That Summer!

Just to add some comments that Phil made about this film which I think are important. If you ever get the chance to see this film, do so at your own risk as its so cheesey that it would take pride of place in the cheese counter of Mrs Miggins Cheese Shop. Having said that I would like to thank the Producers of this film who seemed quite happy to hand out five pound notes willy nilly to snotty nosed kids like myself during the making of this film. I remember while they were filming this on the beach at Torquay at the end of the day you had to report to a man sat at a table and say how many scenes you had been an etra in and he would quite happily hand you a large wad of cash. This film set my acting career up and since then I have never looked back! (Not all of that last part was quite true)

I absolutely LOATHE coming-of-age films, for their embarrassing-ness, stupidity, and exaggerated, unrealistic portrayal of that time of life. Normally this would be no exception. However, the soundtrack to this film was on the sharpest cutting edge in its day; the chat boards/threads here have comments from several of us on the soundtrack.

Plot is four British youths -- two girls, two guys -- go to a seaside resort town in England. They hook up there, work, go out, quarrel, have sex for the first time, etc. etc. They are repeatedly antagonized by a trio of mean-spirited Scottish thugs. The lead character, played by Ray Winstone, is focused on a swimming race/contest which he deeply wants to win.

Back to the soundtrack: it contains the likes of Eddie & the Hot Rods, Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Mink DeVille, the Boomtown Rats; plus a lot of the score is composed around the melody of the Only Ones' "Another Girl, Another Planet." This was the stuff of the fantastic, now-classic original punk rock & New Wave of the late '70s. Whoever did the music supervising/selection (I'd like to know who this was) was well in-tune with this edgy genre, and matched the songs' lyrical content well to the scenes. The use of Patti Smith's "Because the Night" particularly comes to mind in this regard.

I've finally seen this film now (July 2009), and it's a treat in that I was the EXACT same age as these kids (18) in the year of the film's release (1979). As an American it was also a glimpse into what life was like for my contemporaries across the pond. It was very, very different; and I can say the life of American 18-year-olds in 1979 was NOTHING like the Brits' portrayed in this film. It may have been sort of like this in the U.S. back in the 1950's, but that's about it. Also, I couldn't understand some of the dialog, due to the accent factor.

The soundtrack may be New Wave, but the characters are not. They were what we American punkers back then would've termed "regular," "mainstream," or "straight" people. But ironically, one of the Scot thugs, Georgie, looks as contemporary now as he did 30 years ago.

The film's title is oriented in hindsight; as if referring to looking back on the past experience of one's younger days; when nostalgia selectively blocks out the bad times and remembers mostly the good. I wish in some ways that I could've had a teenage beach summer like this...ah, but I was too busy in the gritty city, being a punk rocker. Aaarrrgghh! :-P

A couple of lads at the seaside pick up two girls and have a feud with three yobbish young Scotsmen. The brunette (Julie Shipley) is easy on the eye.

It's fair to say few writers will feel jealous because they didn't pen this story. What makes it worth watching is the Torquay location, where I've holidayed virtually every year since the early 90s. When a film or play is set at the seaside they usually pick Brighton, being near London and the beach is bigger than any other except possibly Bournemouth.

A lot of the action takes place at the beautiful Oddicombe Beach. It doesn't look quite so good these days, a substantial landslip in 2013 blighted its appearance and caused part of the beach to be cordoned off. The 400 nightclub subsequently became Route 66, was shut down due to drug problems, then reopened as The Quay. I can't recall ever visiting the recently closed Pickwick pub. Even Torquay's most enthusiastic champions would be hard put to argue pubs have ever been the towns best feature. At least since Wetherspoon opened in the late 90s there's no need to frequent run of the mill pubs boasting just a couple of house beers.

All in all an undistinguished but enjoyable exercise in holiday nostalgia. Though as somebody once quipped, nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Sandwiched between the TV and film productions of Scum, Ray Winstone again plays a borstal boy. He even has John Judd, Sands from Scum, playing his swimming coach. But that's where the comparisons end - Ray plays Steve, a young man who on his release, moves down to Torquay on the English Riviera with the intention to find work and to avoid getting locked up again.

Angie and Carole are two northern girls who leave their factory to work in a grand hotel, and Jimmy is another Londoner who leaves his butcher's job for a summer working on the beach.

Steve finds work and lodging in a pub, and complimented by his coach on his strong swimming performance, he puts his energies into practicing to compete a local swimming tournament. Before long, he meets his nemesis, the three yobbish Glaswegians who appear at regular intervals to torment him; by chance, one will also be competing in the swimming tournament. Steve, keen to avoid doing anything rash that may land him back in borstal, has to breathe in deep and instead hope that the tournament will help him settle scores. Steve, Tony, Angie and Carole all end up meeting at Babbacombe beach, and as can happen in a small beach town, run into each other a lot more frequently.

The story is quite predicable, but the appeal of That Summer! Lies within it's nostalgic appeal - it looks exactly as the Torquay I remember from my early childhood, and the acting leads, who, just as their characters do, give off quite the energy of a group of young adults working together over the summer, and you'd imagine they had quite a blast off set as well. The soundtrack is also spot on, making it a must see for fans of late 70s British new wave - a popular soundtrack album was also released.

The appeal of Last Summer may be limited, but this is a charming little time capsule, though as far as I'm aware (at the time of writing) there has been no DVD release, as is often the case with limited-interest films with potentially expensive soundtrack rights (see also SubUrbia (1996), The Wild Life (1984) and Purple Haze (1982). There was a VHS release, and may occasionally pop up on YouTube, which is where I saw it.

I was in this Film. As a youth looking for fame and fortune I was surprised to see an ad in the Job Centre window (then just round the corner from the Pickwick pub) requesting Extras for the film. The working title was "Freestyle" and it was to be made by Columbia Pictures and directed by the unfortunately named Harley Cockliss. Anyway I signed up and waited for the call. It eventually came and I was summoned to the pool hall under the multi storey car park in Union street where I stood by a pin ball machine (extreme foreground) while the camera tracked passed me. By now the film was called That Summer. I thought that had been my 15 minutes but, on my way out I was asked by the second AD if I minded late nights. Without thinking I said no. A week or so later I was contacted by the production company and told to report to the model village in Babbacome at 10pm. I duly attended and spent most of the night talking to Jon Morrison in a crew bus. He was an extremely amiable guy, chatting freely to the extras and crew.

My big moment came when I was picked to be pushed out of the way by Morrison and his cronies as he attempted to throw a can of beer at a model football pitch. I was on screen for all of 4 seconds (that's me with the glasses and the "what do I do now" look on my face) but it was a fantastic experience. I taped the film when it was shown on TV in the early 80's. I've still got the tape, and bore my friends with the claim - "I was in a film with him" every time Ray Winstone appears on screen. Sadly Ray Winstone was less amiable Than Jon Morrison during the shooting and chose to spend most of the down time holed up in his caravan rather than chatting to the extras and crew, so I never actually got to meet him. I was hoping that the film would be my passport to Hollywood. Sadly I only got as far as Basingstoke!