L'Aveu

Summer Storm is an adaption of Anton Chekhov's play The Shooting Party updated so as to include the Russian Revolution and the upheavals in the social order it brought. But certain things are both international and eternal. As this one where a beautiful peasant girl uses her looks and charm to get ahead in a society that didn't have any feminist notions.

Linda Darnell is our beautiful and alluring female protagonist. She's a peasant girl who is on the estate of Count Edward Everett Horton and before the film is over she gets the hormones going for Horton, for his estate manager Hugo Haas and for Judge George Sanders.

This was a bit of interesting casting for Sanders as he was in fact born in old Russia and according to his biographer and colleague Brian Aherne had a bit more of that temperament in his nature than you would realize. But for all of his position and sophistication he's addicted to love when it comes to Darnell.

This was also unusual casting for Edward Everett Horton who usually was playing silly fuss budgets in so many comedy films Some of that is here, but director Douglas Sirk got so much more from the character. As Sanders observes about the decadent Horton, he's everything that's wrong with the society that he is a part of.

Anna Lee is in Summer Storm also. She's the girl Sanders throws over for Darnell. But comes the Revolution and the worm really does turn.

It's not exactly what Chekhov had in mind, but Summer Storm is definitely worth a look for fans of the various cast members.

SUMMER STORM is an adaptation of a story by Chekov and takes place after the Russian revolution, with a flashback to before it started. An ex-count, Volsky (Horton) brings a manuscript to a publisher (Lee) written by her ex-fiance (Sanders). The manuscript tells the story of a beautiful peasant woman (Darnell) and the deleterious effect she had on several men: the Count himself, her husband, and a judge, Fedor (Sanders), resulting in tragedy.

This is an enjoyable film. Sanders was never more handsome, and he does a wonderful job as a man who can't resist the temptations of the ambitious Olga. Edward Everett Horton is excellent as the annoying, shallow Count. It's always a pleasure to see the beautiful Anna Lee, whom lots of people remember as the elderly Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital.

The gorgeous Darnell was actually in a mini-slump with her boss, Daryl F. Zanuck, when she made this film. It was a step down from The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, Star Dust - now 21 and married, she could no longer play the sweet virgin. She quickly proved to him she could be a seductress, reaching the absolute height of her stardom in the late '40s. Though she never stopped working, alcohol eventually took its toll, and she died in a fire in 1965, age 41. Sadly when she was brought to the hospital, she was coherent and speaking with the doctors, not realizing that she couldn't feel anything and was dying.

This movie is a stagy Hollywoodish interpretation of a story by Anton Chekhov. While the story itself is good, the problem is that Hollywood converts the story into melodramatic pulp. George Sanders was a great actor but here he is entirely miscast. Playing starstruck was not Mr. Sander's forte. Linda Darnell was beautiful and was also a great actress but casting her as a Russian Russian peasant woman, and a self-centered, illiterate one at that, was a bit of a stretch. Her manipulations were laughable. The idea of her character actually getting over George Sander's character tested the limits of plausibility. Some of the supporting cast were more believable, something however that cannot be said for Edward Everett Horton. One was hard pressed to ignore Mr. Horton's jocular Americanese inflection suggesting a character who might have been more at home at a baseball game anywhere in the United States. All this notwithstanding, it's still a good movie and worth watching because despite the aforementioned flaws, Mr. Sanders is dashing, Ms. Darnell is ravishing, Mr. Horton is amusing, the rest of the cast is wonderful and the movie overall is entertaining, which is the ultimate bottom line.

There were quite a few reasons to see 'Summer Storm'. One is because of my long term love of classic film. Two is because of the cast, which included Linda Darnell, Edward Everett Horton (often associated in scene stealing comedic roles) and a personal favourite George Sanders. Three is that it is based on a work by Anton Chekhov, one of the 19th century's finest writers, while it is not one of his best it is still unmistakably Chekhov in mood and characterisation. Douglas Sirk did some fine films and more often than not excelled in melodrama.

While not perfect or a great film, as there was room for it to be darker and more passionate, 'Summer Storm' was quite impressive for an early film adaptation of Chekhov and hardly disgraces the great writer. Sirk has done better and so have the cast, but all of them actually still come off very well and 'Summer Storm' to me was a laudable and largely successful attempt at adapting a work of an author/playwright who is notoriously difficult to adapt.

'Summer Storm' has plenty to admire. Cannot fault the cast. Sanders, at his most handsome, especially excels, he did suave very well and he proves that he could do tormented edge just as well as the cads and villains he was famous for. Darnell is sensual and alluring, despite her role being a bit of a stretch, and the two do have a strong chemistry. Everett Horton is a sheer comedic delight as the count and doesn't resort to mugging. Sirk directs efficiently, not exceptionally but it doesn't wallow into over sentimental melodrama or anything.

It is a very atmospherically photographed film, and benefits also from some intelligent literate scripting that treats Chekhov with respect, a haunting but not overwrought score and a suitably brooding atmosphere.

Having said all that, 'Summer Storm' just misses out on greatness. It could have done with more consistent passion and tension, as while the style is distinctively Chekhov it's Chekhov not fully realised. The low budget does show too in the threadbare, less than sumptuous sets.

Will agree too that the manipulation is sometimes on the silly side.

On the whole, a very laudable effort worthy of a lot of praise and more recognition. 7/10.

Count Volsky (Edward Everett Horton) submits a book to be published at the publishing house owned by a former acquaintance, Nadena (Anna Lee). It is an account of the life of his friend and Nadena's one-time boyfriend, Judge Fedor (George Sanders) and it takes place over the summer months. Nadeena reads the manuscript and the story unfolds in flashback as we are introduced to a peasant girl, Olga (Linda Darnell). We follow her journey to obtain wealth and power and the lovers that she cheats in order to obtain her goals. The account is written by Fedor and he does not know that his friend Volsky has sold it for money. How will he react....especially given the contents.....?

The film is set in Russia where there is a definite class split. We see Olga climb her way to the top at the expense of those who fall in love with her. Then, there is a dramatic twist - a murder. Who is the killer? The cast are good - Horton is funny, Sanders is both suave and desperate, Darnell is ruthless while Sig Ruman is particularly good as Kuzma, Darnell's husband. The film is a love story that is particularly tense and dramatic at the end. There is a terrible substitute for the word "lightning" that is repeated a few times in the film, an attempt to draw in the viewer to sympathize with those that utter it. It fails. If anyone said "heavenly electricity" to me, I'd tell them to talk properly. Nevertheless, it's a good film and worth seeing again.