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A Summer Place

A Summer Place

Drama · Romance · 1959

A self-made businessman rekindles a romance with a former flame while their two teenage children begin a romance of their own with drastic consequences for both couples.

Movie details

A Summer Place

“The Inn... The Guests... The Sensations...”

1959 Drama · Romance 2h 10m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.6 / 10

Community rating

A self-made businessman rekindles a romance with a former flame while their two teenage children begin a romance of their own with drastic consequences for both couples.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over A Summer Place?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Lost Husband

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Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.

Magnificent Obsession

Magnificent Obsession

Drama · 1954

Reckless playboy Bob Merrick crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town’s only resuscitator while a local hero, Dr. Phillips, dies waiting for the life-saving device. Merrick then tries to right his wrongs with the doctor’s widow, Helen, falling in love with her in the process.

The Fugitive Kind

The Fugitive Kind

Romance · 1960

Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins, arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence. Her husband, Jabe M. Torrance, is dying of cancer. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family.

Tim

Tim

Romance · 1979

Handsome but backward gardener Tim Melville has a new woman in his life. She is Mary, his widowed employer, a woman who had given up on love until she had found Tim. At first they are friends. But soon they become lovers, as Mary, drawn to Tim's innocence and magnetism, begins to teach him all about life - and love.

Everything, Everything

Everything, Everything

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A teenager who's lived a sheltered life because she's allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door.

Goodbye Again

Goodbye Again

Drama · 1961

Middle-aged businesswoman Paula Tessier rejects the advances of her client's amusing 25-year-old son, Philip Van der Besh, but reconsiders when her longtime philandering partner begins yet another casual affair with a younger woman. She soon learns that May-December romances with older women are frowned upon in society.

Nights in Rodanthe

Nights in Rodanthe

Drama · 2008

Adrienne is trying to decide whether to stay in her unhappy marriage or not, and her life changes when Paul, a doctor who is travelling to reconcile with his estranged son, checks into an inn where she is staying.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Delmer Daves

Written by

Delmer Daves

Richard Egan

Richard Egan

Ken Jorgenson

Dorothy McGuire

Dorothy McGuire

Sylvia Hunter

Sandra Dee

Sandra Dee

Molly Jorgenson

Arthur Kennedy

Arthur Kennedy

Bart Hunter

Troy Donahue

Troy Donahue

Johnny Hunter

Beulah Bondi

Beulah Bondi

Mrs. Emily Hamilton Hamble

Constance Ford

Constance Ford

Helen Jorgenson

Court is in session

Put A Summer Place on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.