History Film / SummerOf42

''Summer of '42'' is a 1971 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and written by Herman Raucher. A ComingOfAgeStory based on Raucher's own experiences as a teenager during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it is perhaps best remembered for providing [[Creator/JenniferONeill Jennifer O'Neill]] with ''the'' role of her career--and for including ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHezowVjDX4 that]]'' music.

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''Summer of '42'' is a 1971 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and written by Herman Raucher. A ComingOfAgeStory based on Raucher's own experiences as a teenager during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it is perhaps best remembered now for providing [[Creator/JenniferONeill Jennifer O'Neill]] with ''the'' role of her career and for including ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHezowVjDX4 that]]'' music.

Hermie (Gary Grimes) is a teenaged boy spending the summer of 1942 on an [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed unnamed island that's a lot like Nantucket]]. Neither Hermie nor his friends--Oscy (Jerry Houser), the jock, and Benjie (Oliver Conant), the shy nerd--are very concerned about the war, but they ''are'' very concerned with sex and girls. When Benjie reveals that his parents own a textbook about sex, it is a major event in the the lives of the boys. Oscy begins putting the moves on a pretty blonde he meets at the movie theater. Hermie also meets a girl at the theater, but his attention is fixed elsewhere--or more specifically, on Dorothy (O'Neill), a beautiful woman at least ten years older than he is who lives in a cottage on the beach, and whose paratrooper husband has gone off to fight in the war.

In 1973, the film was followed by a [[FirstInstallmentWins forgotten sequel]], ''Class of '44''. It featured the return of Hermie, Oscy, and Benjie (all played by the same actors) but with [[SequelNonEntity no appearance by Dorothy]] (maintaining consistency with the original, in which Narrator Adult Hermie says he never saw her again).

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: While Raucher's real-life experiences took place on Nantucket, the island is left unnamed in the film and called Packett Island in the novelization. In any case, the movie was [[CaliforniaDoubling shot around Mendocino, California]], which is not on an island but offers plenty of coastal SceneryPorn regardless. (According to WordOfGod, Nantucket looked far too modern by 1971 to realistically pass for the 1940s setting.)

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: While Raucher's real-life experiences took place on Nantucket, the island is left unnamed in the film and called Packett Island in the novelization. In any case, the movie was [[CaliforniaDoubling shot around Mendocino, California]], which is not on an island but offers plenty of coastal SceneryPorn regardless. According to WordOfGod, Nantucket looked far too modern by 1971 to realistically pass for the 1940s setting.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: When trying to buy condoms, Hermie keeps chickening out and asking for an addition to his strawberry ice cream. As the druggist is getting him a napkin, he nervously blurts out "How about some rubbers?" Cue DoubleTake from the man.

* CompressedAdaptation: True to the title, the book is more of a panopticon of Hermie's experiences on the island over the course of the entire Summer. While his relationship with Dorothy supplies the climax and is certainly a narrative thread, the book also heavily focuses on Hermie's friendship with Oscy with frequent callbacks to their early teens in a Jewish enclave in Brooklyn.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Oscy, sort of. In the novel he's mentioned as having died while serving as a medic in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, but the movie makes no mention of this.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Oscy, sort of. In the novel he's mentioned as having died while serving as a medic in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, but the movie makes no mention of his or any of the characters' post-1942 fates.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Oscy, sort of. In the novel he's mentioned as having died while serving as a medic in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, but the movie makes no mention of his or any of the characters' ultimate fates.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Oscy, who in the novel is mentioned as having died while serving as a medic in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar.

* JizzedInMyPants: Not definitively stated, but certainly implied during a scene where Dorothy, clad in a [[BareYourMidriff midriff-baring]] halter top and short shorts, asks poor Hermie for help in loading some boxes in her attic.

* CringeComedy: Hermie trying to work up the courage to buy condoms in the drug store. First there's an elderly lady shopping in there who he doesn't want overhearing him, then he orders an ice cream because he's too embarrassed, then he has to bluff his way through asking for his "usual" brand, which costs more than he's prepared to pay, and finally he tries to pretend he doesn't even know what condoms are used for.

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: A suitably {{retraux}} version of the theme plays on a phonograph at Dorothy's place when Hermie shows up toward the end.

Hermie (Gary Grimes) is a teenaged boy spending the summer of 1942 on an [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed unnamed island that's a lot like Nantucket]]. Neither Hermie nor his friends--Oscy (Jerry Houser), the jock, and Benjie (Oliver Conant), the shy nerd--are very concerned about the war, but they ''are'' very concerned with sex and girls. When Benjie reveals that his parents own a textbook about sex, it is a major event in the the lives of the boys. Oscy begins putting the moves on a pretty blonde he meets at the movie theater. Hermie also meets a girl at the theater, but his attention is fixed elsewhere--namely, on Dorothy (O'Neill), a beautiful woman at least ten years older than he is who has a cottage on the beach, and whose paratrooper husband has gone off to fight in the war.

Hermie (Gary Grimes) is a teenaged boy spending the summer of 1942 on an [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed unnamed island that's a lot like Nantucket]]. Neither Hermie or his friends – Oscy (Jerry Houser), the jock, and Benjie (Oliver Conant), the shy nerd – are very concerned about the war, but they ''are'' very concerned with sex and girls. When Benjie reveals that his parents own a textbook about sex, it is a major event in the the lives of the boys. Oscy begins putting the moves on a pretty blonde he meets at the movie theater. Hermie also meets a girl at the theater, but his attention is fixed elsewhere – namely, on Dorothy (O'Neill), a beautiful woman at least ten years older than he is who has a cottage on the beach, and whose paratrooper husband has gone off to fight in the war.

Hermie (Gary Grimes) is a teenaged boy spending the summer of 1942 on an [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed unnamed island that's a lot like Nantucket]]. Hermie and his good friends -- Oscy (Jerry Houser), the jock, and Benjie (Oliver Conant), the shy nerd -- aren't too concerned with the war, but they are very concerned with sex and girls. When Benjie reveals that his parents own a textbook about sex, it is a major event in the the lives of the boys. Oscy begins putting the moves on a pretty blonde he meets at the movie theater. Hermie also meets a girl at the theater, but his attention is fixed elsewhere -- namely on Dorothy (O'Neill), a beautiful woman at least ten years older than he is who has a cottage on the beach, and whose paratrooper husband has gone off to fight in the war.

''Summer of '42'' is a 1971 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and written by Herman Raucher. A ComingOfAgeStory based on Raucher's own experiences as a teenager during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, it is perhaps best known for providing ''the'' role of [[Creator/JenniferONeill Jennifer O'Neill]]'s career and for including ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHezowVjDX4 that]]'' music.

Hermie (Gary Grimes) is a teenaged boy spending the summer of 1942 on an [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed unnamed island that's a lot like Nantucket]]. Hermie and his friends -- Oscy (Jerry Houser), the jock, and Benjie (Oliver Conant), the shy nerd -- aren't too concerned with the war, but they are very concerned with sex and girls. When Benjie reveals that his parents own a textbook about sex, it is a major event in the the lives of the boys. Oscy begins putting the moves on a pretty blonde he meets at the movie theater. Hermie also meets a girl at the theater, but his attention is fixed elsewhere: on Dorothy (O'Neill), a woman at least ten years older than he is who has a cottage on the beach, and whose paratrooper husband has gone off to fight in the war.

* TheVoice: Hermie's mom, heard a couple of times through the walls but never seen. Her voice is provided by Maureen Stapleton.

* JizzedInMyPants: Not definitively stated, but certainly implied during a scene where Dorothy, clad in a [[BareYourMidriff midriff-baring]] halter top and [[WhoWearsShortShorts short shorts]], asks poor Hermie for help in loading some boxes in her attic.

* TheVoice: Hermie's mom, heard a couple of times through the walls but never seen. Her voice is provided by Maureen Stapleton, incidentally.

* TheVoice: Hermie's mom, heard a couple of times through the walls, never seen. Her voice is provided by Maureen Stapleton, incidentally.

* AdaptedOut: Hermie's sister and father, the former of whom is a minor character in the book, and who has a fiancé fighting in the war. In the film, we only ever hear Hermie's mother offscreen.

* AdaptedOut: Hermie's sister and father, the former of whom is a minor character in the book, and who has a fiancé fighting in World War II. In the film, we only ever hear Hermie's mother offscreen.

* AdaptedOut: Hermie's sister and father, the former of whom is a minor character in the book, and who has a fiancee fighting in World War II. In the film, we only ever hear Hermie's mother.

* DuringTheWar: Set on the American homefront during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, obviously. Other than killing off Dorothy's husband, the war has little impact on the storyline. Our teenage male protagonists are, of course, too young for military service. The war looms much more heavily over events in the book, in which Hermie's sister has a fiancee fighting in the army and who is ultimately killed on D-Day.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Oscy, who in the book is mentioned as having died while serving as a medic in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar.

----

->''"I was never to see her again. Nor was I ever to learn what became of her. We were different then. Kids were different. It took us longer to understand the things we felt. Life is made up of small comings and goings, and for everything we take with us, there is something we leave behind. In the [[TitleDrop 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."''
-->--'''Closing narration'''

->''"Life is made up of small comings and goings, and for everything we take with us, there is something we leave behind. In the [[TitleDrop 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."''

* WartimeWedding: It's implied that Dorothy and her husband are newlyweds.