Summer Storm (1944)

★ 5.3 1h 46m IMDb

It's a tale of power and passions when a Russian siren, who wants the finer things in life, sinks her hooks into a judge, a decadent aristocrat and an estate superintendent, with surprising results.

Summer Storm

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Cast

George Sanders
George Sanders as Fedja Michailovitch Petroff Died 1972 · Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia] George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British film and television actor, singer-songwriter, music composer, and author. His career as an actor spanned over forty years. His heavy up...
Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell as Olga Kuzminichna Urbenin Died 1965 · Dallas, Texas, USA Linda Darnell  (October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965) was an American film actress. Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her...
Anna Lee
Anna Lee as Nadina Kalenin Died 2004 · Igtham, Kent, England, UK Anna Lee, MBE (born Joan Boniface Winnifrith; 2 January 1913 – 14 May 2004) was a British actress. Lee married her first husband, the director Robert Stevenson, in 1933 and moved to Hollywood in 1939....
Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton as Count "Piggy" Volsky Died 1970 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and vo...
Hugo Haas
Hugo Haas as Anton Urbenin Died 1968 · Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Hugo Haas (18 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer. He appeared in over 60 films between 1926 and 1962, as well as direc...
Laurie Lane
Laurie Lane as Clara Heller Died 1964 · Berlin, Germany

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 6/10 Apr 04, 2022
George Sanders is the local magistrate "Petroff" in Czarist Russia in 1912. He is contentedly engaged to his rather uninspiring fiancée "Nadena" (Anna Lee) when he encounters the temptress peasant "Olga" (Linda Darnell). She quite literally knocks this otherwise pillar of the community figure off his feet much to the chagrin of "Nadena" who tells him to get lost. Turns out, "Olga" is a bit of a gold-digger, and when she has an affair with his close friend "Count Volsky" (Edward Everett Horton), "Petroff" is livid - and tragedy ensues. It's based on the Chekhov "Shooting Party" play and is a fair adaptation at that. Sanders and Darnell are well matched by director Douglas Sirk and the machinations of all concerned flow quite well. The production is a bit on the basic side, I'm not sure I recall any outside scenarios, but there is a good supporting cast (Hugo Haas and the usually reliable John Abbott) and the arrival of the Russian Revolution adds an extra twist to what can be, at times, just a little too melodramatic a romance. No, it isn't a great film - but it is quite enjoyable.
catfactory 9/10 Sep 14, 2025
Tragic Romance. Doomed Choices. When Fyodor tries to settle down with Natalia, he gets fatally attracted to Olga and his life falls apart.
Linda Darnell (Olga) really is irresistible and I can see why George was led astray. His love for Anna Lee (Natalia) endures however, and the *pining* he must have done after the revolution...you can see it in his eyes. I really have to hand it to Edward Everett Horton, though. He delivers such a Fantastic performance as the Count. Sanders gets to show off his Russian (and his singing voice) also. We also get treated to some superb VO work by Sanders that is so romantic (and Romantic) that I challenge anyone not to fall for him.

Knowing some of George Sanders' backstory adds another layer to this performance, too: he was born and raised in St Petersburg by British expat parents. They left when he was about 11 because of the revolution. A wistful quality edges into some parts of his line delivery that absolutely tugs at your heart.

The Chekov book this is based on is enhanced by the adaptation's movement of the story a few years later and adding the revolution framing. I think it makes for an even more poignant climax when the end finally comes.

Sanders has such good chemistry with all his scenemates, in particular Edward Everett Horton and Linda Darnell. His Fyodor and Horton's Count share a real friendship that endures and seems to sustain both men. His immediate and helpless infatuation with Olga is believable and at first she seems the simple farmer's daughter she appears to be. Fyodor lets himself be seduced (even as it looks like he's doing the seducing. Maybe he was at first).

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