User Reviews

This forgotten British Lion film of the fifties has come out on DVD after probably not having been seen for 60 years. It is an exceptionally good film, expertly directed by John Guillermin. It begins dramatically with a huge flash of lightning on the screen and the sound of a thunderstorm. The female lead is played by Linda Christian, who was very 'hot' indeed in the 1950s and 1960s, but who tends not to be remembered today. However, her sultry and mysterious glamour makes her perfect for this film, which centres around her sudden and unexpected appearance as a stranger, and her effect on men which is like that of a mythological siren. There is even a scene where as a staring siren she stands on the rocks and one of the men who is obsessed by her becomes so transfixed at the vision of her that he crashes the boat he is piloting. She drives men wild, literally, and the mythological undercurrent of the story is strong. The film is based on a novel by George St. George, and is filmed on location on the Spanish coast, as the story is set in a small Spanish fishing village. Linda Christian manages throughout to maintain a strangely impassive face as all the men bang on doors to get into her room and try and rape her, fight nearly to the death over her, and basically go insane because of her. She never becomes truly personal but behaves as if she is a force of nature instead of a person. She keeps trying to tell the men that she always brings bad luck and disaster to men, but of course they do not listen. At the beginning of the story, she is found unconscious, floating alone on a small sail boat, and is brought to the village. We later learn that the man who had been crazy about her had just died, as all the men who have wanted her in the past appear to have done. And indeed, one of the men in this village, having failed to rape her, is driven so wild with frenzy that he dies in a storm. The women of the village call her a witch, and perhaps they are not far wrong. But there is nothing sinister about Linda Christian, she does not try to drive men mad, they drive themselves mad without any encouragement from her as she looks at them without any sign of what she is feeling or thinking. This lack of any response is intolerable to them. The story really is very bizarre. George St. George also co-wrote Anthony Asquith's excellent film ORDERS TO KILL 1958, see my review).

John Guillermin appears to have been partially influenced by neo-realism in this drama of a beautiful woman and her effect on the men of an impoverished Spanish fishing village, that from a leisurely start builds to almost unbearable tension. Though Linda Christian's enigmatic Maria was billed as 'lightning in the flesh, burning, destroying everything she touches' in the lurid, not to say sexist, words of the original publicity, especially as she is an object of lust to the men, suffering at least one attempted rape, she is really a catalyst, bringing to boiling point the frustrations and resentments, long simmering among the fishermen, mainly concerning their financial domination by the aggressive trader Gardea - a powerful performance from Charles Korvin. The ending is uncompromising and eschews sentimentality. I wonder if this Spanish-British co-production was a coded comment on Spanish politics of the day? Or is Maria intended as a modern parallel to the Sirens of mythology? Carlos Thompson, one of those stars who never really had the career he deserved, is good in the lead, as are the Spanish supporting cast. Thunderstorm has been long neglected, with even the Network DVD now seemingly out of print, which is a shame as it is a powerful drama well worth watching.

Linda Christian had just divorced Tyrone Power when she took on this steamy role of a blonde bombshell who comes into a fishing village and has every man in the fishing village.Obviously this all going to end in tears at teatime.It is really a rather effective film which had been totally forgotten till its DVD release last year.Definayely worth a viewing.