A Summer Place (1959)

Brilliant and touching

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

An interesting treatise on how parents deal with their children's awakening to sex just before the Sexual Revolution.Made in 1959, this film is dated but of considerable interest as a period piece. It takes place at a time when children still thought they had to obey their parents and mothers still believed a girl left alone with a boy risked her reputation.The relationship between Molly and her father is unusual in that they try to talk openly about sex and relationships, a scenario that in countless other films would pair the young lady with a female. Sandra Dee does well as the sensitive Molly and Richard Egan excels as her father, though a couple times I was uncomfortable with the loose boundaries between them.This movie includes a strikingly harsh scenario in which Molly's mother, played coldly by Constance Ford, orders a persecutory gynecological exam. Given its preoccupation with "what the neighbors will say," this film presages some of the themes of "Splendor in the Grass," which came two years later."A Summer Place" is memorable for more than its famously haunting score.

The picture starts out with a bang. An explosion erupts when the ex-caretaker shows up with his wife 20 years later along with their daughter. It seems that he had a thing going with the wife of the proprietor of the place. Both marriages have headed southward, and at once there is love and lust between the children of the marriages.The movie totally disintegrates after the scandal is revealed. It then basically becomes a picture of the effects of divorce upon children and then their getting into the obvious trouble with the obvious feelings of all concerned. The ending is so contrived where all situations can easily be cleared up through love and commitment.As far as the acting goes, Sandra Dee is just awful as the teenage girl finding love with Troy Donohue. Dee is churlish and shows absolutely no maturity in the role. Donohue is all right, but his performance would have been enhanced by with a stronger actress other than Dee. Women such as Hope Lange, Diane Varsi or Susan Kohner would have been far better choices than Miss Dee.The real acting kudos for the film go to Arthur Kennedy, as Donohue's father, an ex-wealthy man who has turned to the bottle for solace. His wife, played with sweetness and conviction by Dorothy McGuire, looks like she is partly thinking back to her days in "Gentleman's Agreement," in earlier scenes of the film.There is an absolutely standout performance by Constance Ford as Egan's first wife. A hater of humanity, afraid of life, and a bitch at all cost, Ford, as Helen, etched an unforgettable character. You wonder where she got like that until you see her mother in one memorable scene. Too bad that after about a little over an hour in the film, she disappears. Her views towards sex and morality date back to the Dark and Middle Ages. What hurts the film is that when you think of it, Ford's prediction concerning Dee and Donohue was right on the mark. Ford, as Helen, embodied evil. Must evil triumph? Ultimately, at the film ends, we do have the Hollywood understanding theme stated.Beulah Bondi is the lovable aunt who is in the know and attempts to give good advice to the McGuire character.It just a shame that the film fizzles out after the love-nest is revealed.

Lifeguard turned millionaire Richard Egan (as Ken Jorgenson) returns to the beautiful coastal Maine town where he, twenty years earlier, taught soft-focused Dorothy McGuire (as Sylvia) how to swim. According to town gossip, the couple participated in some other, more prurient activities. For some reason, Mr. Egan left Ms. McGuire to hook up with frigid Constance Ford (as Helen), while McGuire married impotent alcoholic Arthur Kennedy (as Bart Hunter). Presently, the well-heeled Jorgenson family rents from the down-on-their-luck Hunter family. As their marriage partners are unsatisfying, Egan and McGuire are tempted by adultery...However, the real focus is on the couples' teenage children. The Jorgenson daughter is sexy teenage Sandra Dee (as Molly), who has discovered, "I bounce when I walk." This catches the attention of hunky Hunter son Troy Donahue (as Johnny). The bright blond youngsters discover the joy of sex has consequences. Written produced, and directed by Delmer Daves, "A Summer Place" features great color photography by Harry Stradling and a shimmering soundtrack by Max Steiner. In an arrangement by Percy Faith and His Orchestra, the theme song became one of the most successful instrumental records ever. The film made Mr. Donahue star.****** A Summer Place (10/22/59) Delmer Daves ~ Sandra Dee, Troy Donahue, Richard Egan, Dorothy McGuire

I have always stopped and listened to the music theme of this movie whether it be in an elevator, grocery store or radio.....I see a beautiful woman walking on a beach when I hear it....Just saw the movie last night for the first time. SWEET HAY-soos....what a morality tale!.....there was never an answer given as to what the right thing was to do for the 2 sets of lovers in this story....and that is as it should be.....no answers....no comfort.....when pheromones strike...when the groin takes the heart with it.....Strangely discomforting and sad movie....way ahead of it's time. Richard Egan and Arthur Kennedy did good work as the men, Richard Egan was surprisingly convincing as a real man with a romantic heart....a man well aware that humans must have been an evolutionary mistake...the loins of animals, and the high moral brains of whatever space aliens came down and decided to play pool with the DNA of Earth.Sandra Dee should have been Natalie Wood....nuff said......Dorothy McGuire is the 50s equivalent of heartbreaking beauty.....hell, I was in love with her by the end of the movie.....Troy Donahue did well...I'll always wonder if he was gay...but his acting chops were good in this film.The saddest thing about this movie is how serious unwed sex, adultery and illegitimate babies were taken in the 50s, and how accepted and laughably commonplace they are today. I mark the beginning of the end of the USA as the Woodstock music festival.