Summer Storm (1944)

In this filmed Chekhov adaptation, Olga is an alluring peasant woman who lures cynical aristocrat Fedor away from his milquetoast fiancée, with tragic consequences.

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Writers:

Anton Chekhov (novel), Rowland Leigh (screenplay),

Stars:

Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Edward Everett Horton

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview:
Linda Darnell	...	Olga Kuzminichna Urbenin
George Sanders	...	Fedor Mikhailovich Petroff
Edward Everett Horton	...	Count 'Piggy' Volsky
Anna Lee	...	Nadena Kalenin
Hugo Haas	...	Anton Urbenin
Laurie Lane	...	Clara Heller (as Lori Lahner)
Sig Ruman	...	Kuzma, Volsky's woodcutter
John Philliber	...	Polycarp - Petroff's butler
John Abbott	...	Lunin - public prosecutor
Mary Servoss	...	Mrs. Kalenin
André Charlot	...	Mr. Kalenin, publisher

Storyline

In this filmed Chekhov adaptation, Olga is an alluring peasant woman who lures cynical aristocrat Fedor away from his milquetoast fiancée, with tragic consequences.

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel

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Taglines:

The FLASH of a Knife... The SCREAM of a Girl... The WRECK of a Man...

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 July 1944 (USA)

Also Known As:

Extraña confesión

Company Credits

Production Co:

Angelus Productions, Nero Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The source story by Anton Chekhov, 'The Shooting Party', is set in the 1840's, but director Douglas Sirk moved up the setting to the 1910s so the framing sequences at the beginning and the end would take place after the Russian Revolution. "With guys like [Fedor] and the Count going around, there had to be a revolution," Sirk explained.

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Quotes

Fedor Mikhailovich Petroff: When a man pities his rival, he's preparing to pity himself.

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Connections

Version of The Shooting Party (1978)

User Reviews

Flawed but still entertaining.

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.