FAQ

Frances 'Gidget' Lawrence (Deborah Walley) is devastated when her parents, Russ (Carl Reiner) and Dorothy (Jeff Donnell), spring a trip to Hawaii on her during the short vacation of her surfer boyfriend, Jeff 'Moondoggie' Matthews (James Darren), home from college for only a few weeks. That is, until Moondoggie tells her to go to Hawaii...he'll find something to do without her. Gidget takes that as a rebuff and decides to make the trip after all. She is miserable in Hawaii, and her father attempts to alleviate her suffering by bringing Jeff to Hawaii to surprise her. In the meantime, however, Gidget has decided to get out of her funk by having fun with dancer Eddie Horner (Michael Callan). Unfortunately, Abby Stewart (Vicki Trickett), a girl Gidget met on the plane, also has eyes for Eddie. Jealous of Gidget's popularity and her dancing and surfing abilities, Abby decides to start a rumor about Gidget that is sure to get her in trouble.

The screenplay for Gidget Goes Hawaiian was written by American screenwriter Ruth Brooks Flippen, who based the characters on Frederick Kohner's 1957 novel Gidget, The Little Girl With Big Ideas. However, the movie was followed shortly by Kohner's novelization. Gidget Goes Hawaiian is the second movie in the Gidget movie series, preceded by Un amour de vacances (1959) (1957) and followed by Gidget à Rome (1963) (1963), three made-for-TV Gidget movies -- Gidget Grows Up (1969) (1969), Gidget Gets Married (1972) (1972), and (Gidget's Summer Reunion (1985)) (1985), and two TV series based on Gidget -- Gidget (1965) (1965) and The New Gidget (1986) (1986).

"Gidget" is a melding of two words -- 'girl' and 'midget' to become 'gidget'. It was coined to make fun of a girl of small stature.

While Gidget and Moondoggie wait for her parents in their hotel room, Russ and Dorothy wait for their daughter in her room, joined by Eddie, Abby, Abby's parents Monty (Eddie Foy Jr.) and Mitzi (Peggy Cass), and all of Gidget's friends, none of whom have any idea where Gidget might be at 2:30 in the morning. Due to the stress, Dorothy develops a headache, and Russ goes back to their room for her pills, discovering Gidget and Jeff. Gidget tries to convince him that he shouldn't wake up Dorothy, whom she says is sleeping in their bedroom, and orders him to sleep in Jeff's room. Bemused, Russ tells Dorothy to go their room and 'get your half of what I got.' Meanwhile, Russ gets into their bedroom through another door so that, when Dorothy doesn't buy Gidget's story and open the door to her bedroom, sees Russ asleep in bed. Gidget is perplexed and when everyone streams into the room from another door, admits how awful it is to worry about her parents' whereabouts, just like parents worry about their chidlren's whereabouts. After assuring Jeff that's she done all her 'basic training', Gidget announces that she still has some 'unfinished business' and turns to Abby. In the final scene, Abby is carried out to Gidget's surfboard and forced to ride a wave with her. On the beach, it starts to rain. Mostly everyone runs for cover, but Monty simply opens an umbrella.

Sandra Dee was under contract to Universal Studios. She was loaned out to Columbia Studios to play Gidget in the first movie. By the time Gidget Goes Hawaiian came along, Dee was already busy doing the Tammy movies, i.e., Les lycéennes (1961) (1961) and Tammy and the Doctor (1963) (1963), among others. At least, that's what the studio says.