mrb1980 I have to admit that I didn't listen to much of the dialog from "A Summer Place" when I first saw the film. The photography is so lush and colorful that it's easy to get lost in the visual excitement of the movie. It's not "Citizen Kane", but the movie is good enough to entertain for a couple of hours.Drunk Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy, in a wonderful performance), his wife Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire), and their son Johnny (then-heartthrob Troy Donahue) operate a run-down New England resort that's always short of money. Zillionaire Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan), his venal, emotionless wife Helen (Constance Ford), and their luscious blonde daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) come by for a vacation. Naturally, Johnny and Molly are alone and do their thing (off-camera, of course), and old flames Sylvia and Ken decide to rekindle their passionate love affair. Meanwhile, evil Helen is scheming with her mother to divorce Ken and take all his money. Molly ends up (gasp!) pregnant (yes, they actually say that word in the movie), she marries Johnny, Ken and Sylvia get together, and everyone appears to be a big happy family at the end.The best performances are by Kennedy (he plays a wonderful drunk), and by Ford (who plays the frigid, evil, grasping woman with great aplomb). Heck, even Donahue and Dee are better than usual. The happy ending of the movie is a little sappy, but what do you expect from a 1950s film? There are fairly frank references to sex that were probably very daring in 1959, although the characters' fooling around is only implied. It's recommended for the stars, the luminous color photography, the theme song, and the opportunity to hear Troy Donahue say the word "supercilious" in a movie. It's not great and it's dated, but pretty good anyway.

jjnxn-1 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.

blanche-2 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."

Karl Ericsson Viewing every film as a propaganda-film is, I believe, a very sound way to look on films. Even a seemingly "harmless" film about science is probably the most dangerous propaganda of all, since you are totally unprepared for it watching such a film. It's like with the peasant in medieval times visiting the cathedral and being so intimidated by the grandeur of it all, that he may just accept anything spoken to him in such a place. The "science" program on television is much the same - we do understand about as little about the science as the peasant about the cathedral but we are utterly impressed and accept just about anything coming from a "reliable and scientific" source.Now, a Hollywood-film about love may not seem to be very scientific but is nevertheless most propagandic in its affirmation (often) that what it presents is the view of a majority of people and - could all these people be wrong? Revolution cannot come about without self-esteem. A crushed people is a crushed people and it will only rise if it musters up the strength to fight for justice - but how will it find justice, if it thinks less of itself than it thinks of its masters? The self-evidence of equality will not enter the mind of the slave that accept its role of slave.Insidiously and, because of its other qualities, rather sadly this film somehow comes across telling that there is no difference between lust and love. We might agree that there should not be any difference but one look at a modern porn-film sure tells us that there is and if we are still not convinced about the humiliations going on in these films, we must only consider that rape does indeed exist. We do not have to be in love or anywhere near it in order to perform "the act of love" as it is so "nicely" put.On the other hand, and that is the beautiful part of this film, where there is true love there is also lust for one another, however, this beautiful conception is quickly lost when the young man is portrayed as being an innocent victim of lust that cannot be controlled. Lust can always be controlled, especially if love is involved and that truth is sadly not present in this picture.So, all in all, the propaganda that we are left with is not the propaganda of love and instead the propaganda of lust, which may contain just about any evil under the sun in this power-society.