Last Summer (1969)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Sandy (Barbara Hershey), Dan (Bruce Davison) and Peter (Richard Thomas) are three affluent, spoiled teens spending a lazy summer on Fire Island, N.Y. Both boys pepper Sandy with sexual advances, which she clearly relishes. Into their tight triangle comes chubby and naive Rhoda (Catherine Burns). Like the injured seagull Sandy both nurtures and tortures, Rhoda becomes a figure of sport, teased and humiliated by the group. Sandy's cruelty and influence brings the summer to a shocking climax.
- Actors:
- Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison, Catherine Burns, Ernesto González, Conrad Bain, Lou Gary, Andrew Krance, Eileen Letchworth, Wayne Mayer, Maeve McGuire, Ed Stevlingson, Peter Turgeon, Ralph Waite, Lydia Wilen
- Directors:
- Frank Perry
- Producers:
- Sidney Beckerman, Alfred W. Crown, Emanuel L. Wolf
- Writers:
- Evan Hunter, Eleanor Perry
- Aka:
- Petting
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
More like Last Summer
Reviews (1) of Last Summer
The Summer That Curdled - Last Summer review by griggs
Frank Perry’s follow-up to The Swimmer swaps suburban swimming pools for New York beaches — same climate, same dread. Where Burt Lancaster drifted through other people’s gardens in a mid-life fog, here teenagers discover that cruelty is a skill you can teach yourself, starting with a seagull and working upward.
Last Summer is a slow burn that earns every degree of its escalation. The 1960s sexual revolution handed teenagers all the freedom and none of the maps, and Perry exploits that gap without mercy. Catherine Burns is extraordinary — nervy, exposed, doing more with hesitation than most actors manage with a full speech. Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas and Bruce Davison are just as sharp, and just as caught up in the rot.
The Lord of the Flies comparison is sitting there waving, but what stays with you is something quieter and nastier: the creeping suspicion that this was always where the summer was heading.