As I've mentioned many times, I'm a sucker for a good coming-of-age story, or even a mediocre one. I liked this one quite a bit, but there's no accounting for taste.
The truth is that even I am not old enough to remember the summer of '42, but there wasn't really much difference between that era and my own 15th summer. Much of what's depicted on the screen with Hermie and his friends as they try to figure out what growing up is all about could have happened just as easily in the latter 1950s. Anyone seeing this movie now might find the innocence of these boys hard to believe, but it's a pretty accurate depiction.
Gary Grimes is very good as Hermie, but he hasn't made a movie in decades. If Jennifer O'Neil never had another role as good as this one, she's at least continued working right on up until the present. What an interesting life she's had. I suppose the character she plays in the movie would be arrested for her behavior today, however tastefully it's handled, so be warned.
I've never seen the sequel to this movie, and I've never been tempted to watch it. I've never read the novelization, either, though for years after the movie's release there were dozens of copies of it in every used-book store I went into.
7 comments:
I did see the sequel but all I remember about it was that it was not memorable. I agree, Jennifer O'Neill was hot! What red-blooded American boy wouldn't have lusted after her?
Jeff
I guess "interesting" is one word for this:
O'Neill has been married nine times to eight husbands (she married, divorced, and remarried husband number six); at one point, she was married to four different men in four years. At age 44, she married husband number seven sooner than any other actress, sooner than Zsa Zsa Gabor (who was 63), Liza Minnelli (59) and Lana Turner (49), making her the youngest "most married" Hollywood celebrity.
Jeff
Method acting carries over?
I remember liking this one a lot... can it really be 40 years ago? Wow, I was 27 years old.
I had such a crush on O'Neill after seeing this movie. And then, a couple of years ago, I was an extra on another movie she was in, (Doonby, still not released.) but I never got to meet her, alas!
I remember seeing her in Rio Lobo and feeling sorry for her because she was such a bad actress and would never have a career. Later, I learned she was rich. I wasted my pity. But she was a babe.
As a commenter notes on Kliph Nesteroff's choice on this week's list, CAN H. MERKIN EVER FORGET MERCY HUMPPE AND MAKE A COHERENT FILM OF HIS SELF-ABSORPTION?:
Newley collaborated on the screenplay with Herman Raucher, who immediately went on to write his own autobiographical film, Summer of '42...
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