"Summer Storm" Review

 

by Daniel White

"The camera has never disappointed me in my life," director Douglas Sirk once stated in an interview, and with equal assurance, it can be said, Sirk has not disappointed us in his ability to craft well-made, entertaining movies, especially those classified as melodramas or "women's pictures."

Famous for his glossy, overblown productions (Magnificent Obsession, Written on the Wind), Sirk began his career in Germany, before emigrating to the United States in the late thirties where he made his Hollywood debut helming Hitler's Madman (1943).

1944's Summer Storm was his follow-up film, produced by Angelus Pictures and distributed by United Artists. Based on Anton Chekhov's novel, The Shooting Party, the story must have intrigued Sirk. He had begun working on an adaptation early on in his employment at UFA, Germany's famous film studio. I had never heard of the flick (it was never shown on network television when I was growing up), and only became acquainted with it when researching the career of Linda Darnell.

Set in 1912 Russia (though the poster looks suspiciously like 1940's Hollywood, with a nod to Jane Russell in The Outlaw), she plays Olga, a calculating Russian peasant girl who uses her sexual charms in an attempt to escape her impoverished existence. Like Darnell, an underrated screen beauty who never had the career she deserved. This was her first movie outing as a vixen and she is quite good.

Married off to the older, unattractive Urbenin (Hugo Haas), our crafty little vamp sets her cap on local magistrate Fedor Petroff (George Sanders), who quickly succumbs to her charms, which results in his fiancee, Nadenia (the appealing Anna Lee), ending their engagement.

In the same interview where Sirk discusses his trust of the camera, he talks about his love of "split characters", protagonists who are conflicted, with colliding instincts. Sanders embodies that precept perfectly here. Lusting after Darnell, hating himself for allowing her to ruin his life, his downfall is the crux of the movie and Sanders does an admirable job portraying Petroff's fall from grace into damnation.

As good as Darnell and Sanders are, the film is stolen by Edward Everett Horton, who is excellent as the foppish, foolish, piffling Count "Piggy" Volsky. An extension of the type of supporting characters he was famous for, Horton is handed a meaty part in Summer Storm and makes the most of it.

The movie changed the trajectory of Linda Darnell's career in Tinseltown, leading to more substantial roles. However, an ongoing feud with ex-lover Darryl Zanuck and an increasing dependence on alcohol prevented the raven-haired beauty from achieving the same level of stardom that her contemporaries, Rita Hayworth or Gene Tierney, realized.

Minor Sirk but worthy of watching, Summer Storm is good ( it would have been very good if the producers had allowed Sirk to shoot it in color), and gives us an inviting glimpse into the great director's early career in La La land.

Nominated for an Academy Awards for Best Music Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Summer Storm is available on YouTube in a below-average print ( if anyone knows where a quality copy can be found, please let me know).