Gidget Goes Hawaiian was the second in a series of films about Gidget, a single child of perfectly square parents, played here by Carl Reiner and Jeff Donnell. James Darren is Moondoggie, Gidget's boyfriend, who can't figure her out (along with everyone else in the audience). Deborah Walley plays a spunkier, more lively Gidget than Sandra Dee and certainly has more acting chops than Cindy Carol in the sequel to Gidget Goes Hawaiian: Gidget Goes To Rome. Michael Callan plays a secondary love interest of Gidget while she's vacationing in Oahu, Hawaii. Eddie Foy, Jr. and Peggy Cass play the parents of a jealous teenage friend Gidget meets on the plane flying to Hawaii. Vicki Trickett is Abby Stewart, definitely a real looker for the time, much more so than Deborah Walley as Gidget.
There's virtually no alone time until late in the film for Gidget and Moondoggie in a film that serves as a poster child for squeaky clean group dating, with no less than four teenage couples paired up aside from two sets of parents. The parents mix and match in a case of mistaken motives, and they turn the tables on Gidget. There are several scenes of singing and dancing (including a great mambo scene) alternating with jet-skiing, sailing, and surfing. Viewers will find it a real gas listening to cast members tiptoe around the gossip of Gidget having an "unexpected situation". It's sugar sweet, wholesome drive-in entertainment circa 1961. ** of 4 stars.
There's virtually no alone time until late in the film for Gidget and Moondoggie in a film that serves as a poster child for squeaky clean group dating, with no less than four teenage couples paired up aside from two sets of parents. The parents mix and match in a case of mistaken motives, and they turn the tables on Gidget. There are several scenes of singing and dancing (including a great mambo scene) alternating with jet-skiing, sailing, and surfing. Viewers will find it a real gas listening to cast members tiptoe around the gossip of Gidget having an "unexpected situation". It's sugar sweet, wholesome drive-in entertainment circa 1961. ** of 4 stars.