Summer of '42

Summer of '42

About

While the Second World War rages in Europe, three teenage friends plan to lose their virginity. It's a Long Island 'Cider with Rosie' - sounds like a nasty cocktail, doesn't it? - in which gold-hued landscape photography and a general air of wistfulness stand in for any original elements which director Mulligan might have introduced. O'Neill is flat and uninteresting as the mother of the young hero, Hermie (Grimes), but the interaction between Grimes and his teenage co-stars - the sharp, crude Houser and the more innocent Conant - is engaging, and the spare, uncluttered soundtrack is recompense for Mulligan's overblown visuals.

Cast & Connections

Actor: Jennifer O'Neill, Jerry Houser, Oliver Conant, Christopher Norris, Gary Grimes, Katherine Allentuck
Director: Robert Mulligan
Writer: Herman Raucher
Producer: Richard A Roth
Photographer: Robert Surtees

In a nutshell

But American Pie was less pretentious.

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