Summer of '63 (1963) User Reviews

For being a short film it should hold some horny teenagers attention and save a few misguided youths

[Ed-Shullivan · 4/10 · 27 April 2021]

Yes it is outdated, but the message is clear. Wear a rubber and you can avoid a blubber of any one of many STD's (Sexually Transmitted Disease) for the kiddies who need it spelled out. Fun is fun, but not when you have no choice but to see a doctor to get rid of an unwanted itch....or worse symptoms.

I give it a past its prime date IMDB rating of 4 out of 10.

"We're not here to pass moral judgment, we're here to stamp out V.D."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 22 July 2016]

With a title like "Summer of '63" one might expect an exploration of the rise of Beatlemania or perhaps an overview of the beach party movie genre, but clearly not so. The short opens with a doctor explaining how a number of diseases now have 'absolute cures', but I never would have expected to hear the words 'polio', 'gonorrhea' and 'syphilis' in the same sentence. Well I suppose the mention of polio was supposed to make viewers a bit more comfortable with the topic of sexually transmitted disease.

The story goes on to describe the escapades of four young men who embark on a summer fling at a town called Seaview, right after one of them has just become engaged to his girlfriend. Winding up with a floozie at one of the local dives, Jim does the deed (off screen) and winds up with a 'small sore', this after his buddies play loose lips in the presence of Jim's girlfriend Judy, thereby blowing up that relationship. When Jim seeks out advice over his affliction, he doesn't immediately mention that he's also made the rounds with his buddy's gal pal Kathy, but the implication is clear. This bout of syphilis is going to be making the rounds.

The brief flick has all the earmarks of some of those early exploitation flicks from the Thirties and Forties, and it looks quite amateurish today even though it was made as late as 1972. But the lesson still applies for modern day viewers, so in between the guffaws and bad sex jokes, there's at least some semblance of a reasonable takeaway here. In some ways though, the biggest jolt for this viewer was watching what the party boys had to deal with to open their cans of beer at the beach. Pop-top cans weren't invented yet, so they actually had to carry around a can opener! Back in the day, we'd say 'pass the church key'.

Nice little short that draws attention to sexual disease awareness.

[blanbrn · 6/10 · 22 May 2011]

Just recently saw this short one morning early on cable and even though now outdated it's message is nice and good to take a note of! At it's time the little documentary felt right as the 60's and 70's were swinging times before the AIDS plague of the 80's and 90's. And this film made in 1972 titled "Summer of 1963" is right on about the then big dangers of other sexual diseases.

Told and narrated from Dr. Monk Monahan he tells of his life of fun and pleasure of his early teens days as along with his buddy before his college years they both double date some beach beauties. And of course at that age the hormones are in a rage and plenty of intimate fun happens.

Only aside from the fun Dr. Monk now tells and as is shown in the short film the price he paid, as we see and hear that his doctor has discovered the big G and slimy S that's right gonorrhea and syphilis were both given to young boy Monk. Yet it proves these diseases are treatable. Overall good short that brings awareness and it educates nice film that's outdated, but worth a look.

Hurts So Good

[Bolesroor · 19 April 2009]

TEEN: "Could a person really die from syphilis?"

DOCTOR: "You saw the films, Jim."

And so goes the dialogue from this little-known hygiene gem. Turns out unprotected sex is Bad ('specially for teenagers) and often results in painful discharge, blindness, insanity and death. But there's also a dark side to STD's...

A vaguely-scuzzy doctorcologist/scientician opens the film by addressing us from his plywood desk... seems he wasn't always a pillar of the medical community. Back in the summer of '63 he and a few of his well-meaning friends shared women like pizza, and even made an illicit trip to the sinful city known as Seaview (It's like Tijuana if it were designed by Disney.)

While there Jim & his buds pick up a hooker and some symptoms from her grab bag of sexually transmitted diseases (one per customer, please). Jim & his pals are so earnest they later refer to said prostitute by her first name, instead of "that skank what gave me the dose." Adorable...

The movie ends as all teenage sexcapades invariably do: our hero in a wood-paneled doctor's office, doubled over from shame and the burning sensation, being forced to Name names in order to avoid a prison sentence.

Happy humping, children...

STD talk back in the 1960s - very awkward

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 September 2018]

"Summer of '63" is a 21-minute, well you could say, documentary short film, even if there is a lot of acting and many reenacted scenes to be found in here. This time actually was fairly famous in terms of educational movies and the film industry's attempts to direct people, especially the younth, into the right (or what they thought was right) directions. And these slightly over 20 minutes are just a good example of that. There is really no perspective from which you could call it a quality movie, neither the direction nor the stories and definitely not the stale performances. Maybe the one thing that makes it worth seeing is really the social aspect and how this movie is absolutely a statement and piece of evidence of its time and it is virtually impossible to make such a film now, parody or not, and we see a great deal of refelction in here and how things were in the past. Also how things weren't and people want us to believe they were. Or if that's not the reason, then maybe you can even use the general awkwardness here and the whole aura of this project as an unintentionally funny film at times. But yeah, these are just exit strategies, so I must not say this was complete garbage. Honestly, I think you can make an argument for the latter. It felt uninspired, uninteresting and even at this brief running time way too long. Go watch something else instead.

If THE SUMMER OF '42 was designed to teach . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 14 April 2018]

. . . America's Peckish (but totally inexperienced) high school guys about the safe harbors available for the asking from slightly older wives of absentee husbands (particularly the bereft spouses of "servicemen" unavailable to perform their bedroom duties due to overseas deployments), SUMMER OF '63 is thrown together to scare rookie Lotharios off VD-ridden semi-professional "working" gals. While recent military brides are more than willing to "entertain" their local grocery delivery boys for free, harpies such as "Luwanna" of the SUMMER OF '63 will charge hometown jock heroes for the "privilege" of contracting syphilis, according to this Pubic Service Short. On the other hand, if "Sally Army Spouse" restricts her Extracurriculars to youthful virginal initiates, no one can get hurt. Junior can spend his pocket change on baseball cards and ice cream floats rather than penicillin and salve. It's a "Win-Win" for all involved when a lad relives THE SUMMER OF '42, and avoids the SUMMER OF '63 like the Plague!

Dull VD

[Michael_Elliott · 2 May 2009]

Summer of '63 (1972)

** (out of 4)

Forgotten VD film has a group of male friends going into a bar where they pick up a few hookers and one of the friends, Jim, ends up with syphilis. Soon Jim ends up sleeping with his best friend's girl and then learns he has the disease but is too ashamed to tell them what he has done. This is pretty bland and gets pretty boring even though it only runs 21-minutes. There were countless shorts that dealt with sexually transmitted diseases and most of them are as boring as this one so the main reason to watch is the camp factor. There's a little bit of that here but not enough to keep this thing moving. There aren't any laughs either, which is another thing that keeps this film from really working as good as it should. It also doesn't teach you any lessons so there goes that reason.