It Happens Every Spring (1949)

Yes, it happens every spring - baseball fever. And it hits us sports fans hard. For Professor Vernon Simpson, he becomes a different person altogether when baseball season starts. As the dean of the college where he works says, "Every spring he seems to undergo a peculiar change, he becomes absent minded to a degree. It's like spring fever - only it lasts all summer."

20th-Century-Fox released a number of comedies in the late 1940s-early 1950s, many of which featured plots involving some kind of fantasy element. It Happens Every Spring (1949) is all about a chemistry experiment gone wrong. 

Vernon Simpson (Ray Milland), a college chemistry professor, is working on a formula that repels insects from wood when a baseball crashes through the window and knocks over his experiment. The ingredients to his formula get all messed up and eureka! a new discovery is made. The baseball sitting in the fluid acts like a magnetic repulsion to any object of wood that it gets in contact with - including wooden baseball bats! Being the clever professor he is, he requests a sudden leave of absence from the college, takes his invention to the big league, and offers himself as a pro pitcher who can strike out any hitter. He gives his name as Kelly and hopes to stay anonymous, but naturally that doesn't happen when "King" Kelly becomes a pitching sensation. 

Why is he attempting all of this? Well, back in the day, college professors were underpaid and Vernon wants to marry his girl Debby (Jean Peters).... one season of baseball would set them up for years. The only trouble is, Kelly's roommate Monk Lanigan (Paul Douglas) keeps using Kelly's "hair tonic" (his formula) and when their St. Louis team head to the World Series, Kelly finds he has no more of his magic potion left and attempts to pitch a clean game himself. 

It Happens Every Spring is one of those laid-back kind of comedies that is entertaining to watch no matter how many times you've seen it. Ray Milland does a great job in the role of Vernon, even though he seems a bit old for the part (the other characters refer to him as a "young man" and "kid"). Also in the cast is Ray Collins as Debby's father and the dean of the college; Jessie Royce Landis as her mother, and a young Alan Hale Jr. Oddly enough, the film would have worked equally well even if the entire cast was changed. One can imagine Charles Coburn taking the role of Ray Collins, William Bendix playing Paul Douglas' part, Jean Hagen in Jean Peters place, and Robert Cummings or Danny Kaye as King Kelly and it would still be fun. 

Vernon is actually a cheat for using the fluid to win the ballgames but, refreshingly, this isn't addressed in the film and even to the end, he calmly lets everyone think he was the greatest pitcher of the season. 

Lloyd Bacon, a veteran Hollywood director of dramas, did a great job filming this comedy. It Happens Every Spring premiered on May 26th in St. Louis and then opened in theaters across the country on Memorial Day weekend and reaped a comely profit for Fox studios. They followed it up with films like Father was a Fullback, Everybody Does It, and Monkey Business. Walt Disney Studios would later adapt experiments-gone-wrong plots similar to this in such classics as The Absent-Minded Professor and Now You See Him, Now You Don't. 

Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)

"Gidget Goes to Rome....and it was never like home!"

After riding the waves in Malibu and basking in the Hawaiian sun, our favorite Southern California beach girl, Gidget, traded in her surfboard for a passport and embarked on her most exciting journey yet—a trip to Rome!  In Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), Francesca "Gidget" Lawrence (now played by Cindy Carol) explores the Eternal City with her ever-doting boyfriend Moondoggie (James Darren) and the "gang" from back home. 

Rome proves to be the perfect playground for Gidget's romantic and cultural escapades. She gets to marvel at the Colosseum, daydream in the Roman Forum, toss coins into the Trevi Fountain, and also find time to go over the deep end for a sophisticated Italian magazine writer, Paolo (Cesare Danova), who claims to be writing an article about an American girl's impressions of Rome. He is really keeping an eye on her as a favor to her father, an old war buddy, but poor Gidge doesn't realize this. 

Jeff aka "Moondoggie" takes Gidget's romantic fling in stride because he has fallen in love himself - with Daniela (Danielle DeMetz), the group's curvaceous tour guide.  

"Everyone falls in love in Rome, Jeff. It is our national pastime - like your baseball."

While Gidget and Moondoggie adjust to their new pairings, she also gets involved in a series of comedic mishaps, all set against the stunning backdrop of a postcard-perfect Italy. The film captures a breezy, early-1960s ideal of international travel—where every piazza is picturesque and romance is always just around the corner. This was a dream trip that every college student at the time wanted to take. 

Gidget Goes to Rome plays like a Technicolor travelogue, making full use of its on-location shooting in Italy. Director Paul Wendkos, who helmed all three Gidget films, gives audiences a delightful tour of Rome’s most iconic landmarks, from the Spanish Steps to St. Peter’s Basilica.

The sights aren't the only dazzling part of the film—the wardrobe is just as eye-catching. The girls get to wear gorgeous Fontana fashions, and a highlight of the film is the elegant fashion show sequence at the legendary Fontana studio where Gidget accidentally stumbles onto the runway. 

Cindy Carol, who steps into the shoes of Sandra Dee and Deborah Walley, plays Gidget with a sprightly flair all her own. Gidget Goes to Rome was the first Gidget film that I watched as a young girl and the movie - as well as Cindy Carol's performance in it - still remain my favorite in the series. Who can resist the catchy title song by James Darren, too? 

Joby Baker returns as Jeff's pal Judge, while Peter Brooks, Noreen Corcoran, and Trudi Ames round out the cast as Gidget's travelling companions. Of course, no Gidget movie would be complete without parental intervention, and this time it’s in the form of the not-so-watchful chaperone Aunt Albertina played by the wig-swapping Jessie Royce Landis.

Gidget Goes to Rome is a typical light-hearted romance adventure that was perfectly in step with the beach-party films and globetrotting romances of the era. It’s a breezy farewell to the Gidget film series and well worth a watch. Just don’t expect too many waves—this time, the only surfing Gidget does is through the winding streets of Rome.