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-
Also notable was a "Dr Scott Brad Janet Rocky Ugh" scene with quick cuts of all the charactors seeing each other after many years apart. And I LOL when Troy Donahue walks in on his parents talking with the ominous music cue "Dum dum DUUUMMM".
But the very funniest is when the parent's affair is uncovered, a line of newspapers bearing headlines like "Pine Island Scandal! Love Trysts of Millionaire Revealed! Spurned Wife Tells All!"
Despite the laughs, the movie was a sensitively told story about a very taboo subject of the 50's. It was great to see the parents show their own mistakes, vulnerabilities and evolution. And when the kids were "in trouble" the only ones they could turn to were their parents. The story supports young love as possibly everlasting and illustrates the work involved for a truly successful pairing.
I liked that the Father, perfectly played by Arthur Kennedy gets the final speech & redeems himself in the end & the evil Mother also deftly played by Constance Ford does not.
I wish we could have watched this as a family when my kid was a teen, she may have realized she wasn't the first to feel that way, it's an age old story.
If I ever cross paths with Lorna again...THIS is what we're going to watch!