Was Julie REAL?
Watch the party scene. Was Julie really there?
So, to sum it up in legal terminology: Get lost, you bum.
I don't know, but she wasn't in the original stories and I don't know why they included that character in the movie. As someone already said, the babysitter was an unnecessary character. I hated how she went around with him the whole day (If she was really there) then was laying there with him and all of a sudden she acted like she had no interest in him. I don't care how old Burt Lancaster was when he made this. He looked great. He was in such good shape. He was still a good looking guy. I actually thought he still looked like the Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity. He also had those eyes. No girl in her right mind would've turned him down.
shareIf you want to look at a literal interpretation I think she was just unbelievably innocent and ran along with him on a lark. When she told him about the crush she had had on him years before I think it truly was in the past for her. When he took it as an opening to start something with her (unconsciously wanting to relive his youth with her) she suddenly "woke up" from her reverie and was honestly shocked. She knew him to be married with children and she also had a boyfriend her own age. He realized their little romp through the woods was illusory.
shareI would tend to agree. I can see where some viewers (especially male viewers, of which I am one) might find her behavior frustrating. But she was supposed to only be about 20, right? Ned Merril was old enough to be her father. She probably assumed that due to his age he was "safe", that presumably he was an honorable gentleman who would not have seriously entertained the idea of any romantic coupling between the two of them. I could understand that from a girl that age even nowadays, and the times were more innocent then. Frustrating but not unreasonable.
shareJulie sees Ned as an adult she has fond memories of. Ned progressively abuses this relationship, until the mentoring aspect ends, and Julie recognizes that his intentions are not noble. At that point she runs away.
shareShe had a boyfriend. I can believe her turning him down.
What she did was a fun thing. To her, not sexual or implying anything. Just a fun run with a man she's known for years, who she used to have a crush on. Young girls don't realize if men think innocent actions mean other things (to the men).
But of course she turned him down. He was ultimately a father figure, the father of girls she babysat. And she had a boyfriend. She was in love with a boy her own age. It surprised her that Lancaster thought their run meant anything other than a run for funsies.