Writers:

John Dighton (screenplay),  Ray Lawler (play)    

Ernest Borgnine,  Anne Baxter,  John Mills, Angela Lansbury, Ethel Gabriel, Vincent Ball

 

Poignant and pointed, as well as funny, this love story by director Leslie Norman has a simple message: act your age. Since they were older teens, two buddies Barney (John Mills) and Roo (Ernest Borgnine) have gone to a summer rendezvous with the same two women, for fun in the sun in Sydney. They work on sugar-cane farms and after the harvest spend the summer with their women. In this 17th such summer, they arrive only to discover that Barney's girlfriend has married and Pearl (Angela Lansbury), a rather straight-laced widow, has taken her place. Roo's girlfriend Olive (Anne Baxter) does not get her annual gift of a special doll because Roo is broke -- he has had a bad year. As these adults mix and mingle, various circumstances arise that force them to rethink their behavior.