A Summer Place

Hi, Johnny. How are reservations coming in?

Coming in slow, Claude.

Mail's in.

Stretch the paint, Todd. All we wish to do is put up a good front.

It ain't the only thing running thin around here.

- Mail seem any heavier? - I think so, Dad.

"Paint it thin," he says, Johnny.

Quality don't mean nothing no more around here.

When your grandpa was alive, things was different.

That veranda, full of elegant guests all summer long.

Real guests, not them paying kind.

Yeah, but Grandpa was rich, and we're not.

Oh, Sylvia?

This is very amusing. Almost hilarious.

Remember that fellow my father hired as a lifeguard and tutor...

...about 20 years ago, Ken Jorgenson?

What ever made you think of him?

Well, he's turned into a millionaire. Listen:

"Dear Bart Hunter, I am chartering the yacht Ramona at Nassau...

...and taking my wife and daughter for an extended cruise.

I'd like to end up at Pine Island for the summer."

You see how he worked that in?

The mention of the yacht and the extended cruise?

It's hilarious, isn't it?

- What is? - Well, isn't it obvious?

He wants to come back here after 20 years just to gloat.

He's heard I've been wiped out and running this place as an inn...

...so he gets a bright idea.

"Well," he says, "what a triumph. I'll just go and stay there.

Maybe Bart Hunter will carry my bags. I might even give him a tip."

- Obviously I'm turning him down. - For the love of God, why?

I just don't feel in the mood to be triumphed over all summer.

Bart, this isn't a hobby any longer. We need the money desperately.

He asked for accommodations we don't happen to have.

Two bedrooms with a connecting sitting room.

- Let's give them our room upstairs. - Where would we sleep?

In the gardener's cottage out back.

In the servants' quarters...

...where he even slept himself before with the hired help?

That's ridiculous.

Three people at $20 a day for room and meals is $60 per day.

Times 90 days is $5400.

And as of now, we are flat broke.

Because we're broke doesn't mean we have to lose our dignity.

Dignity? The whole place is run-down for lack of money.

Our credit's evaporated, the garden's gone to seed, the roof leaks.

Our son has to go to college this year...

...and you'd give up $5400 because of dignity?

Bart, we're fighting for our lives. You never seem to realize that.

Those are the clothes I bought for you in Nassau.

Forty-four long. Put them on.

If you think I'll wear this yachting cap, you're crazy.

- The man in the store said... - I don't care what he said.

I'm not a yachtsman.

And you have to belong to the Nassau Yacht Club to wear this insignia.

I think we're past the point of pretending we're something we're not.

We charter a whole yacht to arrive in Pine Island in style.

The yacht was your idea.

The point is, there'll be people on the island who'll remember me when.

And I'm not putting on any dog.

Let's plan to try to make them forget you were an employee there...

...not remember it, shall we?

Pine Island off the port bow, sir.

Molly.

There she lies, baby.

- I see a big house in the trees. - There's 12 big ones on the island.

- One of them's for sale. - You wanna buy it?

- How'd you know? - Mama told me.

Well, I'd hoped to spring it as a surprise if...

Now, there's a big "if."

Those 12 houses on the island were built by the founders of Pine Island.

They incorporated.

And now their descendants run the island like an exclusive club.

You have to be looked over and voted on and all that.

The islanders are still "they" to you, aren't they, Papa?

Then why are you coming back?

Maybe I just wanna check...

...and see how much memory can exaggerate things.

To most people, I guess the island's just another summer place.

It's a lot more than that to me. And I hope it will be to you.

There's a boy up there watching me.

There he goes.

Funny feeling, being looked at without knowing it.

Remember that family that lived next door to us back home?

- Yeah. - Their son used to look at me.

Without you knowing it?

Well, his bedroom was right across from mine.

And one night, I felt naughty...

...and went right on undressing so he could see.

And then all of a sudden l...

I got terribly ashamed, and I ran to pull the curtains down.

I'll never forget, I had hot and cold flushes all over me afterwards.

Wasn't that awful?

Well, I guess every human being on Earth's got a few things he's ashamed of.

All right, you two, come below and dress for shore.

- Daddy, do I have to? - Do you have to what?

Wear this middy blouse ashore like a 12-year-old.

She says I have to wear this armor-plated bra to flatten me out.

And a girdle.

She says I bounce when I walk. Do I?

- Do I? - In a pleasant and unobjectionable way.

When we arrive at the inn, I want her to look completely modest.

She means like a boy, flat like a pancake.

This thing even hurts.

And I couldn't blast my way into this cast-iron girdle with dynamite.

I've had just about enough rebellion for one afternoon.

First you...

Molly has a lovely, healthy figure.

- Why do you try to destroy it? - I don't want her stared at.

So you insist on desexing her...

...as though sex were synonymous with dirt.

- She isn't flying any owner's pennant, sir. - Then it must be the Jorgensons.

I'll take the wagon down.

Oh, if he tries to tip you, spit in his face.

There he is.

And wearing just what a Midwesterner thinks a yachtsman should wear:

- Blue coat, brass buttons, white... - Please be cordial, Bart.

- A gentleman. - Of course.

A gentleman is one who never insults one unintentionally.

I have a headache.

I'm going to our room. Make my apologies.

Apologies to Ken Jorgenson?

You're out of your mind.

Mrs. Jorgenson, Miss Jorgenson, I'd like you to meet my father, Mr. Hunter.

Welcome to Pine Island, ladies.

Young man.

Weren't you the lifeguard here a while back?

I was, Mrs. Hamble. Quite a while back.

- Jorgenson, aren't you? - Yes.

- Living in the gardener's cottage in the rear? - Oh, not anymore, ma'am.

- We're here as guests this time. - We?

Did you marry that pretty thing you were always teaching to swim?

You didn't fool anyone, you and she. Not me anyway.

No, I didn't marry her, ma'am. I met Mrs. Jorgenson in Buffalo.

Buffalo. That's out west, isn't it?

- New York, ma'am. - Oh, yes, Niagara Falls place.

Are you a lifeguard there now?

- No, ma'am. I'm a research chemist. - Ken, please.

Greetings, Ken.

- Would you like to escape to your rooms? - Thank you, Bart, yes.

You'll have to find out all about Buffalo later on, Aunt Emily.

Thank you very much.

Oh, Bart, is that pretty young thing his daughter?

I remember him well. Hardly proper to be so pretty.

Seems to me that all the nice girls I know are either too fat or too thin...

...or have bad skin and thick ankles.

- This is the sitting room. - Charming.

Utterly, utterly charming.

And this is the master bedroom.

- The other bedroom is across the way. - Beautiful.

Beautiful view.

Tres jolie, as the French would say.

I was born in this room. Right there.

Dinner is served from 6 to 8.

Would you care to join my family at our table tonight?

Thank you, Bart.

Oh, by the way, we usually come down at 7:30.

Thank you so very much. We'd be terribly charmed.

I thought I would die of mortification out there.

Ken, you take that bedroom. Molly and I will take this one.

All right.

Molly, you had French in high school. What'd he say to me?

He said his heart was touched by your approval.

When the luggage comes...

...get that disinfectant bag and clean this bathroom.

Don't forget the toilet seat.

I'm sure everything's clean, Mother.

You can never be too sure.

You'll find Pine Island's a strange place, Mrs. Jorgenson.

We're all frightfully snobbish here and we tend to be anti-everything.

Except ourselves.

I like to think of the island as a perverted Garden of Eden...

...where the pines and the salt air seem to act as an aphrodisiac.

As a what, Mr. Hunter?

Bart, shall we change the subject?

Your show.

What Bart means is that very often the boys of Pine Island families...

...marry girls they've met here.

So there's always been a lot of joking...

...about the island being a marvelous place for romance.

It's true.

There are caves and lonely beaches and Moonlight Cove.

Not to mention barns and boathouses and other nooks and crannies, eh, Ken?

It was against the rules for Pine Island girls to have dates with the lifeguard, remember?

- Oh, I'm so sorry. - Oh, no harm done.

That was the last of the family crystal anyway.

Oh, please, it doesn't matter.

Mrs. Jorgenson, may I have permission to show Molly about the grounds?

- Yes, yes, of course. - Excuse me.

What made you decide to live out here the year round?

Aren't the winters pretty rugged?

Yes, but living in Boston got to be rugged too.

The hypocrisies of the social routine year after year.

To put it bluntly, we couldn't afford it.

So we decided to move here and get back to essentials.

I bought government pamphlets on how to shear sheep...

...how to weave our own clothes...

...even on how to smoke fish and grow our own potatoes.

I had bright dreams.

And then after the summer season was over...