CineSavant Column
Hello!
Hey! From The Warner Archive Collection, it’s the FEEL BAD movie of the decade!
Frank and Eleanor Perry’s Last Summer was a shocker in 1969, and a star-making release for actors Bruce Davison, Richard Thomas and especially Barbara Hershey. It was adapted from a best-seller by Evan Hunter, the author behind Blackboard Jungle, High and Low and The Birds.
I’ve heard from time to time from readers wanting desperately to see this Allied Artists release, as many as wanted to see the now-elusive Darker than Amber. The build-up is so great for Last Summer that I wonder what new viewers will think of it. Back in the day, I remember seeing it at least three times in a theater. After it ran its course it more or less disappeared. Desspite being heavily requested on DVD, it was always unavailable.
We’re told that the film was distributed in two versions, an initial “X” rated cut and a slightly trimmed “R” a little later on. The sticking point is a ‘controversial’ rape scene. I didn’t know which I saw in 1969; according to what the AFI has to say, we probably saw the ‘R.’ That was the year of The Wild Bunch (“R”) and Midnight Cowboy (“X”). The conservative theater owners in San Bernardino blocked 17 year-olds from attending, and stopped screening many pictures with those ratings.
But the saving grace for me was the U.S. military, which showed everything released by the majors at its base theaters, as I explain in an autobiographical article. Being able to see shows like If …, Medium Cool and Age of Consent was a big benefit that my fellow high-schoolers didn’t have.
It looks as if Last Summer will become The Warner Archive Collection’s big rediscovery for 2026. Their copy text says that they’ve resolved a rights dispute, located the original elements and will have a Blu-ray available on June 30. The new 4K restoration will revive the original ‘X’ rated cut; I guess we’ll find out if it’s something new and/or shocking.
In 1969 my teenaged girlfriend and I were strongly impressed by the movie, and somewhat depressed as well. It certainly doesn’t present a favorable view of people. Later movies like River’s Edge tried to express the same kind of inbred nihilism, but weren’t as compelling. We hadn’t run into such malevolent personalities, and it probably put us on the lookout for them. Back then I’d have called it the toxic side of affluence, although I’ve met kids and people just as vicious from every strata.
A number of years back somebody did track down what happened to the elusive actress Catherine Burns, who was good in Red Sky at Morning and amazing in this, but faded from film work almost immediately. I’m sure we’ll once again be reading more about her.
Anyway, that’s the very short explanation for folks wondering what the fuss is about.
And here’s some very promising news, only a day old; we think it qualifies as Get Up and Dance news. Following up on hints from last year, Hammer Films has made a bold announcement regarding its top title Dracula aka Horror of Dracula. They’re promising a new 4K remaster before Halloween, for both theatrical and 4K disc, that will be a version of the film before it was censored by the BBFC back in 1958. In Hammer’s words,
“Painstakingly restored in 4K from the best original archival materials sourced from around the world, Dracula (1958) returns in its most complete form ever presented. For the first time outside of Japan’s original 1958 theatrical release, footage believed lost for over six decades has been meticulously restored and reintegrated into the film. This footage has never been released in the UK or the US, and has never been seen on home entertainment anywhere in the world.”
Well Hokey Smokes, we’re all for that. John Gore says that a pre-censor director’s cut of was simply discovered in the Warner Bros. film vaults. So this won’t be the ragged (but wonderful) rescued fix-up with Japanese shots that came out 13 years ago. Those were an extended scene of Melissa Stribling and Christopher Lee, and added makeup effects cuts at the climax. Rumored unseen footage might include shots of Valerie Gaunt actually biting John Van Eyssen. John Gore mentions that ‘3 minutes of material were deleted;’ we thought the additions would be just a few seconds.
We weren’t fully sure that rights issues would allow Hammer to do a full-on Dracula/Horror of Dracula revival, so this is very good news. So far the ‘new’ John Gore Hammer is one happy surprise after another.
Hammer’s accompanied its announcement is a slick teaser-trailer. We even like its color values:
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson