YMMV / The Long, Hot Summer

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Alan Stewart, Clara's preferred beau at the start of the film. Was he Ambiguously Gay and just using his kinda sorta courtship with Clara as a cover for his homosexuality, or just so emotionally castrated by his mother that he simply could not form a truly healthy, loving relationship with another woman? Did he not want children of his own (as Clara did) or was it a class/social standing issue - Alan coming from an old money family that brought him up to be a cultured gentleman while the Varners were either new money but led by a father who was such a brute that his behavior reflected badly on Clara (who was a genuinely nice and bright young woman whose biggest flaw was her sexual repression)?
• Values Dissonance: About 30 minutes into the movie, Ben's subtly hitting on Clara while trying to sell a horse, and he says "A lot of women say no when they mean yes" after being rejected. This scene would have gained backlash if said today due to the sexual harassment women faced in Hollywood that was revealed in the late 2010s, and in general aged poorly because of it.
  • In fact, much of the behavior shown towards the female characters in the movie would have left a bad taste in the mouths of modern audiences; even Clara herself lampshades how bad the behavior was at the time at that people like her father enable it.