8 Movies Starring Sandra Dee

The Reluctant Debutante

The Reluctant Debutante

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1959-03-09

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

94 min

Rated:

APPROVED

IMDB Ratings:

6.9 (840 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

William Douglas-Home (play)

William Douglas-Home (screenplay)

Julius J. Epstein

Fullplot:

Jimmy and Sheila Broadbent (Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall), welcome to London Jimmy's 17-year-old daughter, Jane (Sandra Dee). Jane is from Jimmy's first marriage to an American and has come to visit her father and the step-mother she has never met. While visiting Sheila has the idea of making Jane a debutante, an idea Jane resists. Difficulties range from Jane's apathy to being placed on the marriage block, the determined efforts of Sheila's cousin, Mabel Claremont, (Angela Lansbury) to win wealthy David Fenner (Peter Myers) for her debutante daughter Clarissa (Diane Clare), and Jane's attraction to David Parkson (John Saxon), an American drummer who plays in the orchestra at the coming-out balls.

Gidget

Gidget

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1959-04-10

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

95 min

IMDB Ratings:

6.7 (2172 Reviews)

Director:

Paul Wendkos

Genres:

Comedy

Cast:

Writer:

Gabrielle Upton (screenplay)

Frederick Kohner (novel)

Fullplot:

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.

Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1959-04-30

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

125 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

7.9 (10176 Reviews)

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Genres:

DramaRomance

Cast:

Writer:

Eleanore Griffin (screenplay)

Allan Scott (screenplay)

Fannie Hurst (novel)

Fullplot:

Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.

A Summer Place

A Summer Place

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1959-11-18

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

130 min

Rated:

APPROVED

IMDB Ratings:

(1976 Reviews)

Director:

Delmer Daves

Genres:

DramaRomance

Cast:

Writer:

Sloan Wilson (novel)

Delmer Daves

Fullplot:

The Hunter family has long owned a mansion on Pine Island, a summer resort located off the Maine coast. Bart Hunter's now deceased father was able to open the mansion for free when Bart was younger, but current owner Bart, a drunkard and weak man, must now live there year round for financial survival with his wife Sylvia and their late teen-aged son Johnny, the family who are barely able to eke out a living with the mansion now as a year-round inn which is in an extreme state of disrepair. Bart and Sylvia are in a quietly unhappy marriage due largely to Bart's drinking. The Buffalo-based Jorgensons - husband Ken Jorgenson, his wife Helen Jorgenson and their late teen-aged daughter Molly Jorgenson - have rented rooms at the inn for the summer, while Ken looks for a summer house on the island. Ken lived on the island twenty years ago, he actually a working class lifeguard for Bart's father at that time. Ken is now a self-made millionaire as a research scientist, who had never been back to the island until now. Ken and Helen too are in an unsatisfying marriage, Helen, a shrew and prude, who seems to hate and mistrust anything and everything, including her husband and daughter. Helen only seems concerned with public perception that their lives are perfect. Upon first meeting, Johnny and Molly fall in love. Meanwhile, Ken and Sylvia rekindle a romance from twenty years earlier, they uncertain if Bart knew at the time of their relationship, which did not last because of the differences in their social background. The two romances have a rocky road to potential happiness. Helen does not trust either Johnny or Molly to be morally proper. Ken and Sylvia know that their respective spouses will never consent to divorce, and if they do will do whatever they can so that they will never get to see their children again. And despite knowing that their respective parents are unhappy in their marriages, Johnny and Molly do not approve of a liaison between his mother and her father. Regardless, Ken and Sylvia want to provide their children with as much love and guidance as possible, including encouraging them to follow their hearts while not getting into trouble, a message which may not be heard if only because of Johnny and Molly believing that what they are doing is disgusting, and because of Johnny and Molly's own raging hormones.

Come September

Come September

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1961-08-09

Languages:

English, Italian

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

112 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.1 (2183 Reviews)

Director:

Robert Mulligan

Cast:

Writer:

Stanley Shapiro (screenplay)

Maurice Richlin (screenplay)

Stanley Roberts (story)

Robert Russell (story)

Fullplot:

Wealthy industrialist Robert Talbot arrives early for his annual vacation at his luxurious Italian villa to find three problems lying in wait for him. Firstly, his long-time girlfriend Lisa Fellini has given up waiting for him to pop the question and has decided to marry another man. Secondly, the major domo of his villa, Maurice Clavell, has turned the estate into a posh hotel to make some easy money while the boss isn't around. And, finally, the current guests of the "hotel" are a group of young American girls trying to fend off a gang of oversexed boys, led by Tony, who are 'laying siege' at the outer walls of the villa. Talbot, to his own surprise, finds himself becoming an overprotective chaperone.

Romanoff and Juliet

Romanoff and Juliet

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1961-06-08

Languages:

English, Russian

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

103 min

IMDB Ratings:

6.6 (274 Reviews)

Director:

Peter Ustinov

Genres:

Comedy

Fullplot:

In this "Romeo and Juliet" inspired Cold War satire starring, written and directed by Peter Ustinov, a tiny European country named Concordia holds the casting vote in a crucial United Nations vote. Its wily President attempts to play both ends against the middle by setting up the son of the Soviet ambassador with the daughter of the US ambassador.

If a Man Answers

If a Man Answers

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1962-10-10

Languages:

English, French

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

102 min

IMDB Ratings:

(722 Reviews)

Director:

Henry Levin

Genres:

Comedy

Cast:

Writer:

Richard Morris (screenplay)

Winifred Wolfe (novel)

Fullplot:

Rich socialite, Sandra Dee meets and marries photographer Bobby Darin and attempts to "train" him to be the perfect husband. Look for a very young Stephanie Powers as the devious friend .

Take Her, She's Mine

Take Her, She's Mine

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1963-11-13

Languages:

English, French

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

98 min

Rated:

APPROVED

IMDB Ratings:

6.4 (866 Reviews)

Director:

Henry Koster

Genres:

Comedy

Cast:

Writer:

Phoebe Ephron (play)

Henry Ephron (play)

Nunnally Johnson (screenplay)

Fullplot:

Frank Michaelson, well respected President of the Pacific Pallisades Board of Education, is appearing in front of a Board hearing addressing the issue of the widespread public outcry asking for either his dismissal or resignation because of a series of salacious front page newspaper stories, complete with photographs, on his recent goings-on. In addressing these unsubstantiated charges, Frank attributes all the incidents on his eldest daughter, Mollie Michaelson, now just shy of her twentieth birthday, no longer being the sweet child he had always pictured her as, but now rather a desirable young woman. Frank and his wife Anne first noticed Mollie blossoming into such when she went away to college, first to Hawthorne, a girls' college in New England, and then to a prestigious art school in Paris. In Frank noticing Mollie becoming a desirable woman and her leaving home happening at the same time, Frank admits that he had troubles letting go of Mollie and thus he did whatever he felt he needed to to protect her, even if she didn't really want or need that help. His problems were compounded by his encounters with a slightly off kilter Englishman he met in Paris, and many, including some paparazzi, believing that he is American actor James Stewart.

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