Summer Storm (1944/VCI DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C Film: C
On his way to becoming the great director of lush
melodrama (and just before doing other genres like Film Noir), Douglas Sirk
made a film out of Anton Chekhov’s The Shooting Party and the result is a mixed
melodrama in Summer Storm (1944)
with Linda Darnell very good as Olga and George Sanders as Fedor, a member of
the elite who is most interested in the young lady who is not of the same
class.
However, she is also playing around with a Count (Edward
Everett Horton) and his overseers Anton (Hugo Hass) in what almost amounts to a
game of some sort. However, there are
other factors involved and the consequences of the actions and interactions of
all will not go well in the long run. I
wonder if Sirk and screenplay writer Rowland Leigh (Charge Of The Light Brigade, The
Master Race) felt they were working against censorship, did not find enough
irony in the material or just could not being it together as well as they
could. The film has its fans and for
good reason, but I am not one of them despite a good cast with some chemistry
and some good production values.
For me, it is too dated, melodramatic and uneven with the
melodrama not of the kind Sirk would master later. However, it is a solid film that is a
must-see for all film, Sirk fans and fans of the cast just to have seen it
once, so it is good to see it on DVD. At
least it is ambitious.
The 1.33 X 1 image has some cleaning done to it, but the
source is just too dated. Video Black is
not bad, but VCI tried. Archie Stout (Beau Geste) and Eugene Schufftan (Eyes Without A Face) handled the
cinematography and the look is interesting.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also aged with distortion throughout, but
it at least is not hot. Extras include
an interview with Author Bernard Dick by Joel Blumberg on Sirk and the original
theatrical trailer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
