A Summer Place (film)
| A Summer Place | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Delmer Daves |
| Screenplay by | Delmer Daves |
| Based on |
A Summer Place by Sloan Wilson |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Harry Stradling |
| Edited by | Owen Marks |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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130 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
A Summer Place is a 1959 romantic drama film based on Sloan Wilson's 1958 novel of the same name, about teenage lovers from different social classes who get back together twenty years later, and then must deal with the passionate love affair of their own teenage children by previous marriages. Delmer Daves directed the movie, which stars Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire as the middle-aged lovers, and Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee as their children. The film contains a memorable instrumental theme composed by Max Steiner, which spent nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1960.
Alcoholic Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy), his long-suffering wife Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire), and their teenage son Johnny (Troy Donahue) operate a crumbling inn on Pine Island off the Maine coast. The inn was previously Bart's elegant family mansion in an exclusive resort, but as his family fortunes have dwindled, the Hunters are forced to rent rooms to paying guests, even going so far as to move themselves into the small guest house so their own master bedroom suite can be rented out. Bart receives a reservation request from an old acquaintance, Ken Jorgenson, who was a lowly lifeguard on the island twenty years ago, but is now a successful research chemist and millionaire. Ken wants to bring his wife and daughter to the island for the summer. Bart dislikes Ken and feels that Ken is just coming to lord his new wealthy status over Bart, who is no longer rich. Bart nearly refuses the request, but Sylvia insists that he accept because they badly need the money.
Ken (Richard Egan) arrives with his wife Helen (Constance Ford) and teenage daughter Molly (Sandra Dee). Helen and Ken have an unhappy marriage, sleep in separate bedrooms, and frequently argue, including over the proper behavior standards for their daughter. Helen is a prude who disapproves of Molly's developing figure and healthy interest in boys, particularly Johnny Hunter, who is also attracted to Molly. Ken is much more relaxed and permissive, and tries to teach his daughter that her natural desires are not shameful. Helen also tries unsuccessfully to put on airs and impress the upper class residents of the island, while Ken is not interested in pretense and is even happy to talk with older people who remember him from when he worked as a lifeguard.
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