Plot Summary for
Gidget (1959) More at IMDbPro »

Due to an accident while swimming in the sea, Francis meets the surfer Moondoggy. She's fascinated of his sport and starts to hang out with his clique. Although they make fun of her at first, they teach her to surf. Soon she's accepted and given the nickname "Gidget". But it's hard work to become more than a friend to Moondoggy. Written by Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

Whereas her friend's thoughts are now toward the opposite sex, seventeen year old southern Californian Francie Lawrence just wants to continue with the innocent, carefree and more tomboyish pursuits in which they've always partaken. While on a manhunt at the beach, Francie's friends are interested in the young men there, but Francie becomes more interested in what those men are doing: surfing. All the surfers treat Francie like one of the guys - albeit a smaller, less experienced one - and nickname her Gidget (short for girl midget). The surfers' unofficial leader is known as the Kahuna, a thirty-something man whose sole goal in life is to travel the world looking for the perfect waves. All the younger guys aspire to Kahuna's life. Despite their less than amicable start, Gidget is ultimately taken under the reluctant wing of one of those younger guys, nicknamed Moondoggie, who comes from a privileged background but who wants to live life on his own terms, just like the Kahuna. As she spends more time with them, Gidget realizes that she is beginning to have those womanly feelings, specifically for Moondoggie. Gidget has all summer to try and get Moondoggie to notice her as a woman. If he doesn't, perhaps Jeff Matthews will, he being the college aged son of a friend of Gidget's father, who has been trying to set up the two all summer. Written by Huggo

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