"It's Not the Same Down by the Sea/Since the Gidget came to Waikiki!" - Gidget Goes Hawaiian
For this week's Wednesdays with Gidget, we're going to Hawaii!
gif by me
Gidget Goes Hawaiian is a sequel to the smash-hit original, and it features a near-entirely new cast (Sandra Dee's popularity exploded in the late '50s and by the time the sequel was ready, she was contracted to make Tammy Tell Me True and couldn't be released to make this movie).
This Gidget is my least favourite, and that's not an outlier of an opinion: from what I've seen online, nobody particularly cared for this movie or this Gidget, but it does give us one treat: Hawaii!
This is the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, where a majority of filming took place for Gidget Goes Hawaiian.
Located in Honolulu, it's called the Pink Palace of the Pacific, nicknamed for the Portuguese architecture used in its creation. It's a luxury hotel that opened in 1927 and became one of the top hotels in America.
The story is this: Gidget's parents planned a romantic Hawaiian getaway, and were going to bring Gidget. Then she complained about having to be away from (grumble grumble) Moondoggie, and they relented. Then, Gidget told Moondoggie that she'd have to leave him and he was supportive of her going away, so she broke up with him (he's no peach either, to be clear). Then she changed her mind about going to Hawaii.
Her parents are very happy about this, can't you tell?
On the plane to Hawaii, Gidget's family meets the Stewart family. Gidget sat next to the daughter, Abby, and filled her in on all the woe in her life, and Abby thinks, because this Gidget doesn't stop to think about her words or how she comes across, that Gidget gave it up to Moondoggie and now she's heartbroken.
Also, the women's fashion in this movie is beyond compare. I want everything that every woman wears. These are Abby's parents, Mitzi and Monty. They're loud and brash New Yorkers who fall in with Gidget's parents immediately.
I love the floral print chaise behind Monty!
Here's the courtyard leading to the beach at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Oh, and there's a dancer, Eddie, and his friends also on vacation at the Royal Hawaiian. Abby's used to being the popular one, but she finds that everyone's moony-eyed over Gidget, and it's unfamiliar territory for her.
Look at that backdrop!
A perfect shot of the Royal Hawaiian in the background, framed with palm trees.
I love the oversized wicker chair trend. But Gidget looks pretty miserable, eh? She misses Moondoggie, for some reason...
...and her parents can't enjoy themselves while their daughter's so depressed.
So Gidget's dad heads down to the telegram station (if those existed today I'd never stop sending telegrams. How cool!) to get in touch with Moondoggie and invite him to Hawaii to cheer up Gidget. The twist? Her parents don't know that they're broken up.
And here's Gidget's single room (she waffled on whether or not to come, until she broke up with Moondoggie, and by the time she decided to come, her parents had cancelled the suite and needed to get her a separate room). It's accented in blue.
A view of the courtyard under the canopies...
...leading to the outdoor dining area.
Another perfect shot of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
I love Dorothy and Mitzi's dresses...
...but not as much as I love Abby's! She's roping in a few other girls to link up with Eddie and his friends, since Gidget's moping and won't come to dinner. Meet Dee Dee and Barbara Jo.
But alas, you can't keep a good Gidget down for long, so she shows up for dinner anyways!
And much to Abby's chagrin, draws Eddie's attention away entirely.
The next morning on the beach, Gidget's getting in those few minutes of what made the franchise so popular to begin with...
...while Abby watches jealously from the beach.
Her mother, impeccably dressed, by the way, encourages her to go hang out with the boys while Gidget's surfing, so she does.
Sick tricks, Gidge!
Anyways, the boys all decide to go out into the water as well. Something about showing off for Gidget? So Abby has to commiserate with Dee Dee and Barbara Jo.
Here's a plot twist: none of the girls can swim. They're not as cool as Gidget, I guess it's implied? But if you watch this movie through, you'll see that they have enough chic swimwear for three gals who don't swim!
The parents are lounging on the beach...
...when Moondoggie shows up, interrupting a kiss between Gidget and Eddie.
Gidget kind of blows him off, saying that she wishes he wouldn't kiss her unless she asks for it (good for you, Gidget!) and then runs off after Moondoggie.
Not to apologize or anything, but to demand an explanation as to why he's there ruining her vacation. He wants an explanation as well, and, as you can probably guess, neither's willing to explain anything, so the froideur continues.
I love that bathing suit, by the way.
Later that night, the gang's having a dinner of Hawaiian food...
...when Abby arrives fashionably late on the arm of a new beau named Jeff. Here's the twist: nobody, except for Gidget and her parents, know who Jeff really is, and nobody's talking.
So to make Gidget jealous, he openly flirts with Abby. And to make Moondoggie jealous, and Abby angry, Gidget flirts with Eddie.
It continues on to the next morning, when they're all out on a floating dock watching water skiiers.
More chic swimwear...
...more peppermint pettiness, which leads to Gidget deciding that water skiing is a good idea.
Guess how well it works out?
Yup. And, to further enrage Abby, all the guys fall over themselves trying to get to Gidget first (though Moondoggie's the eventual rescuer).
Then they all go sailing...
...and it's more of the same. Abby makes some kind of comment about not liking the water, or knowing how to swim, or something like that, and Gidget's pretty dang rude about it, brushing off a legitimate fear. She goes off to sulk...
...and Moondoggie follows her. He tries to tell her to be a grown up and face the situation, but it goes about as well as someone named Moondoggie could probably handle a mature conversation. So they fight some more.
While Abby, Dee Dee and Barbara Jo watch on. They still don't know that Jeff is Moondoggie, so Abby's salty that yet another handsome stranger prefers Gidget to her. She tells her friends that she'd like to sideline Gidget, and then thinks of something terrible.
Starting with her gossipy mother, she spreads the rumour that Gidget's not a virgin, that she slept with a guy back home and now she's sleeping with the guys in Hawaii. Oh, and don't tell anyone!
And so she didn't and the movie ended abruptly and they all lived happily ever after until Gidget Goes to Rome two years later. Just kidding! Mitzi calls up Gidget's mother straight away to share the story, and then Gidget's parents confront her about it.
It sparks all kinds of fights: between Mitzi and Dorothy; between Gidget and her parents; and between Gidget's parents. They all run off to separate corners to lick their wounds.
Russ winds up at the bar, commiserating with Mitzi, who had a fight with Monty over the gossip.
And then Dorothy and Monty wind up commiserating at the bar.
But not Abby! Abby's having the time of her life, now that all the attention's back on her. I love that dress.
After her impromptu hula dance, Abby and Jeff wander off for some peace and quiet, where she reveals the rumour she'd spread. She tells him the truth, too, that she'd made it all up and that Gidget only ever slept with one guy back home, some guy named Moondoggie.
Now knowing that he has to go find Gidget and help clear up this mess, Jeff departs, but not before introducing himself to Abby properly: his name is Moondoggie. The look on her face when she realizes it!
So Gidget and Moondoggie find each other on the beach and reconcile, then rush back to the hotel to sort it out with her parents. But the front desk clerk adds fuel to a fire by telling her that her parents and Abby's parents have swapped partners. So now Gidget assumes that everybody's cheating on everybody else, and tries to keep it from both parents, while both parents are trying to find their missing daughter.
I'll spare you: they get it all sorted out in the end and everybody realizes that nobody's cheating on anybody, and nobody's slept with half the guys in Hawaii.
And it's all's well that ends well...
Except for Abby, who gets tossed into the ocean and placed onto Gidget's surfboard as a punishment for spreading the rumour.
Again, Dorothy and Mitzi being the fashion mavens of the movie, watch on as Gidget and Abby surf the waves.
Suddenly they all can surf!
Atta girl, Gidge!
And that's THE END!
All screencaps from CTV Movies (you can watch all the Gidget movies for free on their platform!).
Ever since I watched this movie, I've wanted to go to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. I've been reading more fiction set in Hawaii, and have watched a few movies set there as well that have made me want to go, but Gidget Goes Hawaiian really sold me on it.
And what's funny is that I've had a connection to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for longer than I realized. I inherited my grandfather's postcard collection when he passed, and I put my favourite one on the fridge, because I saw it and decided I want to go there someday. I never really thought about it, or registered where it was when I read the back, but I looked at my fridge again the other day and realized:
And yes, that's a recipe for Katharine Hepburn's brownies on my fridge as well. Her brownies are one of my favourite desserts.
Did you like Gidget Goes Hawaiian? Let me know in the comments, and come back next week for Wednesdays with Gidget. This time, we're going to Rome!
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