Summer Magic (film): Difference between revisions

This article is about the 1963 film. "Summer Magic" can also refer to a misprinted run of cards from Magic: The Gathering.

Summer Magic is a 1963 film starring Hayley Mills, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. The film was directed by James Neilson and released by Walt Disney Productions.

Widowed Margaret Carey (Dorothy McGuire) prepares to move her family into a depressing apartment, but her eldest daughter Nancy Carey (Hayley Mills) writes to Osh Popham (Burl Ives), the caretaker of a millionaire's country home they saw while on vacation in Maine. Popham lets the Careys have the house for a pittance and contributes major labor and materials to make it liveable, much to the consternation of his wife Mariah (Una Merkel). Nancy is grieved when her snooty cousin Julia (Deborah Walley) shows up, especially when the self-styled debutante steals the attention of the handsome new parson Charles Bryant (James Stacy). Nancy gets unexpected compensation in the form of the even more desirable Tom Hamilton (Peter Brown), not realizing he is the owner of the house that his factor Popham has basically given away.

Walt Disney's feature output expanded in the late 1950s, creating a lot of memorable entertainment but inaugurating a decidedly lower echelon of product that has mostly been ignored for forty years.

Summer Magic generates light interest in some low-key characters. Nancy's carrot-topped brother Gilly (Eddie Hodges) is not that interesting, and his potential girlfriend, shy Lallie Joy Popham (Wendy Turner) is treated like a potted plant. Nancy gives her a final-reel glamour makeover out of good-hearted condescenscion. Dorothy McGuire has almost nothing to do; she had been playing similar roles in serious films since the late 40s and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). The script builds up an interesting yokel character played by Michael J. Pollard, who badly wants to go to the city. The pitiful payoff comes when he says how lonely he was away from home (we were barely aware that he left) and we are to assume he never leaves town ever again. Maybe he ends up at a filling station, there to meet Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

The main non-tension pits Nancy against Deborah Walley's Julia character, the name-dropping pain-in-the-neck cousin who, for no memorable reason, naturally becomes a good egg. Hayley rolls her eyes and pulls some sneaky tricks on Julia, but there is no real conflict and no comment made about affluence, having money, being in reduced circumstances, etc. There is just "Things Being Nice", and "Things Being Yucky". If one chooses nice, all becomes, well, nice.

As if on cue, the story trots out two handsome, worldly, bland young males as parent-approved romantic mates for the two girls. Walley poaches the to-die-for young minister, much to Hayley's ire. But in a fatally under-emphasized final mix-up, Hayley is paired with a dreamboat eligible bachelor who just happens to be her unpaid landlord. This non-crisis is the "big ending" for the film, which just seems to stop without coming to a real conclusion.

Hayley Mills is always watchable but the best thing in Summer Magic is Burl Ives. His voice shines in the forgettable Sherman songs, and that "Ugly Bug" ditty is surely a perennial in Disney Sing-Along collections. One delightful scene involves Popham silencing nagging wife Mariah, who just wants to know why he is giving the Careys these properties. He serves her some spiked punch and she turns into a jolly lush. Problem solved, kids.

• Summer Magic at IMDb

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