Theme: A Summer Place

The most remembered feature of the 1959 film A Summer Place, which starred Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire, is its "Theme" by Max Steiner, one of the giants of film composing (Gone with the Wind, Now Voyager, among others). Steiner's languorous theme for a languorous season provided a huge hit for orchestra leader Percy Faith in a recording that featured a piano. Later, in the '60s, two groups, the singing Lettermen and an instrumental quartet called The Ventures, also scored with the song. And every summer, somewhere, since it first appeared, the "Theme" seems to have a mini-revival.

Also featuring Sandra Dee, Constance Ford, and Troy Donahue, this sleasy tale of a businessman who returns to his summer home, meets an old flame, love is rekindled, plus an affair begins between his daughter and her son. Rather sickening in its implications, made more so by the filmmakers' coating of pious sentiment. [Only rated a star and a half by reviewers.]

On February 20, 2005, Actress Sandra Dee died at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California, where she had been treated for 14 days for complications from kidney disease and pneumonia. She was 63. Dee was born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, New Jersey. In 1959, the teenage heartthrob won roles in five productions. "Gidget" and "A Summer Place" proved the most popular. In 1960, she married Bobby Darin and they had a son. She and Darin divorced in 1967. Her last film, "Lost," was produced in 1983. She was portrayed by actress Kate Bosworth in "Beyond the Sea," [2004] which starred Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin.