Summer Storm (1944): Darnell Becomes a Bad Girl

In the early 1940's, screen beauty Linda Darnell had become stereotyped by her home studio 20th Century-Fox as a virginal young heroine, exotic of look but completely pure of heart. In Mark of Zorro (1940), Blood and Sand (1941) and other films, she had lent her exquisite face but no real acting chops. Then in late 1943, Darnell was sent a script by an agent based on Anton Chekov's novel The Shooting Party. According to Darnell, she begged her boss, Darryl F. Zanuck, to be loaned out for the meaty role of Olga, a seductive Russian peasant. With nothing slated for the brunette beauty, Zanuck agreed, and the course of Linda Darnell's career changed forever.

Not your typical Hollywood subject matter in 1944, Summer Storm is set in pre-Revolution Russia and gave Darnell an excellent dramatic opportunity to lift herself up out of the saccharine doldrums she had found herself in the past couple of years. She plays the role of tumultuous peasant girl Olga, full of fiery passion equalled or even surpassed only by her greed and selfishness. She meets and captivates a chain of men whom she uses to first, leave the pigsty where she lived with her drunkard father, and then advance herself, both socially and financially.
As one of Darnell's conquests, Fedor Petroff, is played by George Sanders, as another, Count Volsky, by Edward Everett Horton, but as Olga works her wiles to her advantage, she pushes things to the dangerous emotional edge, pitting man against man, their passion for her causing ruin all around. As the shallow, beautiful mantrap, Darnell, although limited in her range, does quite well in her first sultry role. Her stock at Fox increased dramatically after the release of Summer Storm (through United Artists). Subsequently, the studio cast her in a succession of seductive vixen roles in films like Hangover Square, Fallen Angel (both 1945) and My Darling Clementine (1946). This persona climaxed with the actress copping the plum role of Amber St. Clare (when Brit Peggy Cummins didn't work out) in the Restoration bodice ripper Forever Amber (1947). Actually, Amber is reminiscent of Summer Storm in theme and character, and Linda smolders in both.

The Russian feel of Chekov's story is translated well. There are good examples of both pre- and post-Soviet garb and much talk of vodka. Mazurka's are played in the background, as part of the Oscar nominated score and the script is peppered with "peasant" in the first half of the film and "comrade" in the second. High production values should be no surprise since the movie was directed by Douglas Sirk, who would hit his peak in the mid 1950's with polished soapers in collaboration with producer Ross Hunter (think Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows).

The formidable George Sanders makes one of his occasional turns as the films male lead. Though very British in appearance and demeanor (his parents were English), Sanders was actually born in the same pre-Revolutionary Russia in which Summer Storm was set (the actor was born in St. Petersburg in 1906). Infamous as an on-screen cad (and sometimes off as well), as Fedor Petroff he still holds his cadhood in good stead, but this time Sanders' character shows the capacity for both love, albeit a posessive, superficial love, as opposed to a deep, self sacrificing one, and a certain degree of conscience. Anna Lee also does a fine job as Sanders betrayed fiancee.

Not often seen by modern classic movie lovers, Summer Storm is a fine little film. The showcase for Darnell, Sanders and Horton is great. It allowed each a chance to stretch their dramatic legs in roles other than those which had previously limited their respective creative juices.

George Sanders: A Scoundrel for All Seasons

Egomaniac. Heel. Rotter. Villain. Scoundrel. George Sanders has been called all of these and then some, and he took no offense. As a matter of fact, his autobiography is called Memoirs of a Professional Cad. Never was there a more decadent, delicious, deliberate bad egg in all filmdom than George Sanders. His voice, a deep, silky British accent, would carry lusciously to the ear, any number of cynacisms and indignities to any target he chose. Male, female, rich or poor, his verbal affronts knew no bounds. Oh but his verbal assaults were always carried out with style. His characters were always impeccably dressed, always slightly (and sometimes not so slightly) menacing, snobbish with a droll wit. These intrinsic elements of his persona were used to peak perfection in his portrayal of acid tongued critic Addison DeWitt in the film masterpiece All About Eve.

Sanders was born in Russia in 1906 to English parents. The family escaped to England in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. Entering the American cinema in the mid 1930's, Sanders didn't hit his stride until 1940 when Alfred Hitchcock cast him as the obnoxious and despicable Jack Favell in his classic Rebecca. Hitchcock used him again that same year in Foreign Correspondant. Then a string of Nazis and other nasty nellies followed including an unrecognizable turn as a red headed pirate (?) in the Tyrone Power swashbuckler The Black Swan (1942). Eventually Sanders began to find his groove, as an incomparable heel in Summer Storm (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and The Fan (1949). He was also an incorrigible King Charles II in the historical bed hopper Forever Amber (1947).

Then in 1950 came his pinnacle role, the one for which he is most closely identified, Addison DeWitt. For his performance as the theater critic with the poison pen, Sanders won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. Among so many grand personalities and egos, he more than held his own, introducing Marilyn Monroe's buxom sexpot character, Miss Caswell, as "a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art." Classic Sanders.

Of course there were his many marriages, including one to super celeb Zsa Zsa Gabor and later to Gabor's sister, Magda, but all ended in divorce. As Sanders aged, he went into decline. Plagued with health problems and fits of rage, he became weary of life itself. Finally in April 1972, he was found dead in a hotel room in Barcelona, Spain. Also found, five empty bottles of Nembutal and an infamous suicide note, which read: "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck." The urbane cynic who sneered in the face of convention remained unrepentant to the very end.