Paul Wendkos

Gunslinger Chris Adams is hired by a Mexican revolutionary to organize the rescue of his cause's leader from a brutal Army prison. With six of the original Seven decimated after the life-altering events in The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Return of the Seven (1966), the team's sole survivor, Chris Adams, is recruited to free the incarcerated Mexican revolutionary, Quintero. As the rebels do battle with the ruthless dictator, Diaz, and his pitiless right-hand man, Colonel Diego, legendary Chris enlists the help of a lethal sextet of professional gunfighters to rescue the brave leader of the Revolution. Now, once more, Chris' men are called in to save the day. Can the outnumbered Magnificent Seven pull off a glorious victory? —Nick Riganas

Frances Lawrence (Sandra Dee) is a socially awkward, 16-year-old girl about to turn 17 and is on her summer break between her junior and senior years of high school. She resists the pressure to go "man-hunting" with her girlfriends and laments the days when the girls had fun together without boys. Frances also rejects her parents wishing to fix her up on a date with the son of a friend of the family, Jeffrey Matthews. On a jaunt to the beach with her bikini-clad girlfriends, flat-chested tomboy Frances meets surfer Moondoggie (James Darren). She quickly becomes infatuated with him, but he shows no romantic interest; however, Frances is more attracted to surfing than man-hunting. At home, Francie importunes her parents for $25 for a used surfboard. Russ and Dorothy Lawrence (Arthur O'Connell and Mary LaRoche) grant their daughter's request as an early birthday present and the excited youngster returns to the beach to surf. The gang dubs their female associate "Gidget," a portmanteau word based on 'girl' and 'midget.' She associates with an all-male surfer gang led by the worldly beach bum, The Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson). Kahuna, (who's real name is Burt Vail) is a Korean War Air Force veteran twice the age of Frances who was fed up with all the rules he had to live by when he flew combat missions and has dropped out of normal society. He travels the hemisphere surfing with his pet myna bird. Moondoggie admires Kahuna and wants to emulate him by joining Kahuna in working his way on a freighter to go surfing in Peru at summer's end instead of going off to college as his self-made father planned. Over the next few weeks, Kahuna and Gidget enjoy each other's company with Gidget questioning how he can survive an aimless and lonely existence without a job. She questions whether if Kahuna knew then what he knew now would he still make the same lifestyle choice after leaving the Air Force. Kahuna later reflects on Gidget's words after the death of his only friend, the pet bird. Hoping to make Moondoggie jealous, Gidget hires one of the other surfers in the gang to be her date to a luau party on the beach. Her plan backfires when the surfer she hired pawns the job off on none other than Moondoggie, unaware that he was the one Gidget wanted to make jealous. Gidget lies and tells Moondoggie that it is Kahuna that she wants to make jealous, and they have a romantic evening at the luau. Eventually convinced Moondoggie still doesn't consider her as a love interest. So at midnight, she flees the luau, she runs into Kahuna and agrees to take him to a nearby beach house. Alone with Kahuna, Gidget tries to make Kahuna take her virginity. Amused, Kahuna attempts to call Gidget's bluff by pretending to take her up on her offer but finds himself falling under her spell. Realizing what he was about to do and angry at the situation he's been put in, Kahuna throws her out of the beach house just as Moondoggie arrives. Gidget is mortified and escapes out the back door of the beach house as Moondoggie confronts Kahuna. The cops are called to break up the fistfight between Kahuna and Moondoggie and, after leaving the beach house, the police find Gidget stranded with a flat tire and without her driver's license. They bring her in to the police station. Gidget's father, having heard about the incident, decides to take over control of her social life, and orders her not to see the surfer gang again. She falls into a depression, to which mother shows her a tapestry from her grandmother reading "A Real Woman brings out the best in a Man." In the end, Mr. Lawrence arranges a blind date for Gidget with Jeffrey Matthews, the college-age son of a family friend, and Frances grudgingly accepts. To her surprise, Matthews turns out to be none other than Moondoggie. The two return to the beach to find Kahuna tearing down his beach shack and learns out that he's taken a job as an airline pilot. Moondoggie and Gidget realize how they feel about each other and, as an act of romantic devotion, Moondoggie asks Gidget to wear his class pin while he is away at college. Kahuna cheerfully warns Moondoggie that Gidget is quite a woman. Kahuna then goes off to his new career, while Gidget and Moondoggie walk off down the beach together.

Dan Duryea and his cronies rob a fake spiritualist and then take it on the lam to Atlantic City. Nat, Gladden, Baylock and Dohmer comprise a disparate band of Philadelphia-based thieves, who, despite their differences, are able to pull off their latest heist of a bejeweled necklace which Baylock, the jewelry specialist, appraises at $150,000 retail. The heist itself was not without its problems, they having a couple of close calls in the process. The heist only exacerbates the issues between the four. Baylock has always had problems with Gladden who he sees as adding nothing to their gang, while brutish Dohmer always seem solely to want to manhandle her. While Nat realizes that they have to hold on to the necklace until things cool down in it being too hot, Baylock, on parole, wants to get rid of it as soon as possible to reduce their risk. While most realize they will ultimately only be able to get a fraction of the retail amount, Dohmer wants to push for as close to retail as possible. Through it all, Nat, the leader, seems to have a protective nature toward Gladden - the reason he comes to her defense against Baylock and Dohmer - even though the others can see that he isn't interested in her in a romantic sense. Nat, in turn, is unaware that Gladden is indeed in love with him. While the four lay low together with Baylock and Dohmer in particular going stir crazy, Nat is able to convince Gladden to hide out in the open somewhere else - the choice being Atlantic City - to protect her against those stir crazy feelings of the other two. When Nat eventually discovers that Gladden is in danger from someone who believes she may be in possession of the necklace, the reason her pursuer believes she was sent away, Nat, who is still the holder of the jewels, feels obligated to protect her at all cost. —Huggo