Gidget (1959) (Limited Edition to 3,000)

[AdamWestFan]

For Gidget fans there's also now a 2023 Gidget collection from Australia:



Gidget Film Collection Blu-ray Amazon.US import link


From Twilight Time, and limited to 3000 copies, the 1959 classic Gidget.



Gidget Blu-ray





Special Features: Isolated Music Track / Original Theatrical Trailer

Pre-order date: Wednesday, November 1st at 4 pm EST

Where to buy (or pre-order):
Twilight Time website: https://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
Screen Archives Entertainment: http://www.screenarchives.com


To be released on November 14th, 2017

Day one for me!

[Jobla]

I expect that TT will finally do justice to this film. All previous home video transfers of it have been full-frame, although the film was shot in CinemaScope. Even an airing on TCM just last week reverted to full-frame. After so many years of disrespect, I look forward to TT restoring it to its widescreen glory.

[Brad1963]

I believe Sony did a 4k remaster on it. So it should look fantastic.

[albabe]

I just heard about this! Fantastic! I love this movie.

Too bad they didn't remaster all of them. "I'd buy that for a dollar!!!"

[Krypton_Son]

I'm actually looking forward to this.

[Hintermann]

Day one order for me too. I've left a reminder.

I am an unashamed fan of late 50s to mid-60s fluff like Gidget, Where the Boys Are, Palm Springs Weekend etc. All, very sexist, politically incorrect......but who cares?

[50sscifi]

Why isn't there a way to pre- pre-order

[oildude]

Pre-order date: Wednesday, November 1st at 4 pm EST

Where to buy (or pre-order):

• Twilight Time website: http://www.twilighttimemovies.com

• Screen Archives Entertainment: http://www.screenarchives.com

Special Features: Isolated Music Track / Original Theatrical Trailer

[kidglov3s]

At this point "not cropped" should be listed as a special feature.

[javi92]

Looks like another TT title I'll have to buy.

[Jobla]

I was hoping that TT would get an interview with "Moondoggie" (James Darren), since he appeared in the documentary about the real-life Gidget a few years ago.

Assuming that the BD will be in CinemaScope, this is one of my most-anticipated releases of the year.

[Jobla]

A post on the HTF confirms what we've hoped for: the upcoming BD release of GIDGET is a new 4K restoration scan, in the original CinemaScope aspect ratio. This one has been a long time coming!

Preorders begin on November 1st.

[Jobla]

Up for preorder as of today at both SAE and Twilight Time!

[GregBlu5]

Bought GIGET, SAYONARA, BANANAS. Whew.

[anthonyls]

TT should have included the SNL skit with Carrie Fisher from season 4 (1978) when they made fun of bad teenage beach movies from the 50s. Carrie plays a Gidget like character but from another planet. Very funny stuff. There's a very funny part of the skit where Carrie asks the other teenagers at the beach what Earth-like teenagers are like in the 1950s, and Rita Radner (who plays an Annette Funicello type character) tells her that they are just like other teenagers from around the galaxy... except they don't curse, drink, smoke, use drugs, or have sex... yet... at least not for another 10 years.

[50sscifi]

Woo Hoo!! I received my TT Gidget Blu-ray yesterday and just finished watching it again for the -- 20th 40th who knows -- time.

This movie was released in 1959 and I came along in 1960 so I've literally grown up watching it for 50ish years now. I also have the 3 movie DVD box set and the Sally Fields complete TV show DVD box set. That's dedication.

From a picture and sound quality point of view all I can say is that it looks amazing on my system. But I don't have a high end setup so your experience may differ.

Anyone reading this has probably already seen the movie but I wrote a quick basic review anyway so SPOILERS:

Gidget is a coming of age tale, what with Gidget "pushing 17" as her girlfriend describes her, and Sandra Dee really being 17 when it was released.

Gidget is never exactly part of the surfer crowd she wants so badly to be a part of, regardless of all her crazy efforts, mainly because they're all older than her.

However, its very clear early on that regardless of her age, Sandra Dee was already a real beauty, and soon after became what many men, myself included, would consider gorgeous. Most of the surfer guys were definitely eying her in more than a friendly way, especially in all of her beach scenes. Shame on them.

Overall it’s a fun movie with plenty of sun and surf, cute girls, music, plus its a nice snapshot of a much simpler age. BUT, there's also a bit of a serious side to the happenings, its not all laughs, so be prepared for some drama.

I love this movie and definitely recommend it, and who knows, maybe someone else will release the other 2 movies on Blu-ray eventually.

[AdamWestFan]

Originally Posted by 50sscifi

Woo Hoo!! I received my TT Gidget Blu-ray yesterday and just finished watching it again for the -- 20th 40th who knows -- time.

I love this movie and definitely recommend it, and who knows, maybe someone else will release the other 2 movies on Blu-ray eventually.

Did you also notice some weird blur when Gidget is talking to her father about money for her board?

[50sscifi]

Originally Posted by AdamWestFan

Did you also notice some weird blur when Gidget is talking to her father about money for her board?

Hmm, heh heh, well I was so happy watching this for the first time on Blu that I could easily have missed something like this in just one scene so I went back and watched it again.

Actually I watched twice more, starting with the parents talking before she comes home and then all the way through until she heads back to the beach with the money.

Sorry but I saw no blurring, even after moving closer to the screen.

Strange to have it in only one short scene like that, I have no clue what that could be.

[The Great Owl]

Sandra Dee stars as Francie, a straight-A high school student who, on the eve of her 17th birthday, does not share her friends' fascination with hunting for boys at the local beach and who yearns for more carefree times. When she encounters a group of older male surfers and decides to become a surfer herself, she is initially ignored by the men. Her hardheaded tomboy determination and chatty demeanor soon break down the group's defenses, though, and they take her in under their wing, giving her the nickname, “Gidget.”

James Darren (The Guns of Navarone) plays Moondoggie, a college student-turned-surfer who stands out in the crowd and who becomes the object of infatuation for Gidget, although he does not even seem to know that she exists. Cliff Robertson, whom I'll always associate with his role as Uncle Ben in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, plays the Big Kahuna, a self-described “surf bum” who only lives for the call of the ocean and the waves. The always-amazing character actor, Arthur O'Connell (Fantastic Voyage, Anatomy of a Murder) plays Gidget's doting father, while the beautiful Mary LaRoche (Run Silent, Run Deep) plays her understanding mother.

Gidget is one of those films that I've always heard about through pop culture osmosis, and it's generally recognized as the precursor of the fun-loving and endearingly quaint Frankie Avalon beach party movies of the 1960s. As I watched this movie for the first time tonight, however, I realized that there's a lot more at play here than fun in the sun, and that the story takes some rather serious and adult-oriented turns during its final half. In this coming-of-age tale, surfing is basically a metaphor for romance, and, as the title character becomes adept at the former, she also learns a thing or two about the possible pitfalls of the latter. Gidget retains its good-natured family-friendly vibe, despite an uncomfortable interaction toward the end, but I get the impression that it was an early harbinger of more heady teen films that would later emerge during the era of 1960s loss of innocence. All of the plot elements are resolved and tied rather quickly with a neat bow by today's standards, but that is to be expected for a 1959 teen comedy/drama. It's easy to imagine why this film became so popular upon its release, and why Sandra Dee became a sensation with teenage moviegoers decades ago.

Robertson's Kahuna character is rather fascinating, and, in a sense, he comes across as an early incarnation of Patrick Swayze's “Zen surfer” Bodhi in the 1991 film, Point Break. His desire to live a life of unchained freedom was certainly a trait that would be emulated a few years later in counterculture circles.

Gidget is a great-looking film in the way that all of the CinemaScope movies of the 1950s were, and the music is pleasing in that harmonic old-school beach party way.

This Twilight Time Blu-ray is a top notch presentation with regard to its picture quality and its audio. There are no special features, sadly, aside from an isolated score and the always-informative booklet.

[Jobla]

I wish that the disc included the 2011 documentary ACCIDENTAL ICON, which features interviews with Cliff Robertson, James Darren, and director Paul Wendkos. Some other interviewees are Gregory Harrison (who played the aging surfing guru in 1987's NORTH SHORE), and TV's Gidget, Sally Field. It's a portrait of the real-life surfer girl who inspired the GIDGET book, as well as the films and TV episodes.