Review of Baby the Rain Must Fall

I first saw this picture when it was released and was so impressed I had to go back several times. I thought that it was a biography played as an autobiography. McQueen seemed to be playing his actual life on the screen. His formative years without a fathers guidance, his detention in a youth reformatory, a hit-or-miss education, and a spotty work record, all of this is covered in one form or another during the film. Steve is a great actor and an actors job is to convince the audience but here the viewer can almost see Steve's thoughts as he says his lines; you can hear the phrases '...this is my life, I've been through this all before...' The script shows him as a person who is forever controlled by someone else and indeed at one time he really was. Lee Remick and Don Murray are good, as they usually are, and are the only romantic interest in the entire film. The final scenes can make the viewer say 'god! Steve McQueen can really act!' but was he?