Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Summer of '42

Summer of '42 is a 1971 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. It tells the story of how Raucher, in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation on Nantucket Island, off the coast of New England, embarked on a one-sided romance with a woman, Dorothy, whose husband had gone off to fight in World War II.
The film was directed by Robert Mulligan, and starred Gary Grimes as Hermie, Jerry Houser as his best friend Oscy, Oliver Conant as their nerdy young friend Benjie, Jennifer O'Neill as Hermie's mysterious love interest, and Katherine Allentuck and Christopher Norris as a pair of girls whom Hermie and Oscy attempt to seduce. Mulligan also has an uncredited role as the voice of the adult Hermie. Maureen Stapleton (Allentuck's real-life mother) also appears in a small, uncredited voice role (calling after Hermie as he leaves the house in an early scene, and after he enters his room in a later scene).
Raucher's novelization of his screenplay of the same name was released prior to the film's release and became a runaway bestseller, to the point that audiences lost sight of the fact that the book was based on 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 a Broadway adaptation in 2001 brought it back into the public light and prompted Barnes & Noble to acquire the publishing rights to the book.
                                                              Theatrical release poster

Directed by Robert Mulligan
Produced by Richard A. Roth
Written by Herman Raucher
Narrated by Robert Mulligan
Starring Jennifer O'Neill
Gary Grimes
Jerry Houser
Oliver Conant
Music by Michel Legrand
Cinematography Robert Surtees
Editing by Folmar Blangsted
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)
  • April 9, 1971
Running time 104 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1 million
Box office $32,063,634[2]

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