YMMV / Summer of '42

• Awesome Music: Michel Legrand's hauntingly beautiful theme tune became a popular standard, both instrumentally and with lyrics as "The Summer Knows". Easy listening pianist Peter Nero had a charting hit with it the year after the film's release.
• First Installment Wins: Though it's not without its moments, the sequel Class of '44 got a lukewarm critical reception and was nothing near the box-office hit that the first film was. If it's remembered at all nowadays, it's for featuring John Candy in his (uncredited) screen debut.
• Funny Moments: The entire sequence of Hermie trying to buy condoms from Mr. Sanders the druggist.
  • Once he finally gets rid of the old lady in the store, he keeps back-tracking to asking for stuff like sprinkles for his ice cream cone before finally blurting out "How about some rubbers?"—and getting a magnificent Double Take in response.
  • Mr. Sanders then asks what kind he wants, to which Hermie bluffingly replies "the usual". After shown the various brands and styles available, Hermie finally requests "the blue ones", to which Sanders asks how many. Hermie says three dozen, prompting the druggist to do another double take and snark, "Planning a big night?" "Just the usual", Hermie returns.
  • Hermie then tries to pass off that they're actually for his brother and pretends he thinks they're essentially water balloons. Mr. Sanders swallows this excuse without question.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Oscy is seen wearing a US Army hoodie in multiple scenes. In real life Oscar Seltzer enlisted in the Army and died in Korea—and Herman Raucher got the news on his 24th birthday. Raucher hasn't celebrated a birthday since.
• Hollywood Homely: Aggie is supposed to be a plain-Jane type that Hermie has no interest in, but her actress is actually quite cute. Although it may be just that Hermie isn't interested because he's already crushing on Dorothy.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The ending. Hermie discovers that Dorothy has left her home, leaving only a note saying goodbye to him, telling him he'll find his own way to remember their night together. The first woman he ever loved or slept with, and his narration says he never saw her again. After the film came out, multiple people wrote to him pretending to be her. Finally he got one from the real Dorothy, who said she felt guilty for years about taking advantage of him, and didn't give a return address so they wouldn't get back in touch.
  • Hermie's reaction after the night as well. In contrast to Oscy's proud bragging, he doesn't seem to know what to think. If you don't take the encounter as romantic and an unfortunate mistake leading to statutory rape, Hermie's dazed reaction becomes that of a teenager who was taken advantage of and doesn't know how to process it.
• The Woobie: Dorothy if you think about it. She doesn't appear to have any friends or neighbors, and is always by herself whenever Hermie sees her (her family live off the island). So she is probably quite lonely with her husband being overseas (and from the few scenes we see, they were very much in love). Then he's killed. And if you go by the real woman's comments in a letter after the film came out, she spent a large amount of time terrified she'd traumatised a young boy with her drunken mistake.

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