Such a frustrating disappointment

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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.

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.

The things I've heard about this movie made me expect so much more than I got. I was expect a soap obviously, but a good one. Something along the lines of Written On The Wind or Peyton Place. Now that was pure drama as well as fabulous acting. I didn't get it with A Summer Place. The story somewhat plodded on and I fast-forwarded a couple times. The performances were OK. No one was a standout. Neither of the "teens" was believable as that age group. Sandra Dee looked more like a teen in Imitation of Life. I didn't find that any of the characters had any particular chemistry with each other. When there's a forbidden romance in a story, it usually helps if the audience feels like the characters would die w/o each other. With the two adults, they kept saying it, but I never believed it. As a personal thing, I always have a problem rooting for adulterers. The parents (the scandalous pair) seemed to come out of this rather unscathed. Meanwhile, the other set likely drank himself to death and the other ended up alone. Based on the description I read, I was expecting their actions to have consequences, but I guess that wasn't the point of the story.Another thing that had me curious was that they never really dealt with the fact that the "teens" were now step-siblings. I don't know if it was b/c of time constraints or the time period, but it seems like that was worth a mention?I wish I could recommend this film, but I can't unless you have time to kill. I had been waiting to see it for a long time. Utterly disappointing.

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