SPANKEE: Linda Darnell
AGE 21 (1923-10-16)
SPANKER: Douglas Sirk
Not a spanking in the movie, but the director spanked his star!
Always fragile, lacking in self-esteem, Linda Darnell was acting in Summer Storm, an adaptation of an Ibsen play, a role she fought for. But Darnell was falling apart as the camera's merciless gaze bore down on her.
Ronald L. Davis reports the following in his sympathetic but clear-eyed biography of the tragic actress, Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream.
Scheduled for release through United Artists, Summer Storm was directed by Douglas Sirk. Filming began in the spring of 1944, with The Wicked and the Weak as a working title. Linda got on well with Sirk, although things didn't always progress smoothly. One particularly bad day, the director had shot sixteen takes of an important scene in a greenhouse. Linda grew tired, embarrassed, and was almost in tears.
Finally, Sirk ordered, "Everybody take a breather."
Putting his arm around Linda's shoulder, he said, "Now I want you to relax."
Suddenly he yanked her across his knee and spanked her hard.
"Now you go out there and do that scene right!" he snapped.
The spanking so shocked and infuriated her that she went back on the set and made the scene one of the best in the picture. "After that, Sirk and I got along better than ever" she said.
Here's the newspaper clip to go with it:
