Muirmaiden's Corner

Why do I love this movie so much? What compelled me at the age of thirteen to watch it on television? I don't know, but I fell in love with the film, and all these years later, I love it still. It was years before my time, and still I felt as though it was an important part of my adolescence.  And now, when I hear Max Steiner's glorious theme, the nostalgic feelings of my own teenage days coming rushing back. By today's standards, "A Summer Place" may seem dated to some, even corny or over-the-top.  However, melodramas of that time, or dare I say it, soap opera melodramas were very different than what makes it to the big screen today. The issues the movie addresses, however, are as relevant now as it was back in 1959. Significantly for me, this was the first time I saw Sandra Dee in a film, and it was easy to see why she became a pop culture icon.  This, along with her two other films of that same year - "Gidget" and "Imitation Of Life"

                 Anatomy Of A Stage Parent What is a stage parent? More importantly, what separates a parent who simply wants the best for their offspring and who want them to achieve what they couldn't, and the ones who want to live vicariously and keep the lifestyle and wealth that their child earns? I'm not a psychologist but I think I have an idea of what strays from normal ambition to perverse domination and exploitation. Child star and later adult character actor Jackie Coogan (1914-1984), filed suit against his mother and stepfather in 1935 for his money that he earned in his childhood acting career and he was awarded only a relatively small sum. Soon thereafter, the Coogan Act was formed - trust funds set up for child actors to protect their earnings.  These examples from the classic Hollywood era are interesting looks into the dynamic between the star child and the stage parent.  It's impossible to talk about stage parents without mentioning Natalie Wood (

                 Suspense Awaits On "The Dark Shore" It's been quite a long time since my last blog post, and I thought it might be a good time to revisit some literature, and I thought my first introduction to the romantic-suspense/gothic genre was a good idea. Susan Howatch's first novel, published in 1965, has often been compared to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca which can be said of many books of the romantic suspense/gothic genre. However, The Dark Shore has a compelling quality all its own. The familiar and often reused plot is here - a young bride, newly married to a wealthy and successful man, finds herself thrown into his world - namely, his home estate which is filled with secrets, danger and the shadow of his departed first wife who died in suspicious circumstances. The setting is in the same part of Britain - Cornwall. But Howatch puts her own unique spin on the often-told tale, created characters with not only a connection to the "h