A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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.

To me there were 2 problems here, the first being Troy Donahue's age. The "kids" had to be under 18 (since they couldn't get married), but Donahue was already 23...and looked it. Sandra Dee was 17...and looked it, so that worked alright. The other problem was some silly/stodgy dialogue at some places in the script. I'll credit that to Delmer Daves, the director, who was not experienced in directing this type of film.Beyond those two issues, it's a pretty decent film, although you do have to get past the dated nature of sexual mores in 1959. But that's okay.In a sense it's sort of a take-off on "Romeo & Juliet"...basically the story of forbidden love, teen pregnancy, and feuding parents. Of course, I was just 10 when this film was made, and I can remember the girl across the street who would sit in her boyfriend's car in the driveway and neck and pet. What a scandal that was! So the attitudes shown here are not far off track for the time.Richard Egan is fairly good as Dee's father. He's not the most dynamic actor, but he gets the job done. It's a treat seeing Dorothy McGuire as Troy Donahue's mother. What a wonderful actress she was; I only wish she had had more screen time in this film. Sandra Dee was about right as the female part of the young lovers. The best performance here -- particularly in a later scene -- is by Arthur Kennedy, who plays the alcoholic father of Donahue. I never cared that much for Kennedy, but over his career he turned in a number of fine performances, albeit usually as fairly unlikable characters. Troy Donahue is satisfactory here. He was a great actor, but he usually filled the bill as a "hunk" and could deliver lines -- again -- satisfactorily. Constance Ford...what a witch! And I cleaned that up! And finally, one of the great character actresses of Hollywood history is here -- Beulah Bondi. She gets far too little screen time, but has one good soliloquy when she is reminding Dorothy McGuire of reality. What a gem she was.Is this a great film? No. Is it dated? Yes. Is it entertaining? Quite. A little soapy, and not the class of some Ross Hunter productions, but I think if you like romance classics, this might do nicely.

When I first saw this film back in the day, I thought it was a proper movie - it seemed bigger, bolder and more beautiful than real life; and it had tidier outcomes.Set in on island off the coast of Maine, Molly Jorgenson (Sandra Dee), the daughter of Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan), falls for Johnny Hunter (Troy Donahue), the son of Sylvia Hunter (Dorothy Maguire), reflecting the teenage love affair their parents had before marrying different people.As feelings between Molly and Johnny grow, Ken and Sylvia rekindle their romance. But the path to true love is rockier than the rugged coast of the island. Social position, the disillusionment of the children over their parent's affair and pressure from all directions leads to confrontation and rash decisions.Director Delmer Daves was never considered in the same league as Huston, Ford or Wyler, but he made some movies I like - "Demetrius and The Gladiators" is still high on my list of guilty pleasures. Here, he entered Douglas Sirk territory and came up with a movie that gives "Imitation of Life" a run for its money.Seeing it recently, I was surprised at the grittiness of the script. When Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy) asks Helen Jorgenson (Constance Ford) if she likes to swim in the nude, you know this film must have tested the old Hollywood Production Code. Sex is high on the agenda, much of it centred on whether Molly and Johnny are doing it.The cast is full of beautiful people in a beautiful landscape. Everyone seems right. Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue are a blonde Romeo and Juliet, and experience a range of emotions that may have even blunted the Bard's quill.Dorothy McGuire and Richard Egan are the embodiment of grown-ups.Dorothy McGuire often played mothers where she had to deal with teenage angst, and the angst is off the Richter scale in this movie. Richard Egan was a powerful screen presence. One of his best scenes is in "A Summer Place" when his character tries to reconcile with his daughter.Max Steiner gave the film a memorable score. The theme he came up with was played to death over the years, but it was a fresh surprise when it first appeared - it still sounds great.All the principals are long gone now. The film represented personal and social attitudes that were changing fast in the late 50's. It's a movie of its time and place, but its heartfelt performances and sheer quality still reach out and grab you.

I saw A Summer Place for the first time very recently, and one thing that really struck me was just how gutsy Constance Ford's portrayal of Helen Jorgenson was. Not many actors can pull off a character who has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Most actors would pressure the director and writer into giving their characters at least a small bit of sympathy, but Ford was excellent at playing someone thoroughly bad. I'm sure she got static for her portrayal when she visited the supermarket or whatever in her daily life.I'm not kidding, Bruno Ganz' portrayal of Adolf Hitler in Der Untergang/Downfall was more sympathetic and likable than Constance's portrayal of Helen.

While the "A Summer Place" theme has become a legendary piece of music in the history of movie themes, it is the opening Max Steiner music which I recall, so lush and powerful that it immediately sets up the mood for the drama which is about to unfold. The movie itself is far from perfect, but there are so many elements of it that make it spectacular, whether it being the lush Maine photography, the gorgeous score or the star-crossed lovers of two generations who must face the toughest of obstacles in their determination to find happiness. The first half of the film is devoted to the scandal which surrounds the affair of two married people: sweet Dorothy McGuire and unhappy Richard Egan. She's married to the basically decent but often drunken Arthur Kennedy and he's stuck with the embittered Constance Ford who has rigid beliefs on the raising of their daughter, Sandra Dee. When Dee sees McGuire and Kennedy's son (Troy Donahue) from the yacht her father rented, it's lust at first sight, and the virginal young woman must fight temptations if she is to remain pure.But even insisting that she hasn't done anything wrong isn't enough for Dee's mother to go out and get a doctor to examine her to see that she's still a virgin. This disgusts everybody, and after Donahue threatens to kill Ford, Egan stands up for him after learning what she had done. This causes the vindictive Ford to reveal that she knows about the affair, and her fight for a divorce will not go without scandal. But that doesn't mean that she'll get Kennedy to side with her. Even he finds her actions reprehensible, and that's not the end of Ford who does everything she can to prevent Dee and Donahue from being together once McGuire and Egan marry.Certainly, there are elements of the story that could move this movie into pure camp, but there are many moments that stand out too, hence my very high rating. Ford makes an effort in the beginning to allow the possibility of Donahue and Dee to date, but her request that Dee play Donahue "like a fish" is such a dated concept that went out long before this movie came out. When she reveals her inner prejudices, this causes Egan to explode on her, accusing her of being the most vile racist and hypocrite that ever existed. She too has a very nasty mother who seems to be the one who put the idea of setting her husband up for infidelity into play in the first place. The beloved character actress Beulah Bondi is very funny as McGuire's nosy aunt who encourages her to have an affair with Egan, and I wanted to see more of her "Greek Chorus" character.As for Dee and Donahue, they have a lot to work on as far as acting skills when compared to the talented adults they are surrounded by. Dee doesn't act so much as emote, and Donahue underplays pretty much every line he says. The references later sung in "Grease" (the song "Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee!") spoof their not quite so innocent on-screen romance. Certainly not the first single girl to be pregnant in a movie, it was probably the first time however that the subject was dealt with head on rather than subdued. This is also one of the few times on screen that an abusive parent happens to be the mother (Ford), not the father, as shown in a scene at Christmas where Ford slaps Dee so hard that she knocks over a Christmas tree.This is a film that I can watch over and over. I also cherish the memory of seeing three of the actors on the daytime soaps: Ford in a very long role as "Another World's" kind but no-nonsense matriarch Ada Hobson, Egan as a wealthy and powerful patriarch Sam Clegg on "Capitol", and in a most memorable guest appearance on "The Young and the Restless", Dorothy McGuire as Victor Newman's mother. Her performance on that soap was so lauded that it has been shown in flash-backs over the years several times and used in soap tributes. The fact that this movie soap has tie-ins with daytime soaps is quite appropriate and even more ironic.