One of the absolute titans of Sixties Spydom has passed away.
Variety reports that German-born Elke Sommer has died in Los Angeles, just shy of her 86th birthday. Sommer was one of the primary motivating forces that led me to create this blog 20 years ago--and the subject (or
one of them) of
my very first post. She starred in my very favorite Eurospy movie (and favorite "Bond knock-off," a term I use with nothing but affection),
Deadlier Than the Male (1967). It was partly by following her down various espionage rabbit holes that led me on my initial journey of spy discovery. And she was the perfect rabbit to follow, because she starred in numerous spy projects, spanning Eurospy and Hollywood, cinema and television.
While she's rightfully revered in certain cult cinema circles, it's a downright travesty that Elke Sommer isn't better remembered today as one of the great actresses of her era. That she was a sex symbol is undeniable; Sommer delivered some of the sexiest performances of the spy screen. (I've always thought of her as the greatest Bond Girl Who Never Was.) But unfortunately I think that "blond bombshell" sex symbol status also led audiences to underestimate her, perhaps missing her exceptional acting talents because they couldn't see past her peerless figure. But this is an actress who shared the screen with some of the biggest male stars of the decade, and more than held her own. Sommer acted opposite Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Dean Martin, James Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Bob Hope, Glenn Ford, Joseph Cotton, Robert Vaughn, Robert Stack, Stephen Boyd, and Gary Lockwood... to name a few. And she often stole the show from them! And no, not just because of her looks.
Sommer could be vulnerable (as in Mario Bava's eerie masterpiece
Lisa and the Devil) or threatening (
Deadlier Than the Male); she could play drama (
The Oscar) and action (
The Wrecking Crew). But her true
metier was comedy. And that's where she really doesn't get enough credit. She is not a straight man to Peter Sellers' hopelessly bumbling Inspector Clouseau in
A Shot in the Dark (1964); she is a partner in the comedy. Her slow burn hysteria when trapped, naked, with him in a Mini Cooper surrounded by onlookers is the button on the scene! And it takes real talent to be the button on a comedy scene with Peter Sellers. The admittedly sexist Bob Hope comedy
Boy Did I Get the Wrong Number may reduce her to a semi- or unconscious state for much of the movie, but she does get to show off her gift for physical comedy... to such a degree that she manages to upstage Hope even while playing unconscious! But her comedic timing is best on display during less ludicrous moments. Throughout
Deadlier Than the Male, for instance, it's the running bickering between Sommer's stern assassin Irma and Sylva Koscina's coquettish kleptomaniac Penelope that truly elevates the movie above its station. Both women are fantastic, and Sommer's ever increasing annoyance at her partner for constantly stealing from her provides the perfect counterbalance to the pair's shocking acts of violence. Her numerous American TV appearances as herself (including Carson and
The Muppet Show) afforded her an even better opportunity to show off her comedy chops.
Not all of her spy roles afforded Sommer the same opportunities as
Deadlier Than the Male, but she could always be relied upon to bring more to a role than was on the page. There's no question that her performances elevated every spy movie she was in, from her very first Eurospy effort,
Daniella by Night (1961) to her Hollywood debut
The Prize (1963, opposite Newman) to the more downbeat Helen MacInnes adaptation
The Venetian Affair (1966). Sommer's further contributions to the genre include the final Matt Helm movie,
The Wrecking Crew (1968), the Brian Clemens-scripted
The Corrupt Ones (1967),
Zeppelin (1971),
The Invincible Six (1970),
The Swiss Conspiracy (1976),
The Double McGuffin (1979), and
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (reteaming her with her
Deadlier Than the Male costar Richard Johnson in 1980). She did solid spy work on television as well, including memorable guest roles on
Probe (the 1972 pilot for
Search),
The Six Million Dollar Man, and even a 1992 appearance on the Simon MacCorkindale spy series
Counterstrike. Outside of the spy genre, Sommer also made a name for herself in horror movies, including two by Bava,
Lisa and the Devil (1973) and
Baron Blood (1972), the 1974
giallo-inspired version of Agatha Christie's
Ten Little Indians, and the cult video nasty
I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses (1978). Her screen comedies included the second Pink Panther movie,
A Shot in the Dark (1964),
The Art of Love (1965),
The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968, with Cold War overtones),
Percy (1971), and
Carry On Behind (1975).
Besides her acting career, Sommer was an accomplished painter, musician, and even race car driver. (She had a long-running instructional show about painting on American television.) Whichever vocation she was pursuing, whatever genre she was acting in, Elke Sommer was a towering screen presence, and I will miss her immensely. I'm forever grateful that I had the opportunity to meet her once, and she could not have been more charming, graciously signing my German Deadlier Than the Male poster, "Love, Elke."
Read my review of Deadlier Than the Male here.
