A Summer Place (1959) User Reviews (95)

Gutsy Constance Ford

[tdickson · 7/10 · 19 January 2016]

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.

Delinquent parents and delinquent children...make a sudsy melodrama...

[Doylenf · 7/10 · 26 August 2006]

Despite being almost overwhelmingly melodramatic when treating the subject of sex in the context of its time, A SUMMER PLACE manages to rise above the soap suds when dealing with mismatched parents and a rekindled love affair (DOROTHY McGUIRE and RICHARD EGAN) that almost destroys everyone's happiness.

It's all very lush looking in magnificent color, a Pine Island resort in Maine photographed principally in Northern California along the Monterey coast. Whenever emotions soar, whether quiet emotions or full throttled ones, Max Steiner's music is there ready to lend a helping hand.

As the teen-aged lovers, SANDRA DEE and TROY DONAHUE are just as photogenic as the landscapes they're photographed against, especially when the color cameras turn their close inspection on the two bronzed, blue-eyed stars. While not quite as photogenic, DOROTHY McGUIRE and RICHARD EGAN are quietly having a love affair of their own which must be kept hidden from their respective spouses until a showdown that leads to a rather satisfying conclusion.

The handsome production values and earnest performances are matched well against Max Steiner's famous score. His "The Theme from A Summer Place" is as gorgeous and popular as ever with soundtrack fans.

A SUMMER PLACE can take its place alongside other handsomely produced soapers of the '50s. CONSTANCE FORD and ARTHUR KENNEDY do very well in strong supporting roles and it's all a bit more substantial than it sounds on paper.

Easy to see why Max Steiner's "Theme from A Summer Place" hit the top of the music charts for a long, long time in the summer of '59.

A New Love Born, An Old Love Rekindled

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 9 October 2009]

One of the great young love romances ever done on the screen, A Summer Place is the story of two romances, one born and the other rekindled.

Richard Egan and Constance Ford with their daughter Sandra Dee are returning to Pine Island, Maine where years ago before Egan became wealthy as a research chemist he was employed as a lifeguard and where he romanced one of the town beauties. Pine Island is like Kennebunkport, the private reserve of the Bush family. This is the private reserve of several old Yankee families who if they can't trace their ancestors on the Mayflower at least they go back to Puritans who might have found New England more hospitable than Restoration Great Britain.

Egan's rented out several rooms from thinning blue blood Arthur Kennedy and his wife Dorothy McGuire. It was McGuire who Egan loved and lost those many years ago.

Neither Egan and McGuire have found much happiness in their second choice for spouses. Constance Ford, a truly uptight and frigid woman from Buffalo has not kanoodled with Egan for years. You know he's good and ready. As for McGuire's marriage, Kennedy has all the airs of a patrician, but not the money any more. Did he lose it because of his alcohol problem, or is he drinking because the family fortune has gone? It's your choice.

So Egan and McGuire discover each other and Sandra Dee discovers Kennedy and McGuire's son, Troy Donahue. Because of her mother, Dee's led a sheltered life and I'm betting the isolation of Pine Isle with its very few inhabitants hasn't improved Donahue's social skills either. The two kids are sadly a textbook case for sex education.

Feeling betrayed by their parents, all of them when you come right down to it, the young people feel they have only each other. The passion multiplies exponentially.

Right up there with the human cast members in making A Summer Place a big commercial hit for Warner Brothers is Max Steiner's theme, played when Dee and Donahue are together. It's popularity on the radio and jukeboxes sold many a ticket to this film.

Egan and McGuire are also appealing in their way to discover their passions are still the same. The odd spouses out are also turning in fine performances. Arthur Kennedy who was never bad in any film he ever did is both arrogant and yet pitiable as the sad sack alcoholic. The villain of A Summer Place is really Ford, she's made life hell for Egan and Dee. Yet you wonder throughout the film what must have she been like back in the day for Egan to fall for her in the first place and what changed her.

It's Eisenhower era America and the story is dated somewhat, but not all that much. I can see A Summer Place being a candidate for a remake, who would you cast in a remake among today's players?

The Kids Are All Right

[rpvanderlinden · 7/10 · 22 December 2010]

This movie has only one thing on its naughty little mind - sex. There are those who are getting it, those who aren't getting it but want it, and those who aren't getting it and are pretending they don't want it. One character in the latter category bandies words like "slut" and "harlot" about freely, but she didn't fool me. The four adults have managed to screw up their relationships, but the two very cute teenagers, played by Sandra Dee and Troy Donohue, look as if they'll get by okay if they just follow their hearts. I can't pretend that this is a great movie, but I had fun watching it. That's because the dialogue is way over the top and the actors deliver it with relish. In particular, Constance Ford (as Dee's evil, neurotic mom) and Arthur Kennedy (as Donohue's drunken sot of a dad) get all the best verbal poison arrows, and some of them are quite funny (sometimes unintentionally so). At one point Dee asks Donohue straight out: "Have you been bad with other girls?" That's the temper of the screenplay - everybody says precisely what's on their minds. I have to give the film credit for depicting the utter helplessness of adults in trying to manage their children's lives. Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire (as lovely as ever) try to behave with stoic dignity which is hard to do when you're sneaking out to the boathouse for a midnight rendezvous and maybe a little you-know-what. The Technicolor location photography is very beautiful, with California doubling, I hear, for New England. And I enjoyed the costumes (okay, okay, I also enjoyed what was in them).

A Sneaky Tub of Suds

[dougdoepke · 28 November 2010]

It's easy to mock this big tub of soap suds. What with the two baby-faced innocents and a ton of Dee's pouty close-ups, it's a generous slice of white bread, 50's style. But beneath all the teen-age angst and adult philandering lies a surprisingly subversive message for that uptight decade.

Because, once things get sorted out over the 130 minutes, we find out a number of social rules have not only been broken, but their violation justified. For example: the storyline implies that teen sex may be okay as long as the kids truly love each other— a violation of the teenage abstinence rule; that unwed teen pregnancy need not be punished— a challenge to Production Code insistence; and that adultery may be okay if the spouses are in impossible marriages—a further erosion of that seemingly sacred institution. The overall idea, is that no matter what, true love forgives all.

Now, this may seem pretty tame stuff 50-years later in our anything-goes era. But I guarantee, it was cutting edge Hollywood at the time, even if the messages were buried in a load of glossy make-believe. Responding to the slick package were lines of teens stretching around the block, and it wasn't just because of the catchy title tune. Then too, those folks curious about the breakdown of 50's conformity and the youth rebellion of the 60's should include this highly unexpected entry in their thinking.

At the same time, writer-director Daves seems an unlikely source for both the message and the genre, with his background in adult Westerns, such as the classic 3:10 to Yuma (1957). Here, he's very shrewd in his casting of Hollywood veterans. There's the likably masculine Egan (Ken) and the saintly maternal McGuire (Sylvia). Between them, they make infidelity seem not only permissible, but required. Then there's the affably tipsy Kennedy (Bart) and the assertively witchy Ford (Helen). Between them, they make cuckolding seem not only permissible, but also required. Taken together, it's almost perfect type casting. My only reservation is with Ford who seems too aggressively mean to make her marriage believable.

Daves is also a sneaky filmmaker since he wraps the controversial subtext in irresistible gloss. Few pictures of the era are as gorgeous as this one, and I'm not just talking about Donahue (who's even prettier than his co-star). Those Technicolor shots of the Carmel coastline are mesmerizing, along with the Lloyd Wright cliffside house. For visual contrast, compare this production with the thematically similar but dour-looking Blue Denim of the same year and also with two blonde innocents-- Brandon deWilde and Carol Lynley. The black&white Denim is the more earnest of the two, yet lacks the candy-box covering that giftwraps this production. Thus, for all its seriousness, Denim lacked the same teen drawing power and impact.

Anyway, as mentioned, mocking the film is easy, what with all the soapsuds and two Photoplay leads. However, I salute Daves for knowing how to get his humane message across to a popular audience, despite providing grist for generations of smirking critics. Happily, Daves proves here that there was more to his filmmaking than a fast gun, Glenn Ford, and a slow train to Yuma.

not as dated as first imagined

[sharkey197 · 7/10 · 21 July 2005]

I have always loved this film, but was sure that it wouldn't quite register with modern day teens in the same way because there is such a different attitude now towards sex and relationships. I was teaching a course in critical viewing of film and wanted to show it as a bridge between movies made under the old production code and movies of today. As we watched it, an amazing thing happened. We realized that the movie reflected a disintegration of marriage that would predict times to come and had lots of relevance in terms of what could happen to kids from broken homes. The romance between Dee and Donahue was easy for the kids to understand, but they also related in part to the older lovers, mostly because the depiction of the marriages was so detailed. I mean, who would want to stay with Ford and Kennedy? Watching the film with them, I could see so much more--exactly why this film was so condemned at the time by the Catholic Legion of Decency for its sympathetic treatment of adultery and premarital sex. It turned out to be a great choice for my course and one that I will definitely use again. Why isn't it on DVD and what a shame that all the principles are gone since a commentary from them would have been so wonderful. For all everyone says about Sandra Dee, I don't know many 17 year ODs who could have turned in that kind of high intensity performance. She was an actress with hidden depths who was unfortunately typecast. Never tire of this film and the song is stunning even today!

Glossy and very steamy for 1959.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 23 March 2016]

Ken and Helen Jorgenson (Richard Egan and Constance Ford) have a dead marriage. They haven't slept together for years, by her request. Helen is also a spiteful, nasty bigot who tries to indoctrinate to her daughter, Molly (Sandra Dee), that sex is dirty and evil. This highly dysfunctional and sad lot are on vacation at Pine Island, Maine...a place where Ken was a lifeguard two decades ago. There is more to the history of Pine Island than that, however, as Ken had once had an affair with a girl, Sylvia Hunter (Dorothy McGuire). Now Sylvia and her husband, Bart (Arthur Kennedy), run a hotel on the island...the hotel where the Jorgensons are coming for their summer vacation. As for the Hunters, Bart is an alcoholic and has checked out of his marriage from the very beginning. Not surprisingly, Ken and Sylvia are miserable and fall back in love. What is a bit surprising is that their children, Molly and Johnny Hunter (Troy Donahue) have fallen in love as well.

The writers and filmmakers did a great job of showing how adultery and premarital sex are NOT necessarily black & white issues. In the case of Sylvia and Ken, both have been emotionally abandoned by their selfish and detestable partners. And, in the case of Molly and Johnny, they are normal hot-blooded teens who have been thrust together by Molly's mother and her rants about the evils of sex. So, it's all very understandable...and all very, very risqué for 1959. But because the story is so well written and the production so glossy, it makes difficult moral issues and choices much more palatable--and provide for a lot to consider. It also makes for a wonderful film for young married couples to watch...sort of a morality tale about what NOT to do!

A highlight of this film is the speech Ken makes to Helen early in the film...about her many, many, many prejudices. According to IMDb, the crowd at one performance gave it a standing ovation! A very powerful scene indeed.

Overall, this film has many strong scenes, excellent acting, nice music and all the gloss a Hollywood production could have. It also has quite a bit of depth and raises many interesting issues...making it perhaps the best soap opera movie of the day. And, fortunately, while the film might seem a tad dated (such as the custody arrangements), it also is timeless with its themes.

Who do you think you are? Troy Donahue?

[gooelf50 · 7/10 · 21 February 2007]

This was an OK movie. The big draw was Troy Donahue in his first starring film role. A fine looking young Sandra Dee was also a big draw, although not as big as Donahue. I remember that I was a lad in high school when the film was released and all of the girls raved about the fantastic looking blonde wonder boy, Troy Donahue. Whenever one of the guys started acting a little too cool, he was brought quickly back to reality with the question, "Who do you think you are? Troy Donahue?" The Theme song of the movie was played by Percy Faith and his orchestra and was called simply "Theme from a Summer Place" and was on the pop charts for months. Guys loved the song as much as girls because it had a slow and lilting rhythm that even the most awkward oaf could dance to and the girls just loved to be held tightly when it was playing. The scenery was delightful as the film was shot at the seashore where there was lots of water, sand and lush greenery. The plot was fairly comprehensive and involved affairs and marital deceit compounded by the love that developed between Troy and Sandra's characters. All in all not a bad movie, certainly worth the 45 cents admission that I paid to see it in 1959.

Unforgettable

[gknysh · 10/10 · 15 February 2007]

I saw this movie as a teen in January 1960 and was totally mesmerized. So much so that I returned to watch it eight days in a row... It was so incredibly right for me at that time. Sandra Dee became like my goddess. I learned the dialogue practically by heart. I saw it again on DVD after 47 years. Very moving reminiscences. As the scenes unrolled it all came back, word for word. Few people seem to realize BTW(as to the music) that there are really two major themes in the film: the young love theme, which you hear for the first time around minute 15 (when Sandra is shown around the estate and its garden), and which while quite wonderful is relatively muted in comparison to the pop version (which should have somehow been included in the special features). And the quite different, and superb, main theme (slightly less than 2 minutes long) which opens the film. Frankly, in the context of the whole story I prefer the latter. The message of the movie remains as compelling as ever: there is nothing stronger than love, and love conquers all, or should. You bet! I don't know of any film which says it better.

"If Troy Donahue can be a movie star ..."

[MOscarbradley · 6/10 · 29 July 2006]

Sloan Wilson's best-seller was the kind of novel people read on the beach and was described at the time as 'steamy'. In 1959, this film version by Delmer Daves would have been considered 'daring' or even 'salacious' since it deals, quite frankly as it turns out, with the subject of sex. Of course, it's soap-opera but it's very enjoyable and surprisingly grown-up of it's kind and it's got some really good performances.

As the young lovers, both Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee handle the material with unusual delicacy. We aren't talking Oscars here but neither do they disgrace themselves. (Dee is particularly fine, Donahue less so, hunky but also a bit wooden, reminding you of the song from "A Chorous Line" that went 'If Troy Donahue can be a movie star, then I can be a movie star; funny how both he and Sandra Dee were immortalized in song).

As the cuckolded spouses Arthur Kennedy and Constance Ford are first-rate, (they are the villains of the piece and have the meatier roles). Unfortunately, neither Richard Egan nor Dorothy McGuire, (perpetually saint-like), have much charisma as the adulterous parents. Daves has always been an under-rated director. He made a handful of excellent westerns before embarking on a series of romantic melodramas of which this was the first and the best. It's no classic but more than serviceable for a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Romance For All The Family ?

[jpdoherty · 5/10 · 11 November 2009]

A cannily created slice of American romantic hokum is probably the best description that can be afforded this 1959 Warner Bros.production - A SUMMER PLACE! From the best selling novel by Sloan Wilson this story about the emerging sexual awareness in the young and the sexual re-awakenings in their seniors was written, produced and directed with a certain flair - it has to be said - by Delmer Daves. As with many of Daves' movies it was richly photographed in gorgeous Technicolor, and this time, by the great Harry Stradling on beautiful locations in and around the New England coast. Arriving for a vacation to Pine Island comes Molly - the attractive adolescent who instantly has the reciprocal hots for young Johnny (teen idol Troy Donahue), while her father (Richard Egan) takes up where he left off years before when he had a deep romantic entanglement with Johnny's mother (Dorothy Maguire) before she married alcoholic hotelier Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy turning in the best performance in the movie).

The picture's outspoken attitude to sex caused something of a sensation to audiences in the sixties. Now fifty years later the sexual machinations depicted all seem pretty mild. Nonetheless in its day the film amassed a vast teen following and today is remembered with some fondness mostly because of Max Steiner's theme music. The Young Love Theme the veteran Warner composer wrote for the movie (71 years old at the time) became a smash hit virtually overnight in the sixties when a cover version was recorded by the Percy Faith orchestra! This sunny little tune is still played and is just as catchy today as it was fifty years ago.

The versatile Steiner - fresh from scoring Warner's big cop epic "The FBI Story" and Daves' seminal Gary Cooper western "The Hanging Tree" - could cross over subject and thematic boundaries with little difficulty and score such things as this potent drama of teenage and adult love with equal dexterity. Besides the infectious Young Love Theme there is the picture's most dominant cue - The Adult Love Theme. This piece goes all the way back to 1932 when Steiner first wrote it for the Gary Cooper/Helen Hayes movie "A Farewell To Arms". But producer David O'Selznick rejected it at the time and the composer kept it on ice until he saw use for it 27 years later as the Main Theme for A SUMMER PLACE. And a blessing it is too for it works so wonderfully well in the later film! First heard over the titles - as the tide crashes against the rocks on the Maine Coast - it is given lush renditions throughout the picture. A hum-inducing, warm and thoroughly engaging piece with elegant harmonic stresses it is one of the composer's loveliest melodic inspirations. Its broadest and most ravishing versions are heard in the scenes with the older lovers (Egan and Maguire) for their nightly trysts in the boathouse ("I'm not pretty for you anymore - and I'm sorry about that"). Other lovely cues are the sprightly motif for Johnny and, scored for harp and strings, the tender music for scenes with Molly and her father. Also for scenes around the New England coast Steiner reuses another old piece of his - the sea cue he originally wrote for the 1946 Bette Davis picture "A Stolan Life".

With A SUMMER PLACE writer producer director Daves hit upon a winning formula for this kind of glossy and attractive looking motion picture. He went on to successfully write, produce and direct three similar type films and all starring Troy Donahoe - "Parrish" (1961), "Susan Slade" (1961), "Rome Adventure" (1962) and, one other without Donahue, "Spencer's Mountain" (1963). These four pictures also had exceptional scores by the exceptional Max Steiner.

There's a reason this one's a classic

[dwr246 · 8/10 · 16 February 2005]

Although it's dated, naive, and more than occasionally melodramatic, this film is still a classic with a message that has a certain timelessness to it. It also boasts gorgeous cinematography, and excellent performances from Richard Egan, Constance Ford, and especially Dorothy McGuire and Sandra Dee.

The plot, which is somewhat convoluted, is basically this: Twenty years before the beginning of the movie, Ken (Egan), a struggling college student, takes a summer job as a lifeguard at a resort island off the coast of Maine. While there, he meets and falls in love with Sylvia (McGuire), the daughter of a family staying on the island. Because he has no money, and no social standing, her parents decide against the match, and the two are forced to separate, each going off to an unhappy marriage. Ken weds Helen, the epitome of a frigid wife (played to perfection by Ford), so much so that you wonder how on earth she let him touch her long enough to create their daughter, Molly (Dee). Sylvia has fared little better, marrying Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy), a likable lush. They have a son, Johnny (a painfully wooden Troy Donahue), who, it turns out, is about the same age as Molly. Twenty years have brought a sort of reversal of fortunes to the two families, as Ken is now a self made millionaire, while Bart's family has so little money that they are forced to stay on the island year round. Ken has decided that a vacation is long overdue, and writes to Sylvia to see if his family can stay with hers on the island for the summer. Sylvia and Bart agree to this. Molly and Johnny develop an instant affection for each other, much to the chagrin of Molly's mother, while Ken and Sylvia's reunion rekindles their romance, with tragic consequences for all.

While the issues of teen sexuality and adultery are hardly shocking to today's audiences, this was pretty daring in 1959, and the film handles them in a forthright way, only occasionally lapsing into melodrama or preaching. The focus on virginity seems especially old fashioned to a modern audience, and gives the film an unintended humorous aspect.

Among the leads, the acting is uniformly strong except for Troy Donahue, whose performance is stilted and unsatisfying. Richard Egan manages to infuse enough warmth into his character that you are willing to forgive his sermonizing. Particularly touching is his portrayal of a father whose love and concern for his daughter knows no limits. Arthur Kennedy does a good job of making his drunken character human and sympathetic. Constance Ford zealously plays Helen with such menace and malice that you really enjoy the zingers thrown at her (Sylvia's "You seem to have an infinite capacity for hurt.", the doctor's "Mrs. Jorgenson, you're being less than no help at all," and Bart's response to Helen's "Don't tell me you're on their side!" with "Let's just say I'm not on yours."). Sandra Dee's doe-eyed innocence works beautifully in her portrayal of a young woman learning a few of life's lessons before she should. And Dorothy McGuire is charming as Sylvia, giving us a character we can't help liking even when she falls from grace.

The film accurately portrays the attitudes of its time, which may make it less accessible to viewers who weren't around then. In spite of that, you find yourself caring about these characters, and their predicaments.

All, in this is a highly enjoyable film, and well worth watching, especially if you're yearning to return to "a simpler time."

Nostalgic, irresistibly sweet teen schmaltz - for the very young at heart.

[gbrumburgh-1 · 6/10 · 13 September 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Sometimes you just can't help yourself. Every once in awhile heady art-house pieces or complex psychological thrillers just won't satisfy the ol' entertainment palate. At those times, I cave in to my craving for sweet, adulterated romantic tripe, look around to make sure nobody's around, and quickly escape back to the days of my own cotton-candy innocence. 1959's "A Summer Place" is the perfect baby-boomer fodder, summer or winter, to recapture those simple, glorious, carefree years when "being bad" for me was maybe throwing a snowball at a passing car or feigning a stomach ache to skip school, while "being bad" for my older teenage brother was getting to go a bit too far with his main squeeze! In Douglas Sirk's glossy, slightly lurid drama, you not only get to revel in a pre-Camelot box-office romance with two of the hottest "teen" stars ever "being bad", you get Max Steiner's luxuriant score, complete with Percy Faith's gorgeous theme song (#1 on the Billboard charts for 9 weeks - the single most successful instrumental pop hit ever!) to keep you in that sentimental "being bad" mood. And just leave it to old Max to know how to underscore adultery and underage coitus and make it all still seem so pure and unblemished.

A vacationing couple with their daughter spend the summer at a remote resort island off the coast of Maine where old love is rekindled and new love blossoms -- both with traumatic results. What this shallow but engagingly cloying beach-towel romance has going for it is its young lovers -- the pristine princess of the screen at the time, the inimitable Sandra Dee, and Hollywood's new flavor of the month, the staid, butter-haired dreamboat, Troy Donahue, as her flawed Prince Charming. Wow...what a couple. Utter perfection they are. And there's nothing more gratifying than seeing two perfect specimens drowning in misery to make you feel good again about your own woeful prom years. By the way, Dee was 17 and Donahue 23 at the time this was released. They, more than anyone, knew how to simulate the strains of aching young love.

On the other side of this love parallel, the always reliable thespians Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire, as Sandy's dad and Troy's mom, denote the older, worldly-wise love set. Meeting again (not quite by happenstance), they reignite the smouldering passion they once shared, fueling it with moonlit encounters. Usually the epitome of candor and responsibility, they throw all caution to the wind in a last ditch effort to fulfill true love's destiny, foreshadowing just what might happen to Dee and Donahue.

As always in these cases, surrounding our two hot, hormonal couples are two necessary evils. Troy and mom Dorothy have their hands full as caretakers for their besotted husband/father Arthur Kennedy, a witty, extremely cynical one-time mariner who, drink in hand, enjoys expounding on the futility of life and love. But the real fun and chief fomenter here is Sandy's conniving, shrewish, abusive mother, played for all it's worth by Constance (Ada on "Another World") Ford. Ms Ford is the gal you love to hate in this picture and she becomes the big selling point in keeping the emotional boiling pot really boiling. Her Maleficent-like glare and ever-controlled smirk will chill you to the bone. Better yet, her frigid, emasculating, vindictive attitudes toward sex and marriage is enough to make a man join the foreign legion. I would venture to guess that the saying "colder than a witch's tit" came from somebody who saw Ford in this wonderfully frosty role.

The most palpable, mouth-watering Dee/Donahue encounter comes at the climactic late-night clinch at the lighthouse (they told their elders they were going to see "King Kong") where the innocent-eyed Dee is about to give in and "be bad." As Troy slowly goes in for the touchdown, Sandy coyly whispers the synopsis of the ape movie to cover their tracks when they get home. God, why couldn't us guys have killer turn-on dialogue like that going in for a touchdown?

Ah, well, suffice it to say that about every situation is wonderfully over-baked and most of the script sanitized to the point of campy hilarity. Why, you'll need a whole roll of extra-strength Bounty just to absorb all of the juicy tidbits that spill out of the mouths of this talented cast. But for every glorious good girl vs. naughty girl confrontation between mother and daughter, you'll have to endure the incessant sermonizing on the magnitude of love from Egan and McGuire. It's still worth it.

Despite the fact that Sandra Dee and the late Troy Donahue's saccharine appeal quickly soured in later years (both of them would suffer from chronic alcoholism), their chemistry here is undeniable and their legacies untarnished. They will go down in the Hollywood annals as the envy of every young couple ever in love and lust.

Forgettable

[stazza · 4/10 · 28 May 2009]

I bought this film while collecting older fun, 50's movies, and was looking forward to it having recently become a fan of the Sandra Dee romantic comedies from the era. After watching the trailer, I realized it was much more serious and put off watching it quite a while because I am just not a big fan of "watch others lives in ruins" movie genre.

While the movie was filmed okay and seemed pretty typical for the time, the story just didn't interest me. I don't know people like that, hang out with people like that, bother wasting time with people like that. Didn't seem to have any heroes or positive models or good ending or anything. With each new revealed negative event, I began hitting 1.5x speed on the remote to just get it over with. Again, it just wasn't my thing I guess. I will never watch this movie again. And play to re-watch "That funny feeling" again soon to get the disgusting taste of this movie out of my mind.

The things I enjoy in these older classics is the time travel back to live scenery of the cities, the cars, locations, houses, even decorations and it delivered that pretty good. I understand the impact it probably had in it's day, but it offered me little in the way of "movie entertainment"

One of RICHARD EGAN'S BEST FILMS!!

[Robby-35 · 17 May 2000]

Saw this film when I was about 12 - fell for the older Richard Egan..not Troy Donahue. Richard Egan MADE THIS MOVIE (for ME anyway.)

Have this film on tape-enjoy it each time I watch it again. The theme music is good, the scenery and color are beautiful (for l959).

Dorothy McGuire did an excellent job as the wife of an alcoholic and Constance Ford was convincing as the wife of a man she could not "make happy....or herself."

Troy Donahue did a good job...after all he had not had much experience at this time. (Some moments...yes, he was a bit "stiff".) I thought the beautiful, young Sandra Dee did a wonderful job. I am a huge fan of hers and have enjoyed Sandra Dee in each of her films. She and Troy had some "silly" lines but afterall, it WAS 1959.

This is a movie for sentimental souls. It's for people who are smart enough to recognize that some lines and scenes ARE SILLY...but realize that the majority of this film is worth watching over...and over...and over again.

Any female whose "HEART JUST DOES NOT STOP" when the handsome RICHARD EGAN walks into a room is DEAD ALREADY!!! He was SUCH a handsome man.

He always seemed to be such a "decent" sort of individual as well.

If you want to e-mail IF YOU ARE A RICHARD EGAN FAN OR SANDRA DEE FAN...PLEASE DO SO. WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.

ROBBY

Impossible to get that song outta your head!

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 3 September 2001]

Gorgeous-looking soap opera, with Sandra Dee swaying, swooning and suffering her way through role as young woman determined to do the deed with stodgy, windbreaker-wearing Troy Donahue. Their parents disapprove of course, that is until her father and his mother have an affair of their own! Surprisingly absorbing plot really lays on the melodrama, but so what? It's a roller-coaster ride of teen angst, romantic emotions gone too far, all blissfully filmed in beautiful color. Probably Donahue's best performance, although Dee continues her fight against a thick layer of phoniness that always seems to seep into her work (she's just not a natural, the way Connie Stevens or Tuesday Weld were). The picture is famously scored with Max Steiner's music which forever lives on oldies radio-stations, and will forever live in your head once you've heard it. It's quite lovely, but played ad nauseum. *** from ****

It's fun to cringe at these movies

[billpappas-1 · 6/10 · 20 February 2015]

I just watched an old Perry Mason ans was pleasantly surprised to see Constance Ford. So, I looked her up and thought I'd see the reviews for A Summer Place.

I was in the 8th grade when it first played. Looking back, those teen angst movies with sex as the conflict were laughable back then. Even as an 8th grader, they seemed conservative compared to what us kids talked about at the time which was much racier.

There were movies like Susan Slade, Parrish, etc. that are cringe inducing but so entertaining for their dated takes on young love and young sex.

Now, Constance Ford is irresistible; a poor man's Joan Crawford during her Queen Bee and Harriet Craig years. She could be so scary just by giving a look of disdain. I wish I could have met her to see what she was really like because she had that tough, intolerant schtick down and half the time seemed like she was having hot flashes to boot. Even in black and white, it looked like her face would get flushed when she was losing her temper. But, she could steal a scene so effortlessly even if she didn't say a word.

I don't know what movie or TV show I saw Ford in where she was in a vicious argument with another woman or young girl where she took a fireplace poker and swung it and stuck it in the mantel. She was good. Scarier than Dirty Harry.

Poor Troy Donahue couldn't act to save his life. He was a male bimbo. I had a crush on Sandra Dee even though she could be really annoying at times but she had her good moments.

Dorothy McGuire was quite a beauty and a good actress but low key and not showy.

All in all, a fun and entertaining movie with a window to a different time is some of our lives. I know it was a drama but, really, it still has me grinning throughout. And, that's good.

I checked spoiler just in case Ford swinging a fireplace poker was from this movie. I can't recall for sure. She probably could have done that in many of her films with the characters she played.

A colorful soap opera that made Peyton Place look like Disney!

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 28 August 2015]

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.

Maybe Life Is Just A Dice Game Afterall

[strong-122-478885 · 6/10 · 23 December 2014]

As far as scorching, melodramatic (and sometimes over-the-top) soap operas go - A Summer Place's scandal-ridden story (from 1959) actually held up surprisingly well (until about the point when Ken & Sylvia's shocking, little infidelity made newspaper headlines).

It was following this climatic moment (which happened at about the 60-minute point) that A Summer Place then began to seriously lose a lot of its initial steam as it inevitably petered out into a rather sappy, "happy ending" fizzle.

Featuring a pretty competent cast, headlined by the likes of Richard Egan and (teen idol) Troy Donahue, A Summer Place was definitely quite an emotional, little roller-coaster ride at times, containing plenty of vicious muck-slinging, punctuated by equally damning jabs of biting dialogue.

When dealing maturely with sexual issues, A Summer Place was certainly a very frank and racy story for its day.

The one real standout performance that I think is worth mentioning in the film was that of Constance Ford who played Helen Jorgenson, Molly's brittle and hateful mother who repeatedly reared her ugly head as a nasty, sanctimonious hypocrite.

Over the top in a good way

[jjnxn-1 · 8/10 · 16 February 2012]

A piece of honeyed excess if ever there was one this overblown film is a tasty treat for any fan of this kind of 50's melodrama.

Lushly filmed with beautiful people against gorgeous settings in fabulous clothes even the characters who are supposedly destitute are dressed in the height of fashion. The famous theme song plays constantly in the background imparting a romantic feeling throughout.

The story and mores are dated but that adds to the over top feeling of the whole enterprise.

As far as the performances-Dorothy McGuire & Richard Egan are dignified as the lonely couple married to the wrong people. Arthur Kennedy makes much more of his thinly written character than is in the script showing flashes of humanity through his alcoholic haze. Sandra Dee is frenzied and suitably desperate as the young sheltered daughter and Troy Donahue very good looking as the son but he seriously could not act. He makes a cigar store Indian appear lively! However acting honors are handily stolen by the great under rated Constance Ford. Her ice cold harridan steals every second she is on the screen as she bites off large chunks of the scenery and makes a memorable villainess.

We Know What You Want To Do, Troy Donahue!

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 4 July 2022]

This film from the fifties predates the coming sexual revolution. Just about every character has pretensions of morality. They are do-good nosey parkers whose greatest joy is to find flaws in others. Certain things are automatic triggers for their scorn-like divorce, promiscuity, or wearing white after Labor Day.

When the Jorgenson family comes to Pine Island, Maine for the summer, the entrenched residents greet them with prejudice because the father, Ken (Richard Egan), used to be a lowly worker on the island. He also used to be involved with the mother of the family who owns the inn where they are staying.

The melodrama of the story---emphasized by an overly-dramatic score---has the characters using the words "good" and "bad" with frequency, as in "I've been a good girl" and "are you a bad boy?" Everyone fears being bad, which means acting contrary to contemporary morals, but they can't help themselves; human nature drives some to thwart approved behavioral standards.

The film is a "story of stolen moments", where lovers struggle to maintain appearances and to fight their own impulses. Every romantic gesture is countered by feelings of guilt or condemnation, so the passion in the film is undermined.

Despite the overdone score, the movie's theme---which is the theme of the young lovers---works well. It has a carefree feeling that, unfortunately, belies the judgmental drama that permeates every scene.

Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue play the young lovers, Molly and Johnny, and the actors symbolize an idyllic young couple. (Dee also appeared in "Gidget" the same year, as a chaste young lady who pines for James Darren.) Their struggle against society does contain some basic truths about what people had to deal with in that era.

Summer's Over

[irajoelirajoel · 1/10 · 4 October 2007]

I could not believe how many people on IMDb love this movie, and carry on about it as it if was Citizen Kane. Some silly even said that this was one of the greatest films ever made. My advice to this person is that you have to do some serious film watching. Maybe take a film class in some college in your town. Released in 1959 (and shown at Radio City Music Hall no less) it was even then poorly reviewed and with good reason. It stinks. The direction is sloppy and plodding. It just lays there for over 2 hours. This is the kind of melodramatic soap opera that a director like Douglas Sirk could turn into pure cinema magic, and in fact he did just that in the same year with the fantastic Imitation Of Life, with our dear little Sandra Dee once again playing a troubled daughter. I was also bothered by the obvious California coast trying to look like Maine. Why the hell didn't they just set the film in California? As far as the performances go they were OK. The usually fine Dorothy McGuire did what she was getting paid for, and Richard Eagan was his same old wooden self. An attractive man but a bad actor was he. The only tangy performances were given by Arthur Kennedy, (his final drunken scene had some real depth and feeling to it) and the always watchable tough as nails Constance Ford. I guess one can watch this trash as pure camp if it wasn't so damn boring.

I think most people miss a deep meaning in this movie......

[business-730-312689 · 8/10 · 15 May 2010]

This movie was made at a crucial point in American history. In the late 50's and early 60's the sexual revolution was drastically changing the face of American culture, and this film was a commentary on the dark side of the sexual revolution, but yet offered hope that life could still go on.

Modern psychology has recently shown that divorce has devastating effects on children of all ages. This movie shows one aspect of that with the teenagers. When it is discovered that his mom is cheating with her dad, and that they are planning to get divorced, the devastation in the children's' lives is made very plain. Don't get me wrong, both of the parents that were left single by the divorce had their faults, and this is clearly shown, but their children paid for their decision to desert their responsibilities. Both children suffer a great deal of disillusionment, and reject their parents entirely for a time.

The kids are shown as torn between what they know to be the right, sensible thing to do, and what their young passions are yearning to do. Initially, they are prevailed upon to be reserved, but their loss of respect for their parents causes them to both be less reserved, and also more needy of each other. An unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation gives the teens opportunity to have a full-on fling that ends in an unplanned pregnancy, and their need for parental consent for their marriage drives them to reconcile with 3 out of 4 of their parents.

Regret and consequences are plainly shown toward the end of this movie. After the two are known to have been "too involved," the adulterous parents are discussing what to do, and his mother expresses concern about a deeper love that is different from passion, and more important. At one point after she knows she is pregnant, he says that he thinks her dad is going to beat him up, and he rather hopes that he does.

The personal suffering that unwise decisions bring is clearly portrayed to someone who is paying attention, yet hope is also obviously present. A partial reconciliation occurs, and we're left to believe that what began badly for the kids will end fairly well. It is in no way a depressing movie, but clear warnings are present nonetheless.

Some of the reviews led me to believe that this was a really morally repugnant movie, doing nothing but promoting sex, but I think that this is a relatively balanced look at the real pain that divorce and teenage "messing around" can bring. It is not outlandishly sexual, though it was bold for the time. Some of the lines are unconvincing, but overall it's a well-made movie, and an excellent piece of social commentary that is even more relevant today than it was in 1959.

sudsy teen love story

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 13 December 2011]

I read through some of the reviews here on IMDb, and I lament that I was a little too young when this film came out to remember all the hoopla surrounding it. I have a vague memory, but that's about it.

"A Summer Place" was released in 1959 and stars Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee as Johnny and Molly, who meet and fall in love when Molly's family comes to stay at his parents' guest house in Pine Island, Maine during the summer. Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy, Constance Ford, and Richard Egan are their mismatched, dysfunctional parents.

The best roles belong to Ford and Kennedy. Ford, as Molly's mother, is a disapproving, strict woman who seems to be against sex but sees it everywhere. And though she doesn't admit it, she's fascinated by it. When Molly comes home after she and Johnny are shipwrecked overnight, her mother calls a doctor to have her examined and make sure she's still a virgin.

Molly's father is played by Richard Egan, and he and Ford seem completely mismatched. He is gentler and more understanding...and has been in love with Johnny's mother Sylvia (McGuire) since he worked on Pine Island as a lifeguard twenty years earlier. Sylvia, married to the drunken, bitter Bart (Kennedy) has always been in love with him, and the two almost immediately rekindle their romance. This leads to a lot of turmoil between the families and Helen particularly wants Johnny and Molly apart.

It's easy to see why teens loved this back in the day with the family problems, attempts at keeping the two lovers apart, and the good old how far shall we go discussion, not to mention all the romance.

Troy Donahue -- his run as a teen idol was a bit before my time -- I probably missed his peak by two years. I did watch his TV shows but I don't remember him, only Edd Byrnes, Connie Stevens, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Roger Smith from the various shows. And that was Troy's problem. Hunky good looks but ultimately forgettable with his monotonous line readings and facial expressions, and general stiffness. Besides his looks, the only thing he had going for him was a nice speaking voice. Sandra Dee fares better. She was a natural actress and often called up to be emotional, so she had a wider range. She and Donahue are very cute together.

Ford and Kennedy both do excellent jobs; Egan and McGuire have much less to do. McGuire and Donahue were two Delmar Daves regulars, which is why when you look at a description of the movies, you're not sure which ones you've seen.

Max Steiner wrote the beautiful theme for the movie (which he originally wrote for High Noon) which one still hears played today. It's a good match for the film.

Delmar Daves' films are generally on the long side but the soapy films he made in this period are beautiful to look at. And his message is great about love and a sense of humor -- "These are the weapons of the angels."

A Topical Film with Great Potential -- Soaped to Death by Warners

[tr-83495 · 5/10 · 12 July 2019]

You can certainly tell this is a Warner Brothers movie. It has no gloss or polish to it. The script is a mess and obvious plot contrivances are not even attempted to be explained. The beautiful theme music that came out of this film is only in the adolescent stage here. The music director did not take advantage of making this song more powerful, like any good scorer would. Percy Faith and the Lettermen charted in the top ten with this theme, taken directly from the movie, arranged brilliantly, and then performed by dozens of additional artists. Warner Brothers missed every opportunity to stay realistic with a plot that was heavily tilted toward soap opera. The MGM of 1950 could have produced an epic with this because the talent existed behind the screen to make the movie into something special. WB just soaped it for all it was worth and ran with it. Jack Warner wanted profits. He did not care about quality or longevity. Its puzzling how such a movie is still shown and remembered, but the theme inherent in the book was one that needed to be heard in 1959 into the sixties. It was very topical. Most any other major studio would have done such a better job with this project than Warners. It's really too bad -- this has all the bones of a great movie. Instead we get average to slightly above average.