Summer of '42 is a 1971 American coming of age romance film directed by Robert Mulligan, and starring Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, and Christopher Norris. Based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman "Hermie" Raucher, it follows a teenage boy who, during the summer of 1942 on (fictional) Packett Island, embarks on a one-sided romance with a young woman, Dorothy, whose husband has gone off to fight in World War II. The film was a commercial and critical success and was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Score for Michel Legrand.
Raucher's novelization of his screenplay of the same name was released prior to the film and became a runaway bestseller, to the point that audiences lost sight of the fact that the book was an adaptation of the film and not vice versa. Though a pop culture phenomenon in the first half of the 1970s, the novelization went out of print and slipped into obscurity throughout the next two decades until an off-Broadway adaptation in 2001 brought it back into the public light and prompted Barnes & Noble to acquire the publishing rights to the book. The film was followed by a sequel, Class of '44, also written by Raucher, with lead actors Grimes, Houser, and Conant reprising their roles.
Plot
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In the summer of 1942 on the fictional New England Packett Island (based on the real-life Nantucket Island), 15-year-old "Hermie" and his friends – jock Oscy and introverted nerd Benjie – are hanging out on the beach. They spot a young soldier carrying his new bride into a house and are struck by her beauty.
They continue spending afternoons on the beach, where their thoughts turn to sex. All of them are virgins: Oscy is obsessed with the act of sex, while Hermie develops romantic interest in the bride, whose husband he spots leaving the island on a water taxi one morning. Later that day, Hermie sees her outside the market struggling with grocery bags. He offers to carry the bags home, which she gladly accepts, and in this way, gets to meet her.
Meanwhile, Oscy and Hermie become convinced they know everything necessary to lose their virginity. They test this by going to the movies and picking up a trio of high-school girls. Oscy stakes out Miriam, "giving" Hermie her less attractive friend, Aggie, and leaving Benjie with Gloria, a heavyset girl with braces. Frightened by the potential of sex, Benjie runs off. The other two girls initially refuse to go without Benjie's would-be date, but she says to go without her, then leaves herself. The war bride, who is also at the theater, sees Hermie and asks if he can help her move some boxes on Thursday. During the film, Oscy attempts to fondle Miriam and eventually makes out with her. Hermie succeeds in kissing Aggie, who allows him to grope what he thinks is her breast; Oscy later points out that Hermie was fondling her arm.
On Thursday, Hermie helps the bride move boxes into her attic, and she thanks him with a kiss on the forehead. Later, in preparation for a marshmallow roast on the beach with Aggie and Miriam, Hermie goes to the drugstore and amusingly builds up the nerve to ask the druggist for condoms (or "rubbers", as they were known in the '40s). That night, Hermie roasts marshmallows with Aggie while Oscy has sex with Miriam behind the dune bushes. Oscy returns and asks Hermie for some condoms. Aggie, wondering what is going on, walks over to Oscy and Miriam, sees them having sex, and runs home, upset.
The next day, Hermie comes across the bride sitting outside her house, writing a letter to her husband. Hermie offers to keep her company that night, and she accepts. Hermie says he does not know her name and she replies her name is Dorothy. Later, Hermie runs into Oscy, who relates that Miriam's appendix burst and she has been rushed to the mainland. When Oscy asks about Dorothy and makes crude comments, Hermie rebukes him for his crassness.
When Hermie arrives at Dorothy's house that evening, he finds it strangely quiet. He sees a spinning record with the needle stuck in the run-out groove, a bottle of whiskey on a table, a burning cigarette in an ashtray and next to it a telegram. Dorothy's husband has been killed in action, his plane shot down over France. Dorothy comes out of her bedroom in tears. She greets Hermie, switches on the phonograph then walks into the kitchen and begins washing dishes. Hermie says, "I'm sorry." Dorothy turns toward Hermie, slowly approaches him and silently lays her head on his shoulder and they dance together, both in tears; then they kiss. Taking his hand, she leads him to the bedroom. They silently undress and Dorothy draws Hermie into bed and gently makes love with him. Afterward, she withdraws to the porch. Hermie approaches her, and she tells him goodnight. He then leaves, his last image of Dorothy being of her leaning against the railing as she smokes a cigarette and stares into the night.
The next day, Hermie and Oscy reconcile, with Oscy informing Hermie that Miriam will recover. Oscy is curious about what happened with Dorothy, but Hermie remains silent. Hermie returns to Dorothy's, only to find the house deserted. She has left behind a letter for Hermie explaining that she must return home and that in time he will find a proper way to remember what happened between them. She assures him that she will remember him and hopes he will be spared from life's senseless tragedies, wishing him "good things, only good things", signing, "Always, Dorothy."
In the finishing narrator voiceover, the adult Hermie notes that he would never see Dorothy again nor learn what became of her. The film concludes: "In the summer of '42 we raided the Coast Guard station four times, we saw five movies and had nine days of rain. Benjie broke his watch, Oscy gave up the harmonica, and, in a very special way, I lost Hermie. Forever."
Cast
- Jennifer O'Neill as Dorothy
- Gary Grimes as Hermie
- Jerry Houser as Oscy
- Oliver Conant as Benjie
- Katherine Allentuck as Aggie
- Christopher Norris as Miriam
- Lou Frizzell as druggist
Director Robert Mulligan provided uncredited voiceover narration as the older Hermie. Maureen Stapleton (Katherine Allentuck's mother) provided the voice for Sophie, Hermie's mother, Seltzer was shot dead on a battlefield in Korea while tending to a wounded man; this happened on Raucher's birthday, and consequently, Raucher has not celebrated a birthday since. While writing the screenplay, Raucher realized that despite growing up with Oscy and having bonded with him through their formative years, the two had never really had any meaningful conversations or known one another on a more personal level. Raucher recognized the "real" Dorothy's handwriting, and she confirmed her identity by making references to certain events only she could have known about.
An error in both the book and film centers on the movie Now, Voyager. They go to a movie theater to see the movie in the "summer of '42". However, the film was released nationally in the U.S. on October 31, 1942, with an October 22 premiere in New York City, so it would have been impossible to see the movie that summer.
Raucher wrote the film script in the 1950s during his tenure as a television writer, but "couldn't give it away." In the 1960s, he met Robert Mulligan, best known for directing To Kill a Mockingbird. Raucher showed Mulligan the script, and Mulligan took it to Warner Bros., where Mulligan argued the film could be shot for the relatively low price of $1 million, and Warner approved it.
Filming
Though set on the east coast, Summer of '42 was filmed in Northern California, largely in Fort Bragg and Mendocino, as the real island of Nantucket was too developed to pass for the '40s. Shooting took place over eight weeks, during which O'Neill was sequestered from the three boys cast as "The Terrible Trio," in order to ensure that they did not become close and ruin the sense of awkwardness and distance that their characters felt towards Dorothy. Production ran smoothly, finishing on schedule.. Beyond that, it is estimated video rentals and purchases in the United States since the 1980s have produced an additional $20.5 million. On this point, Raucher said in May 2002 that his ten percent of the gross, in addition to royalties from book sales, "has paid bills ever since." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
In The Guardian, Derek Malcolm wrote Summer of '42 "is one of those rare films you can't help liking simply for its aspirations, which are so honest and open-minded." He concluded, "You could, I suppose, view it as a deeply romantic film full of a specifically American yearning for the purity of pubescence. You could also view it more simply as an ingratiating comedy about latent sexuality. Either way you can't doubt its charm and sheer professionalism, even if the pace is slack at times." Canby concluded the "foreground is mostly accurate, in which sexual panic and fist fights and nose bleeds are treated with the great comic respect they deserve." Ebert noted the film is "beautifully produced and photographed", but lacked more of a perspective on Hermie's experiences and how it changed him.
Accolades
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
|-
| rowspan="4"| Academy Awards
| Best Original Screenplay
| Herman Raucher
|
|-
| Best Original Score
| Michel Legrand
|
|-
| Best Cinematography
| Robert Surtees
|
|-
| Best Film Editing
| Folmar Blangsted
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| BAFTA Awards
| Best Original Music
| Michel Legrand
|
|-
| Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
| Gary Grimes
|
|-
| Directors Guild of America Awards
| Outstanding Directorial Achievement – Feature Film
| Robert Mulligan
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| Golden Globe Awards
| colspan="2"| Best Motion Picture – Drama
|
|-
| Best Director
| Robert Mulligan
|
|-
| Best Original Score
| Michel Legrand
|
|-
| New Star of the Year – Actor
| Gary Grimes
|
|-
|}
Home media
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment first released the film on VHS in 1984. It was released on DVD by Warner in 2002. The Warner Archive Collection reissued the DVD in 2014, followed by a Blu-ray release in 2017.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack consists almost entirely of compositions by Michel Legrand, many of which are variants upon "The Summer Knows", the film's theme. Lyrics are by Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Because the complete score runs just under 17 minutes, only the first and eighth tracks on the album are from Summer of '42; the rest of the music is taken from Legrand's score for 1969's The Picasso Summer.
Main theme "Summer of '42" won a Grammy Award at 14th edition held in 1972 for Best Instrumental Composition.
In addition to Legrand's scoring, the film also features the song "Hold Tight" by The Andrews Sisters and the theme from Now, Voyager. On the Billboard 200, it debuted on November 9, 1971, and peaked at #52 on November 20, 1971.
Warner Bros. Publications released a sheet music folio, Summer of '42 & Other Hits of the Forties, which contains the movie theme and 34 other unrelated songs.
Music
Legrand's theme song for the film, "The Summer Knows", has since become a pop standard, being recorded by such artists as Peter Nero (who had a charting hit with his 1971 version), Biddu (1975 international chart hit), Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Andy Williams, Jonny Fair, Scott Walker, Elis Regina, Jackie Evancho, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Toots Thielemans, George Benson, Roger Williams, and Barbra Streisand.
Garth Brooks' 1993 hit "That Summer" features a similar story of a coming-of-age male in a romance with an older female.
Chart history
;Roger Williams
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Chart (1971)
!Peak<br />position
|-
|US Cash Box
|align="center"|118
|-
|}
;Peter Nero
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Chart (1971–72)
!Peak<br />position
|-
|Australia (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|70
|-
|Canada RPM Top Singles
| style="text-align:center;"|17
|-
|US Billboard Hot 100
| style="text-align:center;"|21
|-
|US Billboard Adult Contemporary
| style="text-align:center;"|6
|-
|US Cash Box Top 100
|align="center"|21
|-
|}
;Biddu Orchestra
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Chart (1975)
!Peak<br />position
|-
| Australia (Kent Music Report)
| style="text-align:center;"| 54
|-
|Canada RPM Adult Contemporary
| style="text-align:center;"|21
|-
|Canada RPM Top Singles
| style="text-align:center;"|77
|-
|
|-
|UK
| style="text-align:center;"|14
|-
|US Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|54
|-
|}
Legacy
In the years since the film's release, Warner Bros. has attempted to buy back Raucher's ten percent of the film as well as his rights to the story so it could be remade; Raucher has consistently declined.
Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick cited it as one of his favorite films of all time, and featured it in a scene in The Shining (1980), during which the character of Wendy Torrance watches the film on television. Director Quentin Tarantino is also an admirer of it, and declared it "one of the best movies of the ’70s."
Sequel
In 1973, the film was followed by Class of '44, a slice-of-life film made up of vignettes about Herman Raucher and Oscar Seltzer's experiences in college. Class of '44 involves the boys facing army service in the last year of World War II. The only crew member from Summer of '42 to return to the project was Raucher himself, who wrote the script; a new director and composer were brought in to replace Mulligan and Legrand. Of the four principal cast members of Summer of '42, only Jerry Houser and Gary Grimes returned for prominent roles, with Oliver Conant making two brief appearances totaling less than two minutes of screen time. Jennifer O'Neill did not appear in the film at all, nor was the character of Dorothy mentioned.
The film met with poor critical reviews; the only three reviews available at Rotten Tomatoes are resoundingly negative, with Channel 4 calling it "a big disappointment," and The New York Times stating "The only things worth attention in 'Class of '44' are the period details," and Class of '44' seems less like a movie than 95 minutes of animated wallpaper."
Off-Broadway musical
In 2001, Raucher consented to the film being made into an off-Broadway musical play. The play met with positive critical and fan response, and was endorsed by Raucher himself, but the play was forced to close down in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. – had not been realized. It is unknown if O'Neill is still attempting to get it produced or if Raucher consented to its production.
See also
- List of American films of 1971
References
External links
- Summer of '42 at TV Guide (heavily edited and shorted version of the lengthy 1987 write-up originally published in The Motion Picture Guide)
- Summer of '42 by Andy Williamson – The Wordslinger dated April 14, 2008