HoldenIsHere wrote: ↑January 10th, 2023, 3:15 pm
TikiSoo wrote: ↑January 10th, 2023, 7:49 am
Last night I finished A SUMMER PLACE '59 after all the conversation on that other board, I just had to give it a try. In all honesty I avoided popping it into the DVD player thinking that damn easy listening theme song was going to play incessantly & get stuck in my head- courage rewarded, my fears were groundless.
This movie was a long drawn out soaper concerning adult love, lost love & teen love and starred Richard Egan & Dorothy McGuire and Sandra Dee & Troy Donahue. The story was written, produced & directed by Delmar Daves and is well told, very well acted.
There aren't many films where the music actually adds to the story as much as this one; the tempo slows & changes key to fit the dialogue, the familiar theme deviates to sour notes as the situation sours, etc.
The photography is the star of this film: the lighting & photography of the actors -especially Sandra Dee- is scrumptious and the landscapes, especially the ocean crashing on the shore to symbolize their love; the pulling tides, the strength of nature that can't be harnessed.
Those are the conventional high points of the movie. Then add a sprinkling of over the top drama (not unlike Mildred Pierce movie) for some delightful LOL moments. Of course, this was my favorite-
Ah yes, the Christmas tree scene!
The plastic Christmas tree that Constance Ford's character says should last ten years . . .
I like the way Beulah Bondi's character calls Richard Egan's character "Lifeguard" and gets him to fix the leak that's dripping on her "convenience." I love when he asks her: "Where are you leaking?"
I'm a big fan of Sandra Dee. I especially love her in GIDGET and TAMMY, TELL ME TRUE. She's very good in her first movie UNTIL THEY SAIL, where she holds her own with Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine and Piper Laurie (who play her older sisters in the movie).
I also love her in A SUMMER PLACE even though her hairstyle in that movie is not very flattering.
Probably my favorite Sandra Dee lines is A SUMMER PLACE is the one to her mother: "Johnny's lettuhs were all I had to live for. And now you've even made them dirty. " (in Sandra Dee's New Jersey accent)
The Christmas tree scene is hilarious. It's so dramatic. I cannot believe that Sandra Dee made "A Summer Place" and "Gidget" in the same year. Talk about two extreme characters. I love Sandra Dee. Much like Doris Day, she's maligned as a goody two shoes, a reputation further cemented by Rizzo's song "Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee" in "Grease." I don't know why she was given this reputation. In "A Summer Place," she's a teenager who gets pregnant, in "Gidget," she's upset because she can't seem to score a boyfriend and laments to her mother that she "came home pure as the driven snow," in "Take Her, She's Mine," she writes home to father Jimmy Stewart that she's "still a virgin" and the tone of her letter says that she's not happy about it. Then in "Doctor, You Must Be Kidding," she's trying to figure out who the father of her baby is and there are three potential baby daddies!
Aside from "A Summer Place," I also love "Gidget," "Take Her, She's Mine," "Until They Sail," and "That Funny Feeling" (w/ husband Bobby Darin). I thought she was great as Lana Turner's daughter in "Imitation of Life" too.
Speaking of "Grease," I once had to convince a co-worker that Sandra Dee was a real person and was not in fact, the name of Olivia Newton-John's character. She thought Olivia was named "Sandy Dee" and I had to explain that 1) No. That's not who the song is referring to; and 2) Sandy's last name in the film is Olsson. I'm pretty sure they even say it in the film.