Gidget Grows Up (1969)

Gidget Grows Up has been playing a number of times on the Cinevault channel on Roku over the past few months and I always happened to catch little bits of it but never had time to sit and watch it all the way through... until today, that is. 

Like many women, I grew up with the Gidget film series and have seen them all many times over. A lot of people say Sandra Dee is their favorite Gidget, no doubt because she was the first and defined the role, but I always liked Cindy Carol in Gidget Goes to Rome and Sally Field in the Gidget television series. Years ago, I read about a television movie being made with Karen Valentine in the role but never looked into it, so when Gidget Grows Up started playing on television, I had to check it out...and I am so glad that I did! 

Karen Valentine does an excellent job of playing Gidget in her various stages of maturing. She begins much like Sally Field, as an energetic headstrong girl and then blossoms - in the span of one hour and fifteen minutes - into a lovely young woman. As one might expect, Gidget has a breakup with her surf-hero Moondoggie again (played by Paul Peterson) and once more falls for an older man, but not the grizzled Kahuna from the first Gidget movie, instead it is the dapper Australian diplomat Alex McLaughlin (Edward Mulhare). For you see, Gidget has taken on the job of being a guide at the United Nations building in New York City so she is a long way from the beach now. 

Frances Lawrence aka Gidget is learning about love and relationships in a deeper way then what she experienced at the beach, and this makes the film more touching than any of the other Gidget pictures. Yet, it still has a light and playful air about it in keeping with the series. 

The film has a surprisingly good cast of seasoned actors for a made-for-television movie. These include Robert Cummings as Gidget's father, Paul Lynde as a movie-loving landlord, Nina Foch as her teacher at the UN, and Warner Anderson as an ambassador. In addition to the big name actors, you will enjoy spotting a number of bit-time actors who were busy in television in the late 1960s and 1970s. 

James Sheldon, a veteran TV director, did an excellent job of filming Gidget Grows Up and the musical montages are especially nice. The background music is performed by Jean King who sings "Growing Up" beautifully. You can hear it in this sequence. 

Gidget Grows Up is currently available to watch on DVD, via streaming with Tubi (along with all of the other Gidget films), or for free on Youtube. 

The Impossibly Difficult Name That Movie Game

It's a new year and that means a new round of Impossibly Difficult screenshots for you to identify! This one has a couple plotting something together but we won't tell you what that is.... all you have to do is name the movie it comes from and you can win yourself a prize. 

As always, if you are not familiar with the rules to the Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie game or the prize, click here!

GAME OVER. 

Congratulations to Damsbo for correctly identifying this scene from The Golden Blade starring Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie. In this scene, Gene Evans and Kathleen Hughes are plotting against the princess to take over the realm (of Ancient Baghdad, of course). 

Happy New Year!

"Happy New Year 1961!!".... wait a minute, that year passed a long time ago! It's 2025 that's approaching. And as 2024 comes to a close we want to wish all of our readers a very happy and blessed New Year! We have a lot of exciting things that we hope to do next year and hope you do, too. As Frank Sinatra put it, "We wish you the happiest, the happiest, yes, the Happiest New Year!"

Film Albums: The Happy Hits - Dick Schory and his Percussion Pops Orchestra

If you like sweeping, brassy, bold pop music, then you'll love the albums of Dick Schory and his Percussion Pops Orchestra. Mr. Schory's albums are relatively new to me but I like his style.... especially this album. It's a cross between the music of Enoch Light and the Light Brigade, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and Si Zentner's orchestra, but with a touch that's uniquely Schory-ish. 

This album - The Happy Hits - released in 1964 by RCA (LPM 2926) is not quite a film album but it includes a number of tracks that were from movies that were popular at the time: The Pink Panther, From Russia with Love, Wives and Lovers, and Love with the Proper Stranger. "Come Bach with Me" is probably the jazziest version of Bach's Fugue in D Minor that I have ever heard. Indeed, these are happy hits!

Click here to listen to the full album on Youtube. 

Track Listing

Java

If I Had a Hammer

Ebb Tide

Come Bach with Me

Wives and Lovers

The Pink Panther Theme

Hello, Dolly! 

From Russia with Love

People (from "Funny Girl")

Boinggg!

Love with the Proper Stranger

Don't Let the Rain Come Down

Top Picks: The Pink Panther, Come Bach to Me, Wives and Lovers, From Russia with Love, Love with the Proper Stranger

The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game

It's that time of year again..... yes, Christmas is just around the corner and so to help speed along the days till then, we've got a puzzle for you to solve. This one is rather easy and - if you watch this film around Christmastime - you'll recognize it in a snap. So get snapping! Leave your guess in the comment box below and you might have an extra Christmas present coming your way. 

As always, if you are not familiar with the rules to the Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game or the prize, click here!

GAME OVER. 

Congratulations to Chloe the Movie Critic for correctly identifying this scene from In the Good Old Summertime (1949, MGM) starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson. In this scene, Johnson's "lady friend" is playing Mr. Oberkugen's coveted Stratovarius for her recital. 

The Private War of Major Benson (1955)

Atten-shun!! Get ready to muster for some good family entertainment with The Private War of Major Benson, a little-known gem of a comedy from Universal Pictures. 

Charlton Heston stars as Major Benson, an overly strict army officer but one whose bark is worse than his bite. He opened his mouth once too often and ended up being booted from active service and assigned to command a military boarding school co-run by Catholic nuns. The "men" he needs to drill into soldiers range from age six to fifteen, one of whom has trouble keeping his pants up. 

"We've gotta turn these milkshake drinking school boys into whiskey drinking soldiers!"

If it isn't humiliating enough to be in this position, Major Benson gets pegged ten notches lower when the boys go over his head and sign a petition to have him ousted. Benson then does some soul searching to discover where he went wrong as a leader and, with the aid of Mother Redempta (Nana Bryant) and the lovely Ms. Lambert (Julie Adams), he tries to win back their approval. 

The Private War of Major Benson was one of many entertaining family comedies that Universal Pictures released in the 1950s. This came a year before Heston donned sandals and staff to portray Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. No matter how rough Heston pretended to be as Major Benson, he still comes out looking like a swell guy - a little chipped, but still lovable. 

At least, the school's doctor Ms. Lambert aka "Lammy" thinks so. The boys think otherwise, especially little "Tiger" played by the scene-stealing Tim Hovey. The other boys who consider Benson a fink include Tim Considine, Sal Mineo, Butch Jones and Gary Pagett. 

"This is our school's founder. He was canonized in 1857." - Mother Redempta [showing Benson a portrait of a priest] 
"Aw, gee... That's too bad." - Major Benson

Jerry Hopper does a great job of directing The Private War of Major Benson and keeps the fun going from start to finish. The script was penned by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher who later created "Leave it to Beaver" on television. Also in the cast is William Demarest as the school's handyman, Milburn Stone as Benson's commanding officer, and Don Haggerty. Major Benson doesn't have the makings of a four-star general, but he gets four stars for entertainment!

From the Archives: Come to the Stable (1949)

This photo from Come to the Stable (1949) shows Dorothy Patrick, Hugh Marlowe and Louis Jean Heydt in one of my favorite scenes. Dorothy is singing "Through a Long and Sleepless Night" which they all agree will be composer Hugh Marlowe's best song yet... until they hear the nuns from the convent across the lawn singing an old French melody that sounds just like the piece. The set design for Hugh Marlowe's house is marvelous - who wouldn't want that great big fireplace!

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures