Summer of '42

Summer of '42 (1971) starring Jennifer O'Neill, Gary Grimes. Is it possible to be nostalgic for a place and time before you were even born? That's what Summer of '42 goes for. Fifteen-year-old Hermie (Grimes) and his friends Oscy and Benjie are spending the summer of 1942 on an island with their parents. There are girls their own age there, but Hermie gets a crush on an "older woman" named Dorothy (O'Neill), the wife of an Army pilot who is deployed in the war. When Dorothy's husband is killed in action, Hermie's crush bears unexpected rewards. This is a lightweight coming-of-age movie which succeeds in capturing the feeling of '42, and of adolescence, but little else. The disc has adequate subtitles, and also closed captions. Grade: B