Gidget Goes to Rome

Infobox Film
name = Gidget Goes to Rome


image_size =
caption = VHS cover
director = Paul Wendkos
producer =
writer = Screen Story and Screenplay:
Ruth Brooks Flippen
Screenplay:
Katherine Eunson
Dale Eunson
narrator =
starring = Cindy Carol
James Darren
music = John Williams
cinematography = Enzo Barboni
Robert J. Browner
editing = William A. Lyon
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|USA 7 August 1963
runtime = 104 min.
country = United States
language = English
budget =
preceded_by ="Gidget Goes Hawaiian" (Film, 1961)
followed_by = "Gidget" (Sitcom, 1965)
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0057100

"Gidget Goes to Rome" (1963) is a Columbia Pictures feature film starring Cindy Carol as the archetypal high school teen surfer girl originally created by Sandra Dee in the 1959 film "Gidget". The film is the third of three Gidget films directed by Paul Wendkos and expands upon Gidget's romance with boyfriend Moondoggie. The screenplay was written by Ruth Brooks Flippen based on characters created by Frederick Kohner. Veterans of previous Gidget films making appearances include James Darren as "Moondoggie", Michael Callan, Joby Baker, and Jean "Jeff" Donnell as Gidget's mom, Mrs. Lawrence. The film has been released to VHS and DVD.

Cast

* Cindy Carol as Gidget (Frances Lawrence)
* Don Porter as Russell Lawrence, her father
* Jean "Jeff" Donnell as Mrs. Lawrence, her mother
* James Darren as Moondoggie (Jeffrey Matthews)
* Jessie Royce Landis as Albertina Blythe
* Cesare Danova as Paolo Cellini
* Danielle De Metz as Daniela
* Joby Baker as Judge
* Trudi Ames as Libby Bennet
* Noreen Corcoran as Lucy McDougall
* Peter Brooks as Clay Anderson
* Lisa Gastoni as Senora Cellini
* Claudio Gora as Alberto

Plot

Production notes

The film's score was composed by John Williams, later to compose the scores for "Jaws" and "Star Wars".

The film was shot on location in Rome, Italy, with some scenes filmed on Italian beaches.

Reception

Bosley Crowther noted in the "New York Times" of 12 September 1963, "When Gidget, played with the proper pout and correct ingenuousness by Cindy Caroll, arrives in Rome with her group of happy friends, she is bound to fall in love with a married and handsome Italian magazine writer, enjoy such exotic delicacies as fettucini and chicken cacciatore, and experience the thrill of attending a "Dolce Vita" cocktail party. As one of Gidget's friends explains, it's part of her "growing up." Gidget falls out of love in time...and all ends happily. Jeff sums up the entire experience in two immortal sentences: "I guess everybody falls in love in Rome in the summer time. It's that old devil Italian moon."" [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9802EEDC173EE03BBC4A52DFBF668388679EDE "New York Times" Review] . Retrieved 25 September 2008.]

References