Summer Storm

The story has it's intrigue, but in a weird way the production lets it down. Weird casting choices and some less than magical key scenes stops it from delivering on it's potential. There are good scenes in there too, and the allure of the George Sanders & Linda Darnell pairing will keep you watching.

Great acting across the board and nice camerawork, but the pace is damn sluggish. It feels twice its length.

Linda Darnell shines with youthful beauty, George Sanders excels in showing us just how sad and lost a lust-filled man can become, and Edward Everett Horton thoroughly enjoys playing a lecher. Sirk had not yet developed his Hollywood style (this was his second American film) but he directs with great fluidity and continental sophistication, and a few of his set pieces (the Russian Orthodox wedding, the maid glimpsing the killer's hands through a chink in the wooden bathhouse) are very fine.

Very rough around the edges and not overly remarkable, but very engaging. The novelty of its setting, its visual grace, and the relative economy with which the story is told make it an easy watch.