31 January 2024
I forgot to mention in today’s post (scroll down past this post) that movie night was Summer Magic, a Walt Disney release on DVD in 2005. I remember seeing the movie when it originally came out in 1963. It stars Haley Mills, Burl Ives, Dorothy McGuire, Deborah Walley, Eddie Hodges, Jim Mathers, Peter Brown and Michael J. Pollard (of Bonnie and Clyde fame).
Eddie Hodges is from Hattiesburg, Mississippi and I think I remember him at the film opening in Jackson. He had really red hair and could sing as well as play piano and guitar. He is a talented kid. According to Wikipedia, he returned to Hattiesburg and got a degree in psychology, a masters in counseling and became a mental health counselor. He recently retired.
Chris and I laughed and laughed. There are no real jokes in the movie but there were enough funny situations that kept us in constant giggles.
A Boston family on hard times ends up in Beulah, Maine at a yellow house owned by the character played by Peter Brown who supposedly is in the Far East. Burl Ives rents it to the family, eventually at no cost. There’s a relative that comes to live with an already full house (Deborah Walley) and there’s love in the air and competition between Mills and Walley for the affection of the new school teacher (Jim Mathers). Walley wins out but in the end, Brown comes home to claim the yellow house and falls for Mills.
No one attempts to explain Haley Mills distinct British accent in the family that not only doesn’t speak Bostonian but speak perfect midwestern English.
It’s almost a musical with songs by Mills and Hodges, Burl Ives (a favorite of mine) and front porch sing-a-longs. It’s a good movie.
Scroll down for the blog for today.
