Former child model Dee had become a movie star as a teenager in the late 1950s, in such films as Gidget (1959) and A Summer Place (1959). She was one of the top ten moneymaking stars four years running, from 1960 through 1963. In 1960, her fan magazine popularity soared even higher when she met pop singer Bobby Darin during the production of Come September (1961), and married him after a whirlwind courtship. Their son, Dodd, was born a year later, and Dee's film's dwindled to about one a year.
By 1965, Dee was the last actress still under contract at Universal. A Man Could Get Killed (1966) was her last picture under her old contract. Under her new one, she would make two films a year for Universal, and she was free to make others elsewhere. Doctor, You've Got to be Kidding! was the first film under Dee's new, three-picture deal with MGM. Dee was pleased that she would sing and dance in the film, which she'd never done before. Her personal life, too, seemed to be happy, after some rocky patches. She and Darin had separated in 1963, but had reconciled. His nightclub career was booming, with electrifying performances in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York, and Dee and their son were ringside at all of them. Then, while she was in the middle of production on Doctor, You've Got to be Kidding!, Dee came home from the studio one night and found that Darin had moved out. A family friend called her and told her that her husband wanted a divorce.
Devastated, Dee carried on, but her emotional state affected her work. Soon after Darin left, she had to shoot a scene in which she slapped Bill Bixby, who played one of her suitors. Years later, she told her son that each time she tried to slap Bixby, her hand froze and she was unable to do so. "I was trying to keep my emotions under control, and it was almost impossible. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown." She told director Peter Tewksbury, "If I break down now, I'm not going to stop crying." She did the scene, and was so distraught that she walked off the set and went home. Later, she learned that she'd hit Bixby so hard that she'd given him a concussion. Dee and Darin were divorced in 1967.
By 1967, the fluffy films Dee had been known for had become passé, and Doctor, You've Got to be Kidding! was not a success. She made only a few more films, and an occasional television appearance. In 1991, Dee revealed in a magazine article that she had been sexually abused as a child, and suffered from anorexia and alcoholism. Sandra Dee died of kidney failure in February, 2005.
Director: Peter Tewksbury
Producer: Douglas Laurence
Screenplay: Phillip Shuke
Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp
Editor: Fredric Steinkamp
Art Direction: George W. Davis, Urie McCleary
Principal Cast: Sandra Dee (Heather Halloran), George Hamilton (Harlan Wycliff), Celeste Holm (Louise Halloran), Bill Bixby (Dick Bender), Dick Kallman (Pat Murad), Mort Sahl (Dan Ruskin), Dwayne Hickman (Hank), Allen Jenkins (Joe Bonney).
C-95m. Letterboxed.
by Margarita Landazuri
