Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)

Starlets: Cindy Carol, Danielle de Metz, Noreen Corcoran, Trudi Ames, Lisa Gastoni plus their male counterparts James Darren, Joby Baker, Peter Brooks

Any Top 10 Sixties Starlet Movie Poll needs a Tammy or a Gidget on it. I chose Gidget Goes to Rome, the second sequel to the hit comedy Gidget (1959), because I found it more enjoyable than its predecessor Gidget Goes Hawaiian and those icky sweet Tammy movies with Sandra Dee. The main reason being is the lush Roman locales and star Cindy Carol, who makes a very charming, spunky Gidget.  I found her more appealing than the last portrayer, Deborah Walley, but Sandra Dee in the original cannot be beat. 

In Gidget Goes to Rome, the surfing sweetie leaves the sunny shores of Southern California for a vacation inItaly’sEternalCity. She and her two friends, pouty Lucy (Noreen Corcoran) and tomboyish Libby (Trudi Ames), meet up with Moondoggie (James Darren) and his two college buddies, wisecracking Judge (Joby Baker) and nerdy Clay (Peter Brooks). Their supposed chaperone is Baker’s rich absent-minded Aunt Albertina (Jessie Royce Landis), who hands them over to luscious Italian tour guide Daniela (Danielle de Metz). Of course typical romantic complications quickly ensue as Gidget falls for older, suave journalist Paolo Cellini (Cesar Danova) unaware that he is secretly chaperoning her as a favor to her father, while Jeff becomes infatuated with sweet Daniela.  Lots of admittedly silly things happen before the end of the film when Gidget and Moondoggie head home reunited. 

Viewers are treated to some spectacular shots ofRomeand of James Darren, who is just so handsome, even though he is ridiculously saddled with a sports jacket and tie almost the entire movie. He and Carol have good chemistry and the way they try to one-up each other in making the other jealous is amusing. Jessie Royce Landis has some funny moments (even when creepily hitting on our Moondoggie), while de Metz is just stunning as the tour guide who comes between the surfing sweeties. How she did not become an international movie star ala Ursula Andress or Claudia Cardinale, I will never know.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIl2KKZ9GDw&feature=related

The other great thing about Gidget Goes to Rome is Trudi Ames, a true Sixties starlet who disappeared from the limelight in 1968. Usually cast as the perpetual good friend of the prettier leading lady (Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie, Christina Ferrare in The Impossible Years, many TV sitcoms), Ames always proved she was good with a quip. And here she doesn’t disappoint. If anyone knows whatever happened to her, please let me know—another starlet that just vanished from theHollywood scene.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcEA6OUCojs

Trying something a bit different, I thought I share some almost casting choices for the 1967 camp classic Valley of the Dolls. Not surprisingly, since the book was a huge bestseller, it is the female roles that had everyone speculating who would play which part.

In the book Casting Might-Have-Beens, author Eila Mell claims the original choices for the pill-popping trio of fashion model Anne Wells, doomed starlet Jennifer North, and obnoxious singer Neely O’Hara were Natalie Wood, Jane Fonda, and Barbara Harris. None of their names came up for these roles in my research. She also says Petula Clark was offered Neely, but turned it down due to disinterest. Again her name too never turned up.

My personal choices are The Pleasure Seekers—Ann-Margret as Neely, Carol Lynley as Anne, and Pamela Tiffin as Jennifer. Since David Weisbart produced both movies, I am surprised former Fox contract players Lynley orTiffin’s names never came up as possible candidates. Before becoming an actress, Lynley was a super successful teenage model andTiffin, now a blonde goddess, had the appeal more than ever to play a sexpot.

June 26, 1966: HerbLyon reports that Bette Davis and Barbra Streisand are on tap to play the overbearing star Helen Lawson and Neely O’Hara, respectively.Davis campaigns mightily for the part, but Streisand quickly falls off the list of potential candidates.

August 27, 1966: Dorothy Manners writes that Debbie Reynolds, of all people, “gets hotter and hotter to play the pill-addicted singing star [Neely].” Quick, throw some cold water on this, now!

September 8, 1966: Bette Davis is reported to be still fighting hard to play Helen Lawson and thinks this part will give “her career a zesty push as did her role in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”

September 13, 1966: Debbie Reynolds tells the Chicago Tribune that she wants to shake her demure image and the role of Neely would help. She remarked, “I’m sure it would shake up a few people. I’ve been playing goody-goody roles for 18 years. It’s time for a change.” Thank goodness the producers told her to make her change somewhere else.

September 22, 1966: Washington Post reports that director Mark Robson “is angling for Raquel Welch in the role of the ill-fated Jennifer [whose luscious body on display in European nudies make her famous].”

October 10, 1966: Producer David Weisbart informs columnist Dorothy Manners that “we’re very interested in getting Candice Bergen for the role Anne Welles. All right, she’s a Grace Kelly-type.” Her screen persona is also an ice queen-type.

November 1, 1966: Jill St. John throws her hat into the ring and tells the Chicago Tribune, “Of course I would like the role of Jennifer in Valley of the Dolls. I think I can play the hell out of it…I’m at the point in my life where I can understand a girl like that. Don’t get me wrong though. The only kinds of pills I take are iron pills. They give me energy.” Too bad they couldn’t get her the part.

November 2, 1966: Columnist Alex Freeman reports that Tuesday Weld is “glowing” after being informed that she is “a dark-horse candidate for the role of Neely.” He also writes that Natalie Wood and Shirley MacLaine crave the role as well.

They all go home empty-handed. Weld would have probably turned it down anyway continuing her streak of rejecting hit movies (Lolita, Bonnie and Clyde, etc.). MacLaine was too long-in-the-tooth, while Wood was totally wrong for it.

November 29, 1966: The head honchos at 20th Century-Fox, the studio producing the movie, finally weigh in and are determined to sign Raquel Welch, Candice Bergen, and for the role of Neely, Ann-Margret.

January 16, 1967: Dorothy Manners reports that the role of Neely O’Hara has been surprisingly cast with Elizabeth Hartman (Oscar-nominee for A Patch of Blue in 1965) beating out some more famous names. She reportedly won over director Mark Robson, who was a big fan of her performance in You’re a Big Boy Now. For some reason, she doesn’t do the movie.

January 23, 1967: The New York Times and Los Angeles Times both report that Candice Bergen has officially agreed to play Anne Welles.

January 24, 1967: Alex Freeman reports that Lucille Ball, of all people, is determined to play Helen Lawson, but” wants it padded a little to make it an even more important part.”  He also writes that Lee Remick wanted one unnamed part but was offered another, which she turned down. I am guessing she wanted Neely, but was offered Anne.

February 17, 1967: When all is said and done, it is announced that Oscar-winner Patty Duke has been signed to play Neely (against her agent’s advice) and Barbara Parkins of TV’s Peyton Place has signed to play Anne after Candice Bergen has a change of heart and drops out. Dorothy Manners writes that Bergen, “took a walk…because she didn’t like the book to begin with [and] wants to make another picture inGreece.”

Bette Davis is still in the running to play Helen Lawson, but new contenders announced for the role are Joan Crawford and Betty Hutton.

March 1, 1967: According to the Chicago Tribune, it is a sure thing that Raquel Welch will sign to play Jennifer and Judy Garland seems to have a lock to play Helen Lawson.

March 4, 1967: Dorothy Manners reports that Judy Garland is all set as Helen Lawson and that Raquel Welch has bailed out of the movie without explanation. Perhaps the role of Jennifer who goes toEurope where she becomes a big film sex symbol hit too close to home for La Welch?

March 1967: With Raquel out, Fox next offers the role of Jennifer to contract player Jean Hale, who just made a splash opposite James Coburn in In Like Flint. To the studio’s chagrin, she turns it down due to the semi-nudity involved. She remarked in Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, “Fox was not happy with me.” So much so, they parted ways soon after.

March 1967: One starlet who wanted the role of Jennifer was Karen Jensen, a former Universal contract player now freelance. Recalling the audition, she says in Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, “When you go on interviews, sometimes you get the sense if they like you or don’t.  I really sensed that either producer David Weisbart or director Mark Robson—I can’t remember which—took a real liking to me and was pulling for me to get the part.  I went back a couple of times and I thought I had a real chance for it.”

March 17, 1967: The Los Angeles Times announces that Sharon Tate has won the role of Jennifer and is being loaned to Fox from Filmways. She will go on to win a Golden Globe nomination for Most Prosing Newcomer – Female for her touching performance.  No such accolades for Duke who gives one of the best bad performances of all-time or Parkins who just glides through the movie without much emotion. She however looks just fabulous in her mod high fashion model hairstyles and clothes.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpQqrgJWblI

April 29, 1967: Fox drops Judy Garland from the movie because a number of times the fragile actress failed to appear for work or would film in the morning and not come back after lunch. Susan Hayward takes her place and roars onto the big screen as tough-as-nails Helen Lawson.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfyhaXlKNts

Parrish (1961)

Starlets: Connie Stevens, Diane McBain, Sharon Hugueny, Troy Donahue (a male starlet if there ever was one)

After their success with A Summer Place (1959), star Troy Donahue reunited with director Delmer Daves for Parrish. The Golden Boy (who stepped in after reportedly Warren Beatty turned the part down) plays Parrish who reunites with his mother Claudette Colbert working as a governess for rich tobacco grower Dean Jagger inConnecticut’sTobaccoValley. They grow tobacco there? Who knew?

For me, Parrish is the most entertaining of Warner Bros.’ early Sixties romances (Susan Slade, Claudelle Inglish, Rome Adventure, etc.) that they released featuring their contract players. Donahue was one handsome man and never looked better though he seems so out of place in a tobacco field. He is paired with Warner Bros.’ top two starlets Connie Stevens and Diane McBain both going over-the-top with their melodramatic roles (though they are out hammed by Karl Malden) making Parrish a camp tour-de-force.

After arriving in Tobacco Road—oops, I mean Valley—Parrish immediately catches the eye of Conne Stevens as a slutty farm girl, who wears false eyelashes and makeup even while toiling in the steaming tobacco fields in the dog days of August. While Troy is attracted to her and they flirt during the day, she spends her nights with rich married Hampton Fancher, the son of ruthless tycoon Karl Malden, who marries Troy’s momma. After she gets knocked up, her popularity plummets, as Fancher deserts her and Troy only wants to be friends, leaving poor Connie to raise her baby alone. 

Starlet #2 is Diane McBain as Dean Jagger’s spoiled, willful daughter who dumps our teen dream when he refuses an offer to work for wealthy Malden.  McBain marries the rich man’s younger, weak-willed son and their dysfunctional, unhappy marriage causes her to drink and sleep around.  Realizing money can buy lots of Jack Daniels but can’t buy you happiness; she makes a desperate attempt to reunite with Troy who soundly rejects her

In Parrish blondes may have more fun and better acting roles, but a brunette winds up with our Golden Boy. She is Sharon Hugueny as Malden’s independent youngest child, who rebels against her father felonious ways by helping Troy with his tobacco crop that Jagger lets him harvest. She rounds up all her high school friends to pitch in. This infuriates Daddy Dearest, but wins her the love ofTroy.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww-GyKb4fsI

Diane McBain recalled making Parrish in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema. Below are some of her comments.

 “I like Parrish.  It was fun to do.  I played my first movie bad girl in this film and it typed me almost forever.  Troy Donahue was a star at that time and that’s what they wanted. Troy and I got along very well.  He’s a good guy.  Perhaps Connie Stevens and I should have been rivals but we were friendly.  We had known each other from when I was working at the Glenville Center Theatre when I was doing a play.  She was dating one of the actors I was working with.  She was pretty feisty and let the studio know when she was unhappy about things.  I was one of those folks who liked to go along.  I didn’t like to fight.  I just wanted to work.”

“They called [Delmer] Daves the director with the velvet whip.  He was very tender and soft, but he let you know how he felt in very uncertain terms

“I didn’t sleep a wink the night before the first day of shooting.  When it came time for me to say my lines I just froze.  I couldn’t remember any of the lines I learned.  In all honesty, I ruined the scene.  It was pure terror for me.  Claudette Colbert and the director got very upset with me.  I think she looked upon me with some sort of disdain.  I was very aware that she was not happy and she had every right to be unhappy.  I swore that I would never let that happen again.  And I haven’t.  It was the only time.” 

 

After my recent post about Come Fly with Me, a reader recently suggested that I offer my Top 10 Sixties movies to recommend. It got me thinking and decided to offer my personal list based on the 60s starlet quotient. The movies I selected are all extremely entertaining (some in a big, bad way) and feature a number of starlets. Since I already wrote about Come Fly with Me, I omitted it, but it is definitely Top Ten for me. I tried to cover all popular movie genres of the decade—beach, Elvis, biker, romance, etc. Below is my list in chronological order:

Where the Boys Are (1960)

Parrish (1961)

Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)

The Pleasure Seekers (1964)

Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) 4/14

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) 8/6

Village of the Giants (1965)

Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)

The Mini-Skirt Mob(1968)

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

And now why, beginning at the top.

Where the Boys Are (1960)

Starlets: Dolores Hart, Yvette Mimieux, Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, Barbara Nichols

Despite its uneven mixture of slapstick comedy and melodrama, and its heavy-handed moralizing about the evils of premarital sex, Where the Boys Are is so handsomely produced and charmingly acted by the above starlets that it can’t help but be entertaining.  Its popularity started a small wave of movies (i.e. Rome Adventure, Two Tickets to Paris, Gidget Goes to Rome, Palm Springs Weekend, Come Fly with Me, Follow the Boys, Ride the Wild Surf, The Pleasure Seekers, etc.) sending a gaggle of starlets on vacation to picturesque ports of call.

Where the Boys Are is not a frivolous comedy as one may suspect. It is probably one of the first movies to suggest that it is okay for young women to have sex before marriage. This was very outlandishly daring for 1960. However, to counteract this novel idea, Hart’s good girl Merritt doesn’t practice what she preaches, and the audience is hit over the head by Prentiss’ character, who is out to land a husband while holding on to her virginity.  The film is so dated that Prentiss’ Tuggle boasts that girls like her “are not built to be educated, but to become a walking-talking baby factor.”  It is lines like this that will even the most hardened male chauvinist pig rolling his eyes in disbelief.  Yvette Mimieux is the easy girl out to reel in an Ivy Leaguer using her feminine wiles, but of course she has to pay for her wanton ways.  Not only does she get raped, the poor thing gets hit by a car to boot.  Mimieux is just another popular starlet in a long line of late fifties/early sixties fair-haired good girls gone bad who had to suffer for going all the way.  For instance, unwed high school student Carol Lynley gets pregnant and is sent away in Blue Denim (1969), while Diane McBain meets a nasty end as a Southern tramp shot dead in her bedroom in Claudelle Inglish (1961).

Where the Boys Are captures the craziness ofFort Lauderdale wonderfully from the crowded beaches to the packed sidewalks and traffic-laden streets.  The on location photography elevates the film immensely.  However, the scenes with the principals on the sand were obviously filmed on the MGM back lot and none of the actors wade into the water on screen.  Some of writer George Wells’ hip dialog was square back in 1960, but a number of his lines do retain their humor especially when delivered by deft comic actors Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss.

The cast for the most part is first-rate and very attractive.  The fresh-faced Dolores Hart, with her big expressionistic blue eyes, makes a charming leading lady and is always one step ahead of George Hamilton, who makes a super suave though wooden seducer, Ryder Smith.  Paula Prentiss proves to be a delightful comedienne in the vein of Rosalind Russell or Eve Arden, and delivers some funny wisecracks as Tuggle though her determination to remain chaste wears thin.  She is matched every step of the way by the equally good Jim Hutton as her goofy love interest, who is “queer for hats.”  Connie Francis is too pretty to be cast as the “unattractive one,” but she is surprising humorous playing the role in a ditzy manner.  The only one who comes off maudlin is the beautiful Yvette Mimieux, but to be fair she is saddled with the weakest role of the doomed ingénue. 

All in all Where the Boys Are is extremely entertaining thanks to its cast of starlets. It is a good introduction to Sixties beach movies (coupled with the starlets on vacation theme) and what was yet to come.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRtaw7nZag8

To be continued…