Thanks for the memories!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Tennessee Williams brilliant and expertly told tale of a woman and man whose moral standards or lack of standards never meet as they they both journey to opposite extremes. The story is set in 1916. The lead role of a meticulous yet nervously self conscious reverend's daughter is skillfully portrayed by Geraldine Page. Her name is Alma, as she indicates early on, is Spanish for soul. Too highly moral minded to act on or even think of the physical acts of pleasure she exists in a fantasized world of the romanticized connection of souls. The realities of her life justify her mental escape. Her mother(Una Merkel) had a nervous breakdown some years back and is childishly stubborn. Alma to the outside observer purposely projects a maturity beyond her age as she has taken over many duties usually the responsibilities of a preacher wife. She also bears the duty of disciplinarian to her bratty, shoplifting, and childlike mother. She lives up to the responsibilities thrust upon her. Also she provides public vocal performances at special events and gives voice training lessons. In her fantasy she loves the young doctor next door with whom she grew up.Her handsome neighbor John(Lawrence Harvey)is the son of the town doctor. He has recently finished his medical internship. He is morally the extreme opposite of Alma. He is a drinker, womanizer, gambler, and lacks any sense of responsibility. He has just returned to town and shows Alma a bit of interest but is is distracted by newest town slut Rosa Zacharius whose father owns a nearby casino featuring drinking, gambling, and what else one can only imagine. He is bewitched by Rosa(Rita Moreno). He still shows a mild interest in Alma.He takes Alma to the Casino one night and she is horrified by the activities there. She is with John watching a cock fight and is sickened. Suddenly a spot of blood from the fighting roosters splashes on her blouse. She screams. Brilliant T.W. symbolism! The pure spinster being marked with the symbol of original sin. John and Alma walk outside to a secluded spot. They become rather excited by one another. Alma is about to give in to her physical desire but her pure and high morals overtake the moment and she runs off.John and Rosa become engaged. One wonders why he thought he had to marry her since her character was one of the easiest conquests ever depicted.John's father is in another part of the state treating victims of a deadly outbreak of illness as a volunteer, Alma alerts him about a wild party at his house. He returns home to find drunk people all over his property. He sees Rosa's father and starts beating the passed out man with his cane. He wakes up and shoots John's father. His father linger a few days and dies stating he does not forgive his son. Alma tells John she alerted his father to return home. John verbally assaults her with insulting dialog and blames her for his father's death.Alma descends into deep and dark depression. Meanwhile John is shocked into the reality of the situation and takes up his father's volunteer work at the clinic. He returns a hero to take over his fathers practice as town physician.Alma at this point has taken a dark journey. Her father asks her why she never dresses during the day and where she has been disappearing to at 2:00am. She reminds him of all the chores she does everyday and says,"what more do you want of me?" He says, "what will I tell people that ask about you?" Her startling reply is, "You can tell them I have changed. You don't yet know, how or why... but you may wish that I hadn't. The most important key scenes follow filled with amazing emotion and dialogue. Miss Page is at the top of her game in these scenes. Believe me Alma's father would have wished she hadn't changed. The final scene is lurid. Don't miss this underrated Tennessee Williams masterpiece.

In my opinion, Geraldine Page was the greatest American Actress in the 20th Century. I believe that had she not spent much of her time on the New York Stage, she would have won several more Oscars, but was considered somewhat a Hollywood outsider.She should have won for Summer and Smoke, and Sweet Bird of Youth. She carried these movies by her great acting skills and hard work.All of her movies need to be on DVD. It is particularly surprising to me that Summer and Smoke has not been converted to DVD.Does anyone know if any of her Stage Plays have been captured on video, and if so, where such videos could be obtained?

As compared to other Tennessee Williams works like The Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire, Summer And Smoke is distinctly second rate. But second rate Tennessee Williams is better than a lot of first rate work from most and a really good cast puts this one over.A cast dominated by Geraldine Page who plays a woman who is carrying a Statue of Liberty torch since childhood for the kid next door who grew up to be Lawrence Harvey. At first glance these two seemed ideally suited for each other, her the daughter of minister Malcolm Atterbury, him the son of town doctor John McIntire. But both have some issues, her's the kind that Tennessee Williams is known for being frank about in his work, him an inability to settle down. As the film opens Harvey has returned to their southern town after medical school a newly minted doctor. But he's got enough seeds for a field of wild oats and he just wants to have a good old time. Page won't give him that.But when you've got a raging libido like Harvey has, the only kind of girl you want to quench it is Rita Moreno. 1961 was Rita's year to be naughty, she won her Oscar playing gang girl Anita in West Side Story. Had that film not been out, more attention might have been paid to what she did in Summer And Smoke.As Page is frigid and won't give up a little to land Harvey she resorts to a bit of trickery to break up Harvey and Moreno which ends in tragedy for one of the cast. Ironically both Harvey and Page modify their behaviors, but there's too much that now makes them incompatible. In fact Page at the end is showing hints of becoming a lot like Tennessee Williams's other great character Blanche Dubois.Four Oscar nominations went out to Paramount for Summer And Smoke, Best Actress for Geraldine Page, Best Supporting Actress for Una Merkel, Best Art&Set Decoration and Best Musical Score. Sadly it did not bring home a statue and poor Una Merkel her portrayal of Page's kleptomaniac mother lost to Rita Moreno for West Side Story.Summer And Smoke is a base hit for Tennessee Williams, but not a home run. Still devotees of the man and others should enjoy this film.

I have watched this film several times. It still holds its power over me. Earl Holloman, made "Giant" in 1956, "The Rain Maker" and now here he is again, doing a great job. Bravo Earl. Stood next to him at Sherman Oaks Tower Records, and out of respect, didn't say a word. If you like them, you allow them, their private lives. They know you know who they are, and are grateful, you don't bother them. The best zoo in the world, this Hollywood community? Geraldine Page deserved an Oscar. Yes, "Sweet Bird of Youth" is fine as well, but in "Summer and Smoke", she is brilliant as Alma.Ms. Page carries the film alone.Tennesse Williams, said, "He was all the women in his plays", and I believe it.Ahhhh...the battle with the flesh and the Soul, timeless struggle, that no one seems to win, completely. Life happens between rounds, somewhere in the middle perhaps? Elmer Berstein's score is haunting and one of my favorites, next to his "To Kill a Mockingbird". See his website.Alma represents the part of our collective psyche, that fights our sensual wild desires, that eventually, becomes "intergrated" into our whole self. The battle is white hot, on some summer nights. Summer is a sensual season, as our armor, mask, are shed, from the heat of the night, exposing our flesh, that screams to get loose, and thrive. Winter, where this battle resolves, allows these desires to be blanketed by heavy clothes, brisk winds, and we bury our self to put to sleep our pseudo-selves.Summer seems to be a favorite season for Tennessee Williams, "streetcar Named Desire", again sweat, blood, and tears, leave us naked with our demons of desire. In the hot Southern nights, where Bible passages, do not quiet the beast, blood fires burn hot, and white linen grows damp with passions."Summer and Smoke" changes me a little each time I allow myself, to become enmeshed in its desperate struggle. "Night of the Iguana" again, a hot summer night, seems to finally, release us, from "Summer and Smoke" and we are redeemed, refreshed, anew...from "the night of the blue devils". Bravo to the cast for this splendid theatrical presentation on film.