A Summer Place (1959)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: California

A Summer Place is a 1959 American romantic drama film based on Sloan Wilson's 1958 novel of the same name, about teenage lovers from different classes who get back together 20 years later, and then must deal with the passionate love affair of their own teenage children by previous marriages. Delmer Daves directed the film, which stars Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire as a couple, and Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue as their respective children. The film contains a memorable instrumental theme composed by Max Steiner, which spent nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1960.

Production

The film was shot in Pacific Grove, California, and around the Monterey Peninsula. Sloan Wilson wrote the first screenplay, which covered the 22-year span of the novel. Delmer Daves focused the new draft on one year. Daves said:

I have two kids who are just about the same age of these two in A Summer Place and I know how difficult communication between generations can be. And while this may sound corny, it can be assisted by love and understanding. Amid some rather tempestuous social activities, this is what we are trying to demonstrate. That there are two affairs may sound sensational, but that's not the point.

Some exterior and interior scenes involving Ken and Sylvia's beach house were filmed at the Mrs. Clinton Walker House at Carmel-by-the-Sea, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1948. In the film, Sylvia tells Molly that Wright designed the house, ostensibly located on the East Coast near the movie's "Pine Island" location (since Molly and Johnny drive from Pine Island to the house after being sent away by the justice of the peace).

Located just outside downtown Pacific Grove, the 1895 LaPorte Mansion served as the filming location for the Pine Island Inn. In 2023, a fire destroyed the historic building.

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