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Although critically savaged, this 1959 adaptation of a bestselling novel by Sloan Wilson hit a receptive chord with mass audiences, making it a touchstone film of the decade. A cinematic soap opera populated by familiar '50s players, A Summer Place centers on vacationing millionaire Ken (Richard Egan) and his wife, Helen (Constance Ford), who bring teenage daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) to a small island off the coast of Maine. There, some 20 years before, Dad had embarked on a torrid affair with sensitive Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire), who has since married impoverished landowner Bart (Arthur Kennedy). Old passions reignite, one thing leads to another, and divorces ensue. But the real problem is the budding romance between Dee and Sylvia’s son, Johnny, played by Troy Donahue. Their relationship lies at the heart of this twisted tale, which has all the corny complications one expects from such glossy tear-jerkers. Guilty pleasures abound: Dee and Donahue make a beautiful couple, McGuire is appropriately sorrowful as the long-suffering mother, and there’s always that haunting theme song by Max Steiner, still a ubiquitous presence on oldies collections. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The Jorgensons are a wealthy family spending the summer on a resort island. Ken (Richard Egan), Helen (Constance Ford) and daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) settle in to a beach house on the island where Ken was a young lifeguard twenty years ago. He rediscovers Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire), with whom he had an earlier affair before she married Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy). The Hunter's son Johnny (Troy Donahue) and Molly fall in love, much to the objection of her mother, a cold and cynical woman. When Ken and Sylvia start another torrid affair, the exposure of the liaison leads to the divorce of both married couples. After Johnny and Molly are stranded overnight on a beach, Molly is forced by her heartless mistrusting mother to undergo a physical examination and a pregnancy test. Tests results are negative, but more negative is the mother-daughter relationship. Ken and Sylvia get married and Molly gets pregnant. The newlyweds then compassionately guide unwed couple to marriage. Dan Pavlides

Product Details

• UPC: 085392888726
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Time: 2:10:00
• Sales Rank: 3,132

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