Watch Summer and Smoke For Free

Just perfect...

How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

nothing new . at the first sigh. the atmosphere, the final fall, the love as ambiguous desire, the ordinary too late for the essential gesture. at the second sigh, a revelation. because Geraldine Page and Laurence Harvey are the perfect interpreters of a story who represents a fascinating game of nuances. a love story in the Williams style who conquest new nuances in the performances of the lead actors.Alma by Geraldine Page is fragile and tender and the perfect victim of her feelings, family and illusions. she is one of many victims from the Williams plays but the great familiarity with the role on the stage imposes the right tone for each gesture and word and decision. the transformation , the profound change of Alma is more than dramatic. it becomes the fall who remands so many from every day stories . and this could be the detail for impress.

In my opinion, Geraldine Page was the greatest American Actress in the 20th Century. I believe that had she not spent much of her time on the New York Stage, she would have won several more Oscars, but was considered somewhat a Hollywood outsider.She should have won for Summer and Smoke, and Sweet Bird of Youth. She carried these movies by her great acting skills and hard work.All of her movies need to be on DVD. It is particularly surprising to me that Summer and Smoke has not been converted to DVD.Does anyone know if any of her Stage Plays have been captured on video, and if so, where such videos could be obtained?

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.

This is one of the most underrated Films from a T. Williams source. Its star , sadly is Laurence Harvey and even more underrated actor.Many folks had such huge hopes for a long career for Mr Harvey when it was cut so short we often ponder " what would have been" This film gives us some wonderful insight as to the heights that could have been.Harvey plays Dr. Buchannon on a multitude of levels of emotional detachment..and is superb. Fitzgerald delivers in her role as the tortured Alma and stalwarts, John MCintyre and Rita Moreno supply the sparks.Lost in all of this is a fine performance by the large version of Thomas Gomez..who proves again his versatility. I love the irony of the ending with the appearance of Earl Holliman as ' Archie" Good Drama is never dated and Peter Glenville (dir) makes it all happen..also ..one wouldn't be surprised to note that Hal Wallis is the producer..one of the all time best that Hollywood has ever had.C Pope