Jimmy Stewart and His Sister, Mary, Are Focus of a Film and Art Happening at Sag Harbor Cinema

Sag Harbor Cinema will screen Frank Borzage’s 1940 film “The Mortal Storm” on Saturday, March 22, at 6 p.m. The film, which stars Jimmy Stewart, was one of the first Hollywood movies to depict the deportation of Jewish people to concentration camps in Germany.

The screening will be introduced by Kelly Stewart, daughter of Jimmy Stewart, via zoom and will be followed by an in-person Q&A with David Perry, nephew of Jimmy Stewart and son of artist Mary Stewart. Afterward, the cinema will host the opening of a companion exhibit on the third floor titled “The Art of Mary Stewart,” which showcases works by Jimmy Stewart’s sister, an award-winning artist in her own right, whose work during World War II forms a parallel story to that of her movie star brother.

Borzage had already depicted the rise of Nazism in “Little Man, What Now?” (1934) and “Three Comrades” (1938). But his showcasing of the regime’s brutality and persecution of the Jewish people in “The Mortal Storm,” released just a year before the United States entered WWII, triggered a major International diplomatic incident and chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels’s subsequent ban on all MGM films in Germany.

Adapted from Phyllis Bottome’s 1937 cautionary novel of the same name, the film stars Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as Martin and Freya, two childhood friends whose world is shaken as Nazism spreads through their Alpine village and threatens Freya’s father. Her family is never actually identified as Jewish, only “non-Aryan.” However, the film had a significant impact on American public opinion for exposing Nazi methods and portraying prisoners in concentration camps. Art director Wade B. Rubottom and a team of 150 workers created a replica of a concentration camp on “Lot 3” of Culver City, relying on information provided by second unit director Richard Rosson who had been interned for a month in an Austrian Nazi camp, since documentation about the camps was practically nonexistent.

In the aftermath of “The Mortal Storm,” in 1941, Jimmy Stewart was the first Hollywood star to enlist in WWII. He soon became a decorated bomber pilot and squadron commander, flying 20 missions over enemy territory and winning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and The Croix de Guerre. During the war, his sister Mary Stewart, a trained artist whose work was influenced by the Ashcan School, embarked on “The War Orphans Series,” depicting the horrors of war for children separated from their families during deportations. Later, Mary Stewart designed powerful anti-Nazi propaganda posters.

“The Mortal Storm is not as well-known as other highlights of Jimmy Stewart’s career, such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but — as did Capra’s film — it reflects Stewart’s commitment to the ideals of democracy, personal integrity and tolerance,” says the cinema’s artistic director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan. “It is also one of Frank Borzage’s great films, and a groundbreaking one from a political standpoint. I was thrilled when the Stewart family approached us with the idea of a screening, with Mary Stewart’s accompanying art exhibit.”

In the early years of World War II, after her famous brother became the first Hollywood star to enter the military, Mary Stewart was in New York City teaching at the Arts Student’s League. The war in Europe with the rise of Nazism and Fascism had a profound influence on her art. Mary felt that the real victims of all military arrogance were the youth. In her work she depicted the horrors to children that were taking place in Europe. Her art was influenced by but not derivative of the great German artist Kathe Kollwitz, whose work was suppressed by the Nazis. Mother and child was a recurring theme in her work, ominous and disturbing.

After the war, she and her husband, Robert Perry, a classmate of Jimmy Stewart at Princeton, moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania where she continued to paint, draw and teach, while raising four sons. She died in 1977.

“Mary Stewart was deeply disturbed by the deportations and family separations going on in Europe during World War II,” said David Perry. “The ‘War Orphans Series’ she created at that time is still relevant today.”

Tickets for the screening and exhibition opening are available at sagharborcinema.org. Sag Harbor Cinema is at 90 Main Street in Sag Harbor.