Summer Place (1959)

"Soap opera supreme...  James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette
"...intense, highly-dramatic melange...  Variety

Editor's Note Winding curves and smashing dead ends make SUMMER PLACE a truly ironic tale of unrequited love and teenage lust. When a business man, Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan) takes his wife, Helen (Constance Ford) and his daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) to an island off the coast of Maine, little does he suspect that he will rekindle the teenage love affair he once had with the now married Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire). Now it seems that events are going to repeat themselves when her son (Troy Donahue) and his daughter meet and fall in love. Subtle at first, SUMMER PLACE unfolds like a easy love story, but the surprise ending makes it difficult to forget.

	Dorothy McGuire
	Richard Egan
	Sandra Dee
	Troy Donahue
	Delmer Daves - Director
	Delmer Daves - Screenplay
	Delmer Daves - Producer
	Harry Stradling, Sr. - Cinematographer
	Leo K. Kuter - Art Director
	Max Steiner - Original Music By
	Owen Marks - Editor
	Sloan Wilson - Based On Novel By

DVDLaser.com 9 of 10
We love A Summer Place more every time we see it. The film is ideal for a rainy summer afternoon or evening. It runs a few minutes over two hours and has a soap opera plot, probably closest in similarity to Peyton Place, though there is less melodrama. The plot has two tiers. It is about young lovers, portrayed without embarrassment by Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee, and it is about an illicit romance between his mother (Dorothy McGuire) and her father (Richard Egan). Arthur Kennedy and Constance Ford (who makes a wonderful villainess) also star. Like any antique, A Summer Place is old enough that even though it lacks artistic refinement, it can be appreciated for its craftsmanship. - Doug Pratt