Summertree

Summertree. 1971 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Michael Douglas, Jack Warden, Rob Reiner, Brenda Vaccaro, Barbara Bel Geddes
Produced by Kirk Douglas
Director: Anthony Newley
Buy Summertree from Amazon.

A fairly obscure number released as part of Sony's Martini Movies line. In addition to the film, I also got a nice recipe on how to make a champagne martini. Or was it a chocolate martini? I can't remember, and I'm not removing the disc from my player to look. Summertree was directed by a British actor and musician named Anthony Newley, whose prior film project to this one is B-Fest favorite Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?. I've never seen that one, but maybe I will at a future B-Fest. Moving on...

20 year old Jerry (Douglas) comes home to tell his parents Herb (Warden) and Ruth (Bel Geddes) that he's dropped out of college to "find himself", spending time in the "summertree" in the family backyard. Not only are his parents concerned about the wasted tuition money, but Jerry has also lost his draft deferral. But Jerry is confident enough about his guitar playing that he is planning to enter a music conservatorium. In the meantime, Jerry volunteers to become a Big Brother for an African American youth named Marvis. After a mishap with Marvis, they go to a hospital where Jerry meets an older nurse named Vanetta (Vaccaro). They quickly fall in love despite the age difference...and the fact that Vanetta is separated from her Marine husband Tony.

Things end up going downhill. Marvis rejects Jerry as his Big Brother after his biological older brother is killed in Vietnam, and Jerry's draft notice comes. Unwilling to go to 'Nam, Jerry ends up buying a car, planning to go to Canada, but never gets there thanks to mixed reactions from his father Herb, who is now opposed to America's involvement in Vietnam, but he still inadvertently sends his son overseas to die.

Kirk Douglas bought the film rights to Ron Cowen's play of the same name after son Michael was replaced by David Birney when Summertree was on Broadway. Recommended movie.