Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

lasttimeisaw A sultry, clammy celluloid adaptation of Tennessee Williams' searing gender study SUMMER AND SMOKE directed by the UK thespian-turned-stage-regisseur Peter Glenville (his third feature film). Living in Glorious Hill, Mississippi in the early 20th century, Alma Winemiller (Page, parlays her stage success into cinema), a minister's daughter, has been carrying a torch for her neighbor John Buchanan, Jr. (Harvey) ever since she was a little girl. Weaned on a puritanical upbringing and encumbered with a kleptomaniac mother (Merkel, facing off grandly with a full-throttle Page, and is given a career-commemorating Oscar nomination) who is off her trolleys, a maiden Alma dreads that her youth will soon get shrouded into spinsterhood. One summer, when Johnny, now a medical practitioner like his father (McIntire), the prodigal son returns to Glorious Hill, Alma's feelings for him are rekindled, but for a gadabout Johnny, Alma's modesty cannot rival the exotic allure of Rosa Zacharias (Moreno, oozing strangely touching empathy in her feral presence), a wild Mexican girl who revels in their carnal knowledge, and affectionately admits that he smells really good, their liaison is basically corporeal but there is candor in it.Be that as it may, Johnny is not at all chaste towards Alma, but makes a blunder when he tries to liberate her torrid soul (Alma means "soul" in Spanish) from her prissy manacles. A consequential tragedy further drifts them away (from our vintage point, Alma is quite blameless for its unexpected but vacuous fallout) but subliminally the disparity between them starts to squarely influence their respective perspectives about themselves (although in Johnny's case, his metamorphosis is obviously more associated with his personal loss).Therefore, emboldened by a trading-places scenario, the drama takes a heart-rending turn in the "right people, but wrong time" finale, which bestows Ms. Page a crowning showpiece of self- liberation mingled with a smorgasbord of emotions, her rejoicing aspiration, segueing to a heart- opening tête-à-tête, then following by revealing dismay and heartbreaking, the karma is holy stiltedly designed, but Ms. Page's flair holds its own when her southern mannerism is sublimated into something like a tenable institution, a flesh-and-blood being. Laurence Harvey, on the other hand, beautifully plays out his raffishness and ekes out sensitive gesticulations incessantly, but most of the time, he keeps Johnny's morality ambiguous. In company with Elmer Bernstein's bespoke score measuring up protagonists' internal flickers, SUMMER AND SMOKE is humble in its material construction but a deep-fish psychological balancing art between two polarized species inhabiting in the same biome, a bone-fide heartstring-tugger among Mr. Williams' canon.

bkoganbing 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.

edwagreen Tennessee Williams is at his best here in this great play made into a startling motion picture.The phenomenal Geraldine Page is absolutely brilliant here as a repressed spinster who finds love with the doctor next door only to throw it away.Williams continues his never ending attack on religion, rebelliousness, drug addiction and dysfunctional love.Una Merkel, who received a supporting Oscar nomination for her role as Alma's (Page's) mother, is excellent here. She is weird, a manipulator and pulls out every stop in a very good performance. Too bad that her role was concentrated solely at the beginning of the film.Laurence Harvey has what it takes as the wild doctor brought down to reality when his lifestyle causes the tragic demise of his father.Miss Page exhibits every nuance in playing the part that made her such a great actress- a neurotic woman, in conflict with society, or is she a victim of it?

moonspinner55 Geraldine Page received an Oscar nomination for her sterling portrayal of a small town spinster hoping to kindle a spark with the ne'er-do-well doctor's son who has lived next door since they were kids. Adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play (in which Page scored a personal success off-Broadway some nine years before the film) is brightly-painted and full of nervous, fluttery life (it's like a neurotic Disney movie--Pollyanna herself might just live down the street). It never takes off into its own emotional sphere however, mainly because the melodrama inherent in the story is so wan (it isn't encumbered by character neuroses, like many of Williams' other works--this one could actually use more). Laurence Harvey is somewhat mild-mannered as Page's leading man (one can't imagine this guy getting too wild), and the supporting players are a variable lot, ranging from Una Merkel's dotty mother to Rita Moreno's strutting flooze. Page is the one to watch; with the tiniest sparkle of dementia in her alert eyes, and the quiver of her uncertain mouth, she nearly transforms this material, an amalgamation of Tennessee Williams and Hollywood in 1961. ** from ****