy Carol (second to Sandra Dee of course). This film is the first Gidget that spent little to no time on the beach. Gidget has a plan to go to Rome with Moondoggie and four other friends. First she has to talk their parents into it, second they have to find a chaperone and finally she has to convince her parents to let her go!

"Except from a purely aesthetic viewpoint of course."-Gidget

This was a little sadder than the other Gidget films. Moondoggie spends their entire trip fawning over the Italian beauty who is their guide. I'm afraid Gidget has a bigger heart than me to so easily take him back after that. Gidget spends the film getting into trouble with the Italian police and developing a crush and subsequent broken heart.

Roman sites were fun to see and it was fun to hear the beautiful Italian language, but the overall sad storyline and easy acceptance at the end make this one a miss for me even though I loved the music in this third film...and Gidget's new Italian nickname "gidgetta"!

Jesse Royce Landis and Cesare Danova were real standouts in this film.

The one thing I enjoyed was the scenery and fashion show sequence.Carol Carol is a lousy actress, and the "gang" are as equally uninteresting.James Darren is a gorgeous italian and I love his songs!

This is one of my favorite movies, it features Cindy Carol. She is my idea of the perfect girl, she is so pretty and has a perfect personality. I wish she was in more movies. This movie would be nothing without her in the lead role. I think this is the best of the Gidget movies. She is a little known actress, watch this movie and she if you agree that she deserved more movie roles. Filmed in 1963, the height of the beach movies. A great movie for all ages. It stands the test of time, it's just as good today as it was 40 years ago. I wish Cindy stared in the Gidget TV show, I can't get enough of her joyful personality.