A Summer Place is on

This should have been made into an off-Broadway musical.

Amateur

Uh oh, here comes the OB to examine Sandra Dee. Will her virginity still be there? If not... what will Connie Ford do?

I would like to give a nod of approval to Sylvia’s chic “second wedding” attire.

OMG, I remember watching this with my mother as a young kid. I love that my mom introduced me to these great old campfests. My mother said it was quite shocking when it came out and her mother wouldn't let her go see it.

"Have you been bad, Johnny?"

Sandra Dee said Connie and the director insisted that do that scene a doze times.

What a beautiful theme song

I read the book this movie was based on, by Sloan Wilson. It was released in 1958 and it's very well written, but ridiculous in a lot of ways when looked at from today's perspective. When Ken and Sylvia (she's a gorgeous teenager and he's a muscular type with the nickname "The Beast") are teenagers they have a sexual encounter. He forces himself on her; he is RAPING her. And at first she resists, but then begins to, well, LIKE it. I guess that was a viewpoint at the time; that women like to be taken by force. Anyway, it today's world their passionate sexual encounter would be pure sexual assault.

The book was considered hot stuff because it featured adultery and teenage sex. The teenagers Molly and Johnny (real fifties teenager names, huh?) are madly in love and want to fuck but are told to be "sensible." Well, they're not sensible and she gets knocked up at seventeen. In the book Sylvia (and to a lesser extent, Ken) try to put a positive spin on the situation, regarding it as a "triumph" of love, the love the two youngsters have for each other. Actually, it's a catastrophe for two teenagers to become parents, but the book ends with the two impending teenage parents living at "the summer place" and trying to keep it up. I guess the ending can be interpreted in different ways. Some would swoon over the ending, considering a happily ever after one. Others might think: these two stupid kids are going to have a baby and their youth will be over. I tend to favor the latter perspective.

To be fair, Sandra Dee is highly slappable

The whole cast of that movie was highly slappable.

R3 Connie will eat out her hymen, with pleasure.

[quote]The whole cast of that movie was highly slappable.

Don't try me cunt.

I watched the trailer of this movie to refresh my memory about the Christmas tree. I never realized that Sandra Dee had a wonky eye.

Gawd, this stupid movie! Everyone acted like birth control didn't exist and the choice was between horrible awful repression, and teen pregnancy!

Let me guess, it was written by a straight man? Because yeah, at that time, the chief form of birth control available to teenagers was condoms, as birth control pills didn't exist and no doctor would give a diaphragm or IUD to an unmarried, underaged virgin. But that stupid boy could have gone down to the drug store and bought some condoms! Or his idiot dad could have cut short one of his speeches about the value of free love, bought some, and handed them over with directions on how to use them and why! But NOOOOOO!!! Then, as now, straight men will die or ruin their lives rather than use condoms! They're all idiots, and the girl is going to be the one who drops out of high school to have the baby.

You have to consider that back then sex before marriage was considered to be VERY bad, especially for teenagers. The two love struck teenagers were told over and over to be "sensible" by their elders. Johnny and Molly were trying to suppress their urges (hence his not buying condoms) but finally succumbed to their teenage lust. Although Molly's father is wealthy (as a research chemist?) the novel suggests that Johnny and Molly will now be the ones running the run down "summer place" and taking care of a baby. But they're "in love" which I guess is supposed to make everything all right.

This movie is featured in a book entitled "The Worst Movies of All Time; Or, What Were They Thinking?"

My favorite.

It's such an idiotic movie, basically a mid-century straight man's complaints about life made into a semi-coherent story.

Oh dear, a man's wife isn't hot enough for him or enthusiastic enough about sex, poor straight man! It has to be HER fault, so let's all applaud him for ditching her for a hottie! A boy is told not to knock up his 17-year-old girlfriend, oh the poor boy having to deal with the evil sexually repressive forces of society! Knocking up 17-year-olds is a great thing to do!

This is the kind of thinking behind the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s, BTW.

Richard Egan was one of the most wooden actors ever. Troy Donahue, too.

Oh, how I wish I would have gotten to slap that little simpering bitch in our movie

Sloan Wilson wrote “All the Best People” about rich summer residents of a resort and the locals. There’s a heavily muscled local boy in that novel, too.

Sloan Wilson also wrote "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit," which was adapted into a movie three years before "A Summer Place" that starred Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones and Fredric March. It was considered a much more respectable film, although it isn't nearly as much fun and has none of the high-camp high jinks of "A Summer Place." But both the book and movie were extremely popular.

The dialogue is hilarious. Here's some of it:

Molly: "She (her uptight Mommy) says I bounce when I walk. Do I?' Daddy Ken: "Heh heh heh...only in a pleasant way."

Ken: "You (uptight Mommy) insist on desexing her (nubile Molly) as though sex were synonymous with dirt!"

Molly: "She's (uptight Mommy) anti-sex! Whenever I have a naughty dream, do I have to feel guilty?"

For some reason I thought it was an innocuous beach blanket movie, and, after finally seeing it, kind of wish it had been. The sex repression theme is laid on with a trowel, and the acting is, with the borderline exception of Arthur Kennedy, bad beyond belief. But the slapping is majestic.

I'm really surprised it was such a big hit. "Peyton Place" was at least well-made, and had a decent cast.

Would it have killed you to have at least posted a picture or link? I mean would that have been so hard? Would it? Why don’t you try to think more of others next time before you post?

Thank you, R16. For a brief instant, you can see the bit of a smile that Connie is trying (?) to restrain while getting ready to clock Miss Dee. I wonder if they had to raise that poor tree, replace all those pretty ornaments, and redecorate that festive little scene many times? It was so pretty and inconvenient of careless Sandra to knock it down so clumsily.

R25, it's always the trees that suffer for the behavior of little tramps.

The music and scenery are to die for. I think it’s all very romantic, as well as hilariously camp.

You can tour the Jorgensen‘s Frank Lloyd Wright house once a year. It’s actually in Carmel, California.

" and so you went to a motel ? "

I thought Richard Egan was pretty sexy.

“Oh, Lifeguard~”

I really think I might take Phil Donahue over bland Troy.

"A Summer Place" marked the beginning of the Delmer Daves-Troy Donahue collaborations that produced other young-lovers-in-heat movies, "Parrish," "Susan Slade," and "Rome Adventure." These films were Warner Bros' attempts at exploring adult topics like the European films at the time, but these ended up being over-produced soap operas.

Sure wish I had, r30.

"When you slap the bitch, you have to knock over the tree!"

Sandra Dee annoys me in so many movies. ("Gidget," "Imitation of Life," "A Summer Place," "The Dunwich Horror.") She needed a hard slap in everything.

R17 Well, to be fair, his wife WAS a lesbian! (Even Helen Keller could tell that.)

I imagine that slap gave Connie many a sleepless night!

You know, Connie’s character kind of had things right. I mean, it was permissiveness that led to all the ducklipped little tramps we see today on Instagram. Parading around like strip teasers! Letting boys kiss and maul them!

Imagine Helen Ferguson heading to Rome and meeting her doppleganger who admitted to love having her bottom pinched by hunky Italian men.

Here is Connie in her slutty days.

Elaine Stritch, who in the mid-late 1950's looked like she could have been Connie's sister, stole that look R39 for her "At Liberty" show!

Elaine Stritch around the time of "Goldilocks". Connie was in the musical "Say Darling" the very same year. When Elaine showed up in a guest appearance on "The Edge of Night", at first, I thought it was Connie, just having started to watch "Another World" that very year.

I found my Holiday Card.

She was one to talk....

^ Wow, give Connie some kudos.

Gawd, the father in this film is creepy, always horning after the local hottie and encouraging his teenaged daughter to be sexy, and ruining her relationship with her mother.

And we KNOW that he'll end up sending her back to live with his slap-happy ex-wife, after the baby is old enough to be annoying, Troy Donahue is out of there, and having an unhappy daughter and grandchild around is killing the buzz he has with his new wife.

It was the greatest melodramatic slap ever until that Indian soap opera went even further.

Connie Ford takes on Peter Brady (Christopher Knight) on an early January 1981 episode of "Another World". It's actually quite touching, and Connie is very gentle with him. Apparently, she liked working with young men on the show (those who knew their lines and weren't eager to quit to go to Hollywood), and some of those actors (Richard Bekins, Laurence Lau, Matthew Crane, Tom Eplin) said that they learned a lot from her. She was absolutely no nonsense, but that rigid exterior (and Ada's dishtowel) hid a big heart. Her scene starts 3 minutes into the episode.

R23 Arthur Kennedy was in both PP and ASP.

Connie is deliciously scheming in this delightful film noir like episode of "Thriller" (the third in the series) where she is as deadly as Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity". She had appeared in a lengthy single scene of the first episode (well worth seeking out), and got the lead probably because she was so good in that smaller part.

I love how they had to make BOTH the other spouses incredibly repulsive, so that we're supposed to cheer on the affair.

LOL, R16!

R50 I agree that Arthur Kennedy's character was pretty repulsive, first as a social snob with nothing really to show for it, and then demanding custody of Troy Donahue, then spending his time being drunk and ruining the island before being shipped off to a rehab center. At least he does tell off Helen by telling her that in no uncertain times, he will not be on her side. It reforms him a bit and gives him some dimension. In any other actor's hand, Helen would have been wretched and one dimensional, but Connie makes her fascinating. Meg Myles played a character on "The Doctors" whom fans of that soap said seemed to be based on Connie's character.

I find all of the adult characters interesting. All of them sort of tragic and yearning. The actors did well with what they were given.

Arthur Kennedy especially gives Bart moments of likability. My favorite is when he gestures toward the bed with his drink and says, "I was born in this room. Right there." It's kind of endearing, even though the suggestion of sex leading to childbirth seems to perturb Connie.

[quote]Gawd, this stupid movie! Everyone acted like birth control didn't exist and the choice was between horrible awful repression, and teen pregnancy!

It wasn't stupid, it was actually shocking. Sorry to break the news to you but there was a long time where unmarried pregnancy was very scandalous. This opened at Radio City Music Hall and shocked the family friendly audiences.

I prefer the lush opening music to the popular theme. It is more adult, and with the waves crashing on the rocks, a great opening to one of my all time favorite films.

I wonder if that's what marriage was like for lesbians who gave into heteronormativity, and married some man.

Being married to a man you came to loathe, and who blamed you for everything wrong in his life, and in society.

If you see a Christmas tree is a melodrama, it's definitely getting knocked over at some point.

Then you'll love this, R55. For me it's the most beautiful movie soundtrack of all. Love the segue at 4:25

R58 Thanks! I'm adding it to my play list!

I can never think of "A Summer Place" without thinking of the parody version of it in "Henry, Sweet Henry" in a song called "I'm Blue Too, Sandra Dee."

I think Johnny hadn't been bad with girls......he had been very, very good with girls.

R61 Did he try to mess with your convenience?

Connie should have had a much better credit placement and her own title card, preferably "And Constant Ford". I can't believe she's sharing credit with someone named Beulah Bondi. I'd like to see Beulah work magic with a t-towel.

Beulah here is basically playing Irene Dailey's version of Aunt Liz. This is how I picture her.

Beulah Bondi, desperately needing to use her convenience. It's a race to the door. Who will make it first?

Beulah Bondi, at least, had two Academy Award nominations (The Gorgeous Hussy, 1936; Of Human Hearts, 1938). How many did Connie Ford have? Zilch. Beulah deserved her own "And Miss Beulah Bondi" credit.

[quote]I can't believe she's sharing credit with someone named Beulah Bondi.

"Someone named Beulah Bondi" was one of Hollywood's finest and most in-demand character actresses, with a long list of credits in many classic films. Constance Ford was not in her league.

R62 plop plop plop......

[quote]Elaine Stritch, who in the mid-late 1950's looked like she could have been Connie's sister, stole that look [R39] for her "At Liberty" show!

Elaine stole that look from Judy Garland in "A Star Is Born."

Was just reading up on Beulah Bondi, who did a fine job playing the old WASP lady with the leak over her convenience.

From Wikipedia: "She died from pulmonary complications caused by broken ribs suffered when she tripped over her cat in her home on January 11, 1981, at age 91." Damn cat!

[quote]Beulah Bondi, at least, had two Academy Award nominations (The Gorgeous Hussy, 1936; Of Human Hearts, 1938).

She should have won an Oscar for her leading role in the Leo McCarey film "Make Way for Tomorrow," in which she and Victor Moore play an elderly couple who have fallen on hard times and are unwanted by their adult children. Her final scene at Grand Central Station, in which her husband is leaving for California to find work picking fruit, and Beulah knows she will never see him again, is unforgettable, and Beulah is heartbreaking in it. Orson Welles said the movie "would make a stone cry." Beulah played old ladies even when she was relatively young.

Bondi's first movie was King Vidor's "Street Scene" (1931) based on Elmer Rice's famous play. Bondi had stayed in the original Broadway production for over a year before coming to Hollywood to play the same role on film. Wonderful actress.

I was in the folk opera, r73.

Beulah Bondi won an Emmy Award for her final acting role, a guest spot on "The Waltons" in 1976. She was 87 years old. She was there to accept the award, got a standing ovation, and thanked everyone for remembering her while she was still alive.

Burl & Beulah

Bondi and Ives were both wonderful in Disney’s much underrated “So Dear to My Heart” (1948), a truly charming journey into Americana.

[quote]Gawd, this stupid movie! Everyone acted like birth control didn't exist and the choice was between horrible awful repression, and teen pregnancy!

r14 In fact, it didn't. A Summer Place was published in 1958. Movie came out in 1959.

Oral contraceptives were not introduced until 1960. And it took a while for them to really catch on. It was the introduction of the pill that sparked the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

[quote]From Wikipedia: "She died from pulmonary complications caused by broken ribs suffered when she tripped over her cat in her home on January 11, 1981, at age 91." Damn cat!

We're all aware of the dangers of pussy.

[quote]Bondi and Ives were both wonderful in Disney’s much underrated “So Dear to My Heart” (1948), a truly charming journey into Americana.

Ives singing "Lavender Blue" to Bondi in "So Dear to My Heart." This version of an old English folk song was nominated for the best-song Oscar in 1949 but lost to a song from an Esther Williams movie, "Baby It's Cold Outside," whose lyrics and premise have run afoul of the #metoo movement.

R78, condoms existed in the 1950s. They've existed in some form for centuries, and were the primary form of birth control available to unmarried couples and people of modest means in the 1950s, and I mentioned them in the post you quoted from.

Of course the man had to be willing to buy and use them! And then as now, I suspect a hell of a lot of men would rather just go ahead and get the girl pregnant. It's not like he had to stick around or anything.

Gertrude Flynn, unbilled as Helen's mother, played Mrs. O'Malley in "Funny Girl" and was the ladies room attendant in the classic showdown between Patty Duke & Susan Hayward in "Valley of the Dolls".

First appearing at 1:00.....

Gertrude Flynn was great in her one scene.

“Hire him! And pay him well. The more you pay him, the more he’ll see.”

Do do do do do do do da da do do......

Gertrude Flynn was also the prim busybody tut-tutting Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue's behavior in Rome Adventure.

R86 Ironic considering that Connie was encouraging it!

Obviously, Connie in that film found love exciting and new.

[quote]Gertrude Flynn was also the prim busybody tut-tutting Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue's behavior in Rome Adventure.

To the tune of "Al Di La," which is heard constantly throughout the movie.

[quote]Oral contraceptives were not introduced until 1960. And it took a while for them to really catch on. It was the introduction of the pill that sparked the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

and old men have been seething with rage ever since. These are men like Kavanaugh, Santorum, Huckabee, etc.......

Molly, you had French in high school. What'd he say to me?

He said his heart was touched by your approval.

R91 Utterly, utterly charming. Tres jolie, as the French say.

I love the idea that Ann Doran (James Dean's mother in REBEL) is Dorothy McGuire's bridge partner and that Roberta Shore (Annette's rival in THE SHAGGY DOG) is Molly's gossipy classmate......

Ann Doran was in IT THE TERROR FROM OUTER SPACE where she was the navigator, performed autopsies, and then baked an apple pie for the crew.....she had mad skills.

Poor Sandra Dee had seemingly a bad life. I wonder how she she felt about that terrible Keven Spacey movie and did it push her over the edge ?

[quote]r3 Uh oh, here comes the OB to examine Sandra Dee. Will her virginity still be there? If not... what will Connie Ford do?

That is a traumatizing scene. I watched it on TV as a teen and was like, "Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD ! ! "

It's like witnessing a rape.

[quote]r50 I love how they had to make BOTH the other spouses incredibly repulsive, so that we're supposed to cheer on the affair.

What's stupid about the story is the teens treat their newly married parents like shit ... when the spouses who were ditched were horrors!

You'd think Molly would be delighted she has a new home away from her harridan mom, and that Johnny would be glad his mother unloaded his alky dad who was driving them into financial ruin. But instead both teens act utterly horrified, and vengeful.

[quote]r52 Helen would have been wretched and one dimensional, but Connie makes her fascinating. Meg Myles played a character on "The Doctors" whom fans of that soap said seemed to be based on Connie's character.

Did you know Meg Myles was/is a very accomplished singer? I saw her do a cabaret act around 1993 in NYC and she was SUPERB. I saw both Barbara Cook and Eartha Kitt around the same time, and I have to say Myles was even better than them. She was extremely assured.

R97 Thanks for that info! I read how she has the gift of being able to cure injured birds. She has a small but pivotal role in the film noir "The Phenix City Story" and is quite campy in "Satan in High Heels" opposite Grayson Hall!

[quote]She has a small but pivotal role in the film noir "The Phenix City Story"

She was the one who was in it for less than a minute and they based the whole ad campaign on her because it was the only "sexy" moment in a very true dark tale of small town over ridden by crime.

R96 Molly is upset because her adored dad is boinking another woman. I'm not sure Johnny cares as much. Both kids are just mostly skeeved out by the idea of parental fucking.

The song should be declared the official theme song of the USA in the early 1960s.

R101 It's a gorgeous theme. Brings back a lot of childhood memories for me. I distinctly remember it playing on a jukebox.

There are sites to find TV Shows. Is there one to locate movies on TV?

Daddy, she says I bounce when I walk. Do I? Do I?

R103 if you look at a movie title on IMDB, it will list current television listings (national not local).....it's on that list on the right side of the page under TV.

As for you Troy Donahue: I know what you wanna do!