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10:30 P.M. Summer
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1966 film
January 2025
May 2018
10:30 P.M. Summer 10-30_P.M._Summer_poster.jpg Theatrical release poster Jules Dassin Jules DassinAnatole Litvak Jules DassinMarguerite Duras 10:30 on a Summer Night Marguerite Duras Melina MercouriRomy SchneiderPeter Finch Cristóbal Halffter Gábor Pogány Roger Dwyre Lopert Pictures Corporation 1966 10 24 85 minutes United States English
10:30 P.M. Summer is a 1966 American independent drama film directed by Jules Dassin and starring Melina Mercouri, Romy Schneider, and Peter Finch. It is based on the 1960 novel 10:30 on a Summer Night by French author Marguerite Duras, who co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with Dassin.https://variety.com/1965/film/reviews/10-30-p-m-summer-1200421167/ 10:30 P.M. Summer Variety 1966 October 31, 2019 October 31, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191031123422/https://variety.com/1965/film/reviews/10-30-p-m-summer-1200421167/ live https://www.filmcomment.com/article/jules-dassin-10-30-pm-summer/ Encore: A Touch of Noir Film Comment October 31, 2019 May 6, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190506170837/https://www.filmcomment.com/article/jules-dassin-10-30-pm-summer/ dead May 2013 Horton Robert
Plot
Maria and Paul, a couple in their forties, and their young daughter travel through Spain with Claire, a younger woman.
On their way to Madrid, they stop in a small town and learn that a local man who has killed his wife and her lover is on the loose in the area. There is a massive thunderstorm and the group has no choice but to stay in the town's only hotel, which is jammed beyond capacity with other travelers in the same situation. Maria, an alcoholic who lives her life in a dream state, seems to be subtly encouraging her husband to have a sexual relationship with Claire.
While the thunderstorm is still raging, Maria drinks a bottle of alcohol outside and sees Paul and Claire kissing on a balcony. She then discovers the fugitive hiding on a rooftop and wants to help him escape. She drives the man to a spot in the desert where he can hide.
The next day, Maria tells Paul and Claire about the man, but when they look for him in the desert, Paul discovers his dead body; the man has committed suicide. Maria, Paul, and Claire resolve to keep quiet and travel on to Madrid as planned.
In Madrid, Maria tells Paul and Claire that she had hoped to add the fugitive to their odd group as a "fourth player" in the game, but that her true desire is to sleep with Paul once again. Maria drinks herself unconscious and envisions Paul and Claire making love. The next day, she tells Paul about her dream and it seems to excite him. They start to make love, but she stops him and tells him that she no longer loves him. Paul says that he does not believe her.
The trio go to a club to watch flamenco dancers. Maria, drunk and enjoying herself, slips out during the performance and disappears into the city. Paul and Claire search for her in vain.
Cast
Melina Mercouri as Maria
Romy Schneider as Claire
Peter Finch as Paul
Julián Mateos as Rodrigo Paestra
Isabel María Pérez as Judith
Beatriz Savón as Rodrigo's Wife
Reception
In a contemporary (1966) review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "Evidently what Jules Dassin was trying to do in this film ... was to give a bizarre illustration of a woman's morbid moods when she is trapped by a realization of the evanescence of love. Toward this end, he has filled the picture with a lot of bizarrerie–lashing rain, flashing lights, flamenco dancers, writhing bodies in the nude. But this sort of thing–and the performing–is as sodden and lacking in a sense of genuine human feeling as a rain-drenched electric sign. It is strictly mechanical flamboyance to make an old-fashioned show, and it glistens without warmth or meaning through the splattering rain and the booze."Crowther Bosley 1966-10-25 Screen: Moody Triangle; Dassin's 'Summer' Has Premiere at Baronet https://www.nytimes.com/1966/10/25/archives/screen-moody-triangle-dassins-summer-has-premiere-at-baronet.html 2026-10-05 The New York Times 51 en-US 0362-4331
References
External links
0060045 10:30 P.M. Summer
Category:1966 American films
Category:1966 English-language films
Category:1966 drama films
Category:1966 films
Category:American drama films
Category:American independent films
Category:English-language drama films
Category:English-language independent films
Category:Films about alcoholism
Category:Films about infidelity
Category:Films based on French novels
Category:Films based on works by Marguerite Duras
Category:Films directed by Jules Dassin
Category:Films set in Spain
Category:Films shot in Spain