MovieChat Forums > A Summer Place (1959) Discussion > Had me till the ending....what's up with...

Had me till the ending....what's up with that?


Great movie....until the dumb ending where they get off the boat at the old summer place...end of movie. What happened; did the producers run out of money? Too abrupt an ending along with loose ends....what are we supposed to assume; they take over the hotel at the Pinecove or what???

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Yes, that's the only thing that makes any geniune sense.

I live in a glass house, ergo, I throw no stones.

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Yeah, they could've elaborated on that a bit more. Who knows, maybe Bart's alcoholism did him in and he left the hotel to Johnny in his will. Maybe Molly's wealthy father made Bart an offer on the hotel that he couldn't refuse and Johnny and Molly now run the place for Mr. Jorgenson.

Back when Bart was lecturing Molly and Johnny about not getting married, he could've been selfish and encouraged them to get married so that they could run the hotel for him. That whole conversation was odd, though, because he made it sound as if the pregnancy didn't exist if they didn't want it to. It's as if he was either hinting of an abortion (illegal at that time) or putting the baby up for adoption. Then Molly's response was something like, "You forgot one word. Love." I said, "Baby. He forgot the word, "baby.""



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I gotta agree with the others, I was watching this on TCM the other day and I've seen it before but I couldn't remember how the movie ended. Sure enough it got to the end and then it all came back to me. The reason I probably didn't remember the ending was because it was so weak. It just seemed really rushed, its like the producers/director realized the movie was running too long so they decided to just end it there. And I was a little confused were Molly and Johnny married by the sea captain or something??

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were Molly and Johnny married by the sea captain or something??

Good question. That could be. I didn't think of that. It really would've been nice if they had taken just a few extra minutes to fill in the blanks better.


Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.

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The ending is obviously a small leap forward in time. What carping!

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We all know it's obviously a small leap forward in time. It's a compliment to them that we like the story, the characters, scenery, cinematography, etc., enough that we would rather have them take just a few minutes to actually show us what happened.


Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.

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I see some other people watched it last weekend, not just me! I had seen it many times, but not for awhile. Maybe original cut had more in the ending? They said they both loved Pine Island, so since Dad is incapacitated I am guessing they will stay at that house, maybe her dad gave them some cash to get the place running again. They couldn't tell us everything but yes a little more closure would have been nice. The guy at the dock said something about a happy honeymoon. SInce she was expecting, I doubt too much time went by between them showing up at the parents house, and getting married. It was quite a stigma in those days so I am sure they got married pretty quickly.

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